Criminal Defence Law Blog
While it is true that many people who are charged with criminal offences are a present danger to society, our government tries to solve our social problems of addiction, poverty, homelessness, abuse, and so on, dumping them all together in the criminal justice system. Any attempts to address the source of such “criminal” conduct need to be supported.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/luc-berthold-substance-treatment-private-members-bill-9.7227801
Once again Michael Spratt once again hit’s the nail on the head.
“Criminal cases begin in the legal equivalent of an airport holding lounge. A bureaucratic purgatory where accused people, lawyers, prosecutors, and judges all wait for the justice system to slowly boot.
Remand court is where a case lives before a plea or trial date is set. It is the intake period of the criminal justice system. Disclosure gets provided. Crown and defence discuss possible resolutions. Judicial pre-trials are conducted. Trial dates are negotiated through a bureaucratic maze of forms and appearances that makes the old Consumers Distributing catalogue system look sleek and innovative.
And while all this happens, the accused (or their lawyer) keeps returning to remand court, over and over and over again, for updates about why nothing has happened yet. “
Here is the full article which is worth the read.
Court tosses another case due to conduct of Toronto Crown attorney Marnie Goldenberg. Judge cites ‘unacceptable negligence’
By Jacques Gallant Courts and Justice Reporter
A veteran Crown attorney who caused a criminal case to collapse after she berated a Toronto police officer in a courthouse hallway has seen a second case thrown out in the same month over her conduct.
A man’s charges of drug possession and operating a motor vehicle while impaired by a drug were stayed on May 15 due to the “unacceptable negligence” of Crown attorney Marnie Goldenberg and Toronto police in failing to preserve and disclose “highly important” video evidence that ended up being erased from police servers.
Ontario Court Justice Sean Gaudet concluded that the failure to provide the video — which Goldenberg initially said didn’t exist — had breached the accused man’s right to make full answer and defence to the charges.
It was the second judgment issued in May to be critical of Goldenberg, a prosecutor of 22 years who specializes in driving offences. On May 4, Ontario Court Justice Mara Greene stayed charges against a man accused of striking a police officer with a motorcycle after the judge found Goldenberg angrily told a cop who testified for the defence and whose evidence risked hurting the Crown’s case: “We protect our own.” Greene also found that Goldenberg was “less than candid” in her testimony about the courthouse hallway encounter and “did not provide the court with a fair and fulsome account of what took place.”
Reliance on Toronto man’s ‘insulting’ misogyny was a ‘miscarriage of justice.’ Sex assault conviction tossed
By Jacques GallantCourts and Justice Reporter
A Toronto judge was wrong to rely on an apartment building superintendent’s misogyny when she convicted him of sexually assaulting a tenant, an appeal court has ruled, ordering a new trial.
The tenant, whose identity is covered by a standard publication ban, had testified that Marcial Manigbas showed up at her unit in November 2022 after she called him to open her storage room so she could store a suitcase and air conditioner. She had declined his offer over the phone to help move the items, but he came into the unit anyway.
The woman testified that Manigbas grabbed her body tightly, with one hand touching her genitals over her clothes, while the other hand moved toward her breast, until she quickly told him to stop.
In her decision convicting Manigbas of sexual assault, Ontario Court Justice Cidalia Faria said she accepted the complainant’s evidence while rejecting Manigbas’ testimony. He denied touching the complainant and told the court he “assumed” the woman needed help disassembling the AC unit because “she is a lady” and would not know what to do or have the required tools. He also said he thought she would make a mess or break something.
“Mr. Manigbas’ evidence was facile in his insistence that (the complainant) was helpless and needed him. He was dismissive of her ability and focused on his ‘professional’ experience,” Faria wrote in paragraph 43 of her decision.
“He was insulting about (the complainant’s) appearance compared to a celebrity. I reject his evidence.”
The higher court judge pointed out that it’s a legal error to mostly or entirely rely on an accused person’s bad character or to apply stereotypical reasoning when determining whether they should be believed.
“Implicit in this paragraph is impermissible moral reasoning that Mr. Manigbas was not credible in his denial of the sexual assault because of his negative views and lack of respect for (the complainant), or that he is the type of misogynist man who would sexually assault her,” Sugunasiri wrote.
In other words: “Even if Mr. Manigbas came across as a misogynist, that does not mean that he must be a sexual assaulter who is not to be believed.”
Vaughan man barred from Ontario legal system used fake name to pose as lawyer
The allegations weren’t the first levied at Giuseppe Alessandro, who has been barred by regulators from Ontario’s legal system.
In March, Giuseppe Alessandro pleaded guilty to one count each of fraud, forgery and disobeying a court order, admitting that he’d forged a college diploma and donned a fake name in order to offer legal services.
By Abby O’BrienStaff Reporter
A man with a history of deceiving Ontario’s court system has been found guilty of fraud after admitting he posed as a lawyer for nearly two years, despite a permanent injunction barring him from offering legal services.
Operating under the name “Rocco Rizzo,” Vaughan resident Giuseppe Alessandro managed to masquerade as a lawyer from 2022 until 2024, making two court appearances before his charade was uncovered, according to court audio obtained by the Star.
On March 4, Giuseppe, 54, pleaded guilty in a Milton courtroom to one count each of fraud, forgery and disobeying a court order, admitting that he’d faked a college diploma and donned a fake name to solicit the client.
The allegations weren’t the first levied at Giuseppe, who has been barred by regulators from Ontario’s legal system. He and his brother, Nicolino Alessandro, have repeatedly been accused of gaming the provincial courts and have both been criminally convicted since entering the industry in the early 2000s.
