Curtis Sagmoen was sentenced for assault causing bodily harm on Friday, but he won’t be facing any more jail time.
A B.C. Supreme Court justice in Vernon sentenced the North Okanagan man to a jail term of five months for hitting a woman with a quad in 2017.
However, due to time served, Sagmoen’s actual sentence was one day in custody, which he was deemed to have served by attending court, followed by probation.
He will be on probation for three years with a lengthy list of conditions including restrictions on his use of cell phones, oversight of aspects of his personal life by a probation officer and a condition that prohibits him from having contact with anyone working in the sex trade.
The sentence was what both Crown counsel and Sagmoen’s defense lawyer had been asking for.
The prosecutor argued returning Sagmoen to custody could impact his rehabilitation and that a lengthy and restrictive probation would address public safety concerns and provide deterrence.
Defence counsel also pointed out that Sagmoen has taken steps to address a meth addiction that had contributed to the assault and court heard he has been drug-free since he was taken into custody in 2017.
In accepting the sentencing proposed by both counsels, Justice Weatherill said it met “the objectives of deterrence and denunciation…and is in accordance with case law.”
“I no longer trust people”
The charges date back to an incident in August 2017 when Sagmoen invited the victim to a rural area near Salmon Arm to work as an escort.
After she got to the property, she ended up getting on a quad with her would-be client to go to his place.
She testified that after the client told her he didn’t know where the RV was that he lived in, and then pretended the ATV broke down, she decided to walk back to her vehicle.
It was during that walk back to her car, she said, that she was hit from behind by the quad.
The complainant testified she was hit so hard that she flipped over the ATV and landed on her front on the ground.
In a victim impact statement, she read out at the sentencing hearing, she described experiencing physical and emotional trauma as a result of the assault.
“I was bleeding, swollen and badly bruised and not able to sit or get out of bed for weeks,” she said.
The victim said she experiences ongoing pain as a result of the collision and struggles with anxiety and fear.
“I no longer trust people and it has changed my view on people forever. Myself and my family are constantly worried and fearful of the unknown,” she told the court.
When he found Sagmoen guilty of assault causing bodily harm, Justice Weatherill rejected defence’s argument that the collision could have been an accident.
“He likely became angry because the complainant began walking back to her car such that whatever plans he had for her that day were about to be thwarted,” Weatherill said.
Other convictions involving escorts
Court heard Sagmoen has been convicted in two other cases involving victims working as escorts.
However, those convictions didn’t occur till after the assault with the ATV so the court doesn’t put as much weight on them in sentencing.
“Crown notes that Mr. Sagmoen had no criminal record for violence at the time of the offence and in that respect the situation is similar to that of a first time offender,” Justice Weatherill said at the sentencing hearing.
In one previous case, related to a separate incident in 2017, Sagmoen was found guilty of wearing a disguise with intent to commit an offence and use of a firearm during an offence.
He also pled guilty to possession of meth.
In that case, which involved a different complainant, the justice said she was satisfied that the Crown was able to prove without a reasonable doubt that Sagmoen wore a disguise and brandished a shotgun when he jumped out of the bushes to greet an escort he had invited to meet him.
On those three counts, Sagmoen was sentenced to almost two years in custody.
However, he was released on probation as he had already been in custody longer than two years.
In a third case, Sagmoen was convicted of assault for an incident in 2013.
– With files from Doyle Potenteau and Darrian Matassa-Fung
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