Manitoba·NewA provincial court judge has handed down a four-month sentence to a Winnipeg man who admitted he threatened a Crown prosecutor during a court hearing this summer.Defendant apologizes to court, saying he was not ‘in the right state of mind’Arturo Chang · CBC News · Posted: Oct 15, 2025 6:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 18 minutes agoRichard Dupuis pleaded guilty to uttering threats and intimidation of a justice system participant during a provincial court hearing in Winnipeg on Friday. (Chelsea Kemp/CBC)A provincial court judge has handed down a four-month sentence to a Winnipeg man who admitted he threatened a Crown prosecutor during a court hearing this summer.Richard Dupuis, 65, pleaded guilty in provincial court Friday to uttering threats and intimidation of a justice system participant.Special prosecutor Kerry UnRuh said Friday that during a bail hearing on June 28, Dupuis became argumentative, issuing threats at prosecutor Laura Martin as she was making submissions for the Crown.”The accused threatened that he was, quote, ‘Going to f–ing smack’ the complainant and told in a threating manner that he was going to see her on court on Monday,” UnRuh said, reading from a police report. The threats were in the court transcript of the hearing, he said.Dupuis was arrested after he breached a court order barring him from going to the Manitoba Housing building he lived in unless he was going to pick up his belongings.Court heard he had violated two similar orders that week, with the first being issued after he got into difficulties with some of the other residents.UnRuh said police were called in on June 27 after an intoxicated Dupuis caused a disturbance in the building’s vestibule, banging on the Plexiglas of the security office. The man left before they arrived, but officers found him standing outside the building after returning to the scene.Dupuis’s lawyer, John Corona, said his client had been asked to leave the building because he could not pay rent. Corona said Dupuis been unable to work since he lost a leg in 2023, and that he lost eligibility to provincial supports he used to pay the rent once he turned 65.He apologized for the incident in a remote appearance Friday, saying he was not “in the right state of mind.””I didn’t mean any ill-will towards the court system or Ms Martin,” he said. “I was just angry at — I could feel I was being pushed out of my apartment. That’s what it felt like to me, and I was fighting for my rights, kind of.”Threats to justice officials ‘cannot be tolerated’: judgeIn a statement read out by UnRuh, Martin said she could appreciate the frustration of people moving through the justice system, but that people who dedicate their lives to public service deserve to feel safe.”Being a Crown attorney is difficult on a regular day, let alone a day when you’re threatened by someone first thing on a Saturday simply for fulfilling this role,” ” the statement said. UnRuh said the court needed to send a message that those participating in the justice system will be protected.”They’re not there to be harassed by accused that don’t like the process; that don’t like what’s going on,” he said. “They need to be working in an environment where they’re not concerned about coming to work.”Provincial court Justice Samuel Raposo said Dupuis’s frustration did not excuse his behaviour.”This was obviously a traumatizing issue for her,” he said. “These types of threats, these types of words that are being thrown at justice officials cannot be tolerated, sir.”Dupuis also got a 20-day sentence for each of the three court order breaches. With time already served, he was set to remain in custody for 40 more days as of Friday.ABOUT THE AUTHORArturo Chang is a reporter with CBC Manitoba. Before that, he worked for CBC P.E.I. and BNN Bloomberg. You can reach him at arturo.chang@cbc.ca.
Winnipeg man jailed for threatening Crown prosecutor during summer bail hearing
