Convicted driver has bail revoked, faces new charges for swastikas found in cell

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As soon as his bail was yanked, Jesse Bleck said it was “another unfair part of court.”

Never mind that the Crown told an Ontario Court of Appeal judge it had proof Bleck breached his bail pending-appeal conditions, including a photograph taken by the police of him sitting in the front seat of a vehicle without his surety.

And never mind that he signed the bail order, with a witness, promising to abide by all conditions including that he not sit in the front seat of a vehicle.

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And never mind that, when he was charged with three breaches of his release order and, while in police custody, he was charged with mischief for carving swastikas into a cement bench of a London police headquarters cell.

“That’s all it is,” he said with a huff through a video link at the end of his bail revocation hearing on Friday to cancel his release order that could have kept him out of custody until the appeal is heard of his convictions and sentence for a devastating hit-and-run five years ago.

Bleck was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison in June for a crash on Exeter Road on July 21, 2019, that left Londoner Tristan Roby, now 23, with a devastating brain injury that has confined him to a wheelchair and shattered his life.

Roby and a friend were riding their bicycles on their way to night fishing when he was struck by Bleck’s Nissan. Bleck drove almost a kilometre with the bicycle lodged under the car, before stopping and taking off on foot with a passenger. He wasn’t arrested for months.

He was convicted by a jury of driving while prohibited and failing to stop at a crash after a six-week trial in London a year ago where he claimed he wasn’t the driver of the car. He switched lawyers for his sentencing that dragged on until June.

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At the end of July, Bleck applied for bail pending the appeal of his convictions and sentence. Even though the Crown opposed his release, he was granted strict house arrest bail by the Court of Appeal on Aug. 6 with two sureties pledging $5,000 each. He was ordered to live at a residence in Norfolk County.

Three weeks into his bail order, Bleck was arrested in London. Justice Sarah Pepall learned at Friday’s hearing Bleck was arrested after he was seen and photographed by police sitting in the front seat of a vehicle at a storage unit.

The police arrested him at a residence, charged him with three counts of breaching his bail conditions and, the next day, while he was still in custody at London police headquarters, with mischief of less than $5,000 for, as articulated in the notice of application to revoke the bail, “by carving swastikas into cement benches in a cell at the London Police Service.”

Bleck appeared Tuesday and asked for time to retain a lawyer. On Friday, he wanted until next week to retain one. Pepall agreed with the Crown that the hearing could proceed.

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One of the conditions included in the house arrest bail ordered Bleck not sit in the front seat of any motor vehicle, which Crown counsel Joanne Stuart said had been put in place “to prevent any concerns about Mr. Bleck as it relates to travelling unsupervised in an automobile without his surety.”

It was important to include that provision, she said, because when Bleck breached his bail conditions in December 2021 that stipulated he could not drive, police saw Bleck slide across to the passenger side of the front seat, trying to hide that he was the driver.

“It is with sadness that the Crown is coming forward now in very short order after the order of this honourable court releasing Mr. Bleck, that Mr. Bleck has breached so quickly, but he has,” Stuart said.

“At this point, the Crown’s concern is Mr. Bleck is taking the order of this court and the conditions contained in it as suggestions as opposed to obligations.”

Stuart noted Bleck had a long history of ignoring court orders. She said, Bleck could bring a new application and release plan but “frankly, at this juncture, I couldn’t envisage a plan we’d consent to, because there are no new rungs left on the ladder.”

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Bleck, acting on his own behalf, told the judge “a lot of what (Stuart) said is wrong. It’s allegations and it’s not true.”

He said he didn’t know he couldn’t sit in the front seat of a vehicle and assumed the terms were the same as the eight other bail orders while the Roby case crept through the courts. The new term was “stuck in” without him knowing.

He wasn’t in court when he was granted bail pending appeal and no one read the terms to him, he said. “My lawyer was not made aware of it. Nobody has ever told me anything of the sort,” he said.

“I feel more or less targeted by the London police,” he said. He suggested the police were “trying to lie” and asked for a bail hearing because “I’m there for my kids.”

Bleck asked why the police didn’t pull him over if they saw him in the front seat, but waited and arrested him once he was at a residence.

He vowed to take the allegations to trial. “It’s kind of the same instance as my trial,” where he said a London police officer “called up witnesses and threatened them to put the case onto me to say that I was the driver when the driver was there.

“I feel like, at every angle, I’ve already had an unfair trial, a biased trial and then an inadequate investigation trial and I’m still fighting here and I’m not even getting a chance to get legal counsel.”

However, Stuart produced a copy of the bail order that had been signed by Bleck and witnessed that promised he would comply with all aspects of the order, including staying out of the front seat.

Pepall said the Crown had met its case and revoked the bail.

“Unfortunately, it would appear that the release plan … was insufficient to deter the respondent,” she said.

She invited Bleck to make a new application once he gets a lawyer.

Bleck is back in London court to address the breach charges on Sept. 6.

jsims@postmedia.com

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