Jeffrey St-Cloud was arrested by Montreal police and detained on four charges, including assault with a weapon and aggravated assault. His bail hearing has been pushed off to Thursday.
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A man who assaulted a Montreal bus driver in a case that set a Canada-wide precedent for bail decisions is seeking another release in a new case at the Montreal courthouse where he is again charged with aggravated assault.
On April 24, 2013, Jeffrey St-Cloud, now 31, and two other people assaulted Marc-Olivier Fortin, an STM bus driver, after he refused to open the door of his vehicle to the trio while he was stopped at a red light on St-Laurent Blvd. Fortin’s coma-inducing injuries were so severe, the Supreme Court of Canada later described the crime as “heinous.”
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While St-Cloud’s case was pending, he was released on bail, but the Crown appealed the decision based on the criteria that the crime was so serious an informed member of the public, someone aware of the details behind the case, would lose faith in the justice system if they learned St-Cloud was granted bail.
The case made it all the way to the Supreme Court and, in 2015, the court ruled in favour of denying St-Cloud bail.
“In the face of such a brutal attack … (which) was captured on a videotape that left no doubt as to the respondent’s active participation in the assault, I believe that the confidence in our justice system of a reasonable member of our society would be undermined if the interim detention of the respondent were not ordered,” Chief Justice Richard Wagner wrote on behalf of Canada’s highest court nearly nine years ago.
The following year, St-Cloud was sentenced to a five-year prison term for the attack.
To this day, the decision denying him bail is often referred to at the Montreal courthouse as the precedent judges should follow when the Crown argues a defendant should be denied bail based on the argument that an informed member of the public could lose faith in the justice system if the person were to be released.
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When the time he had already served was factored into his sentence in 2016, St-Cloud was actually left with a three-year prison term. That expired in May 2019.
Last weekend, St-Cloud was arrested by Montreal police and detained on four charges, including assault with a weapon and aggravated assault. The alleged offences took place in 2020.
He was scheduled to have a bail hearing on Tuesday, but defence lawyer Alexandre Goyette instead asked Quebec Court Judge Tristan Desjardins to carry the case over to Thursday.
“After talking with the prosecution, we have to present a release plan, including guarantees,” Goyette said in requesting the delay.
The defence attorney also asked that St-Cloud be given access to his cell phone so he can call people who will support his request for a release, including his mother.
“In 2024, no accused (person) knows by heart the phone numbers to contact (the people who can support a release). It is extremely difficult to work under those circumstances,” Goyette said.
The judge agreed with the delay and issued an order that St-Cloud’s cell phone be brought to the courthouse for his hearing on Thursday.
St-Cloud appeared via videoconference and expressed dissatisfaction over having to wait for a release hearing. He said he is a student and that being detained was taking him away from preparation for upcoming exams.
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