Still, Giuseppe has continued to operate in the peripheries of Ontario’s legal system for nearly 20 years, highlighting the long-standing challenges faced by both law enforcement and regulators to stamp out unlicensed practitioners.
Neither of the Alessandro brothers, nor Giuseppe’s lawyer, Michael Rombis, responded to the Star’s repeated inquiries.
Past criminal convictions, injunction
The Alessandro brothers’ history of defrauding the legal system dates back nearly two decades.
In 2008, they were convicted of forging appeals to have traffic convictions expunged from more than 50 of their clients driving records.
The scheme took advantage of Ontario regulations dictating that traffic convictions and subsequent demerit points can only be applied to drivers’ records for a period of two years after the date of the offence. Crucially, if an appeal is filed, convictions and points are suspended pending the result.
According to court documents reviewed by the Star, the brothers would file the forged appeals with the Ministry of Transportation, which would then suspend their clients’ conviction, but they would fail to file the same notice of appeal to the court.
Unaware of the purported appeal, the provincial courts had no mechanism to pursue the prosecution, and the cases would remain in limbo beyond the two-year mark.
By the time investigators became aware of the operation, more than 70 clients’ convictions had been successfully cleared.
After serving 18 months house arrest, the brothers were back to work; this time, hiring a handful of licensed paralegals to carry out the legal work for what Giuseppe described to clients as a “multimillion dollar law referral service.”
Recruiters, paid in cash, would approach prospective clients at the courthouse, grocery stores and even LCBOs, promising to “handle” their traffic tickets, according to former employees who spoke to the Star.
Staff then entered guilty pleas unbeknownst to clients before filing forged appeals that they never progressed. Much like the first operation, this delayed the proceedings beyond the two-year mark in which penalties remain on Ontario drivers’ records, effectively skirt convictions.
The Law Society of Ontario (LSO) soon caught on to the tactics and Giuseppe was barred indefinitely from providing legal services or referring cases in 2014. An identical injunction against Nicolino was dismissed.
Court documents suggest Giuseppe had re-emerged in the legal industry by 2021; a venture that would eventually land him his second criminal conviction.
He was hired to represent a Milton woman in a small claims proceeding that same year. According to court audio obtained by the Star, a man who identified himself as Rocco Rizzo — later revealed to be a fake identity used by Giuseppe — showed the woman a fake diploma before charging her $2,500 to take the case on.
A business card for Giuseppe Alessandro and his company, Law Advocates. Alessandro has been barred from offering or referring legal services.
Giuseppe represented the woman at two court appearances over the next two years, according to the audio. It was only when he demanded an additional $2,500, in 2024, that the woman grew suspicious and reported him to the police.
Giuseppe was arrested in April 2025, following a yearlong investigation by Halton police.
Connections to suspended GTA paralegal currently under LSO probe
Meanwhile, Nicolino also appears to have continued in the legal industry after the Law Society of Ontario’s (LSO) unsuccessful bid to bar him.
According to an LSO complaint, in 2024, Nicolino referred at least one client to Concord-based paralegal Adelin Mocanu. As previously reported by the Star, Mocanu was suspended in September after allegedly filing approximately 250 “meritless” appeals of his client’s traffic convictions in a ploy that a Brampton Justice of the Peace likened to the scheme carried out by the Alessandros in the early 2000s.
Nicolino was just one in a network of third-party agents that Mocanu allegedly relied on to acquire cases. In regulatory complaints and court documents, other former clients allege they were recruited by an anonymous Instagram user known only as “Angelo.”
The Star has not been able to confirm the identity of the user behind Angelo’s account, yet the same name appears in an online profile for an organization called the Law Help Association, which lists Giuseppe’s phone number as a point of contact. The association purports to offer legal “information” to people with limited financial resources.
The inside story of how a Toronto-area paralegal tried to game the court system with ‘sham’ ticket appeals — and left drivers on the hook
The LSO has little recourse against people who aren’t licensed. In Giuseppe’s case, for example, regulators had already put into effect many of the options at their disposal, which can include cease-and-desist letters and court injunctions, before his most recent instance of illegal practice.
According to multiple sources, Ticket Justice operated in conjunction with an anonymous Instagram account, run by someone identified only as “Angelo.”
@trafficticketgone_905angelo
In cases where an individual continues to practice law illegally, “the criminal justice system is better placed than the LSO to address situations of wide-scale unauthorized practice,” said Wing, adding that the LSO chose not to pursue further enforcement alongside the ongoing prosecution when they learned of the allegations against Giuseppe in 2024.
Giuseppe is scheduled to return to court later this month.
With files from Ben Spurr
According to the Globe and Mail:
Federal prosecutions impacted by Toronto Police corruption allegations
The latest: Roughly 30 federal prosecutions have been affected by criminal charges against Toronto Police Service officers allegedly tied to a sweeping police corruption probe, according to the Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC). Criminal charges or allegations of misconduct against a police officer can disrupt prosecutions that depend on the officer’s testimony and reliable evidence.
Context: York Regional Police announced charges in February against seven serving Toronto police officers and a retired officer, as well as 19 civilians, on an array of allegations, including a plot to murder a corrections officer, bribery and drug trafficking. Investigators said members of organized crime were buying data and addresses from police officers, which were then used to co-ordinate shootings and other crimes.
Methodology: The PPSC confirmed the number of affected cases after The Globe and Mail obtained internal e-mails through access to information legislation, which included lists of cases involving officers who were arrested in connection to the Project South probe.
What’s next: The president of the Toronto Police Association, Clayton Campbell, said it was too early to know how the allegations against the officers could impact prosecutions.
