Sentencing postponed for Edmonton-area couple in death of disabled relative

EDMONTON – A sentencing hearing scheduled for Friday has been adjourned for a Strathcona County couple who’ve admitted to putting a developmentally disabled relative through weeks of severe abuse, isolation and humiliation leading up to her death in November 2009.

Michael and Denise Scriven each pleaded guilty March 1 to failing to provide the necessaries of life to 48-year-old Betty Anne Gagnon, Denise’s sister. They will return to court June 27.

Defence lawyers for the couple asked for the adjournment so further psychiatric assessments can be completed. Court heard that one such assessment has already been completed and states that the Scrivens “suffered from significant mental health issues at the time of the offence.”

That report recommended a second psychiatrist talk to the Scrivens before sentencing.

Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Sterling Sanderman agreed to the adjournment, but indicated there will be no further delays.

“This has to be dealt with by the end of June,” the judge said.

Supporters of Gagnon left the courtroom with their heads hung in disappointment.

In March, it took Crown prosecutor Scott Niblock nearly 30 minutes to read a report about the abuse the Scrivens put Gagnon through. The couple held hands in the prisoner’s box as they listened.

Court heard that Gagnon was locked up in various “jail cells” on the Scrivens’ rural property, including the garage, basement, a chain-link fence enclosure for dogs and a derelict school bus without water or heat. Gagnon spent her last night alive on the bus on Nov. 19, 2009, and died the next day.

After Gagnon suffered a seizure and incontinence, Denise Scriven dragged her from the bus while attempting CPR. She called for her husband’s help. Michael was videotaping damage to the house he believed Gagnon was responsible for. Police seized that videotape.

“I need you,” Gagnon pleaded on the video while the Scrivens decided what to do. Both of them had smoked crack cocaine that day.

They decided to put her in their truck. Denise drove her younger sister to a local gas station for help. Paramedics declared Gagnon dead while she was still in the truck in the parking lot. The five-foot-two woman weighed only 65 pounds when she died.

“This is the last time I will speak about Betty Anne,” Michael told the camera, “she is not breathing.”

At the gas station, Michael told police that Gagnon had broken his generator and tried to poison him. He no longer let her live inside the house, he admitted.

“He did not feel bad about this,” Niblock said.

The prosecutor told court that on one occasion, Denise spanked her sister around 70 times with a rubber glove. Michael, 32, videotaped much of the abuse. He can be heard laughing in the background.

“This is funny,” he said as his sister-in-law screamed and cried.

Denise, a 46-year-old registered nurse, was heard threatening her sister on some of the 21 videos. “You want some more Mr. Clean in your mouth?”

The couple took away Gagnon’s boots so she could not run away.

Gagnon died of a head injury. There were bruises on her body, eyes and head.

“The trauma may have been caused by a fall or a blow to the face,” Niblock said.

Outside court, Gagnon’s former caregiver, Suzanne Jackett, said Gagnon was a vibrant, joyous woman before her last days at her sister’s home. Jackett said it was a relief to finally hear the truth.

“We’re disappointed, we would have preferred a stronger charge to take hold,” she said. “The system doesn’t always do what the victims need for justice. By them standing up and agreeing with those facts, they admitted what they did. We needed to hear that.”

Sue Thomas, another former caregiver, reacted with revulsion to what she heard in court.

“I don’t even think animals should be treated this way. They treated her like she wasn’t a human being. She was part of our family. She was our friend.”

Gagnon was disabled her whole life because of a lack of oxygen at birth. At the time of her death, her vision was impaired from glaucoma and she had the mental capacity of a child.

Still, former caregivers said she was once independent and competent when it came to her daily routines. She did her own laundry, rode city buses, volunteered with various groups and cracked jokes all the time. Gagnon liked to celebrate her birthdays at the Cheesecake Factory and her favourite movie was Free Willy, a film about a trapped whale that escapes its confinement.

After her mother died in 1981 Gagnon was placed into a number of group homes. In 1990, she was placed under care in Calgary with Jackett and Thomas, who considered her a roommate. In June 2005, that placement ended and Gagnon went to live with Denise. At the time, the sisters had a close relationship, Thomas said. Gagnon rode a Greyhound bus to visit her sister each year.

“That’s why going to live with her sister made sense,” Thomas said.