Brandon Harder, Regina Leader-Post
Alena Marie Pastuch, a Regina woman who pleaded guilty to stealing millions from investors, plans to bring an application to “reopen” sentencing.
This comes after she, through her previous lawyer, entered into a joint submission with the Crown, which suggested a three-and-a-half year sentence would be appropriate.
The intent was announced by Pastuch’s current lawyer, Christina Skibinsky, in Regina’s Court of King’s Bench on Monday.
In June 2019, Pastuch was convicted on charges of fraud, theft and money laundering after a trial in which she represented herself without a lawyer.
The charges were related to an investment scheme that played out over the course of about seven years, beginning in 2006.
In August of 2019, she was sentenced to seven years in prison.
But a subsequent appeal argued that, among other things, she shouldn’t have been denied what then would have been a third court-appointed lawyer, leaving her to defend herself.
Saskatchewan’s highest court ruled she should not have been required to represent herself and a new trial was ordered.
That new trial never went ahead as Pastuch entered a plea of guilty to theft over $5,000. It was actually well over $5,000, according to Crown prosecutor Dana Brule, who quoted a total of $4,940,218.
In September 2024, Brule and Pastuch’s then-lawyer Chris Murphy put forward a joint submission that a three-and-a-half-year sentence would be appropriate.
After receiving credit for time spent on remand, on bail and in jail awaiting an appeal, it would have left Pastuch with two years remaining on the sentence.
Justice Catherine Dawson was expected to deliver a decision on sentence but, in March, the judge granted Pastuch an adjournment to arrange medical appointments and get a new lawyer. Murphy was allowed to drop the case, citing “a breakdown in the solicitor-client relationship.”
“Ineffective assistance of counsel”
Skibinsky, who now represents Pastuch, made comments in April that suggested an application to reopen the sentencing was being considered.
Monday, the defence lawyer told Dawson, via telephone, “we would be making an application to reopen for a couple of reasons.”
“Here, there’s evidence that touches on ineffective assistance of counsel,” Skibinsky said.
She outlined for the judge that, prior to the previous joint submission, lawyers had been preparing for a contested sentencing.
“Ms. Pastuch — it was after the guilty plea, etcetera — then she said, ‘While I’ve been told, you know, it’s not possible to stay in the community. I guess I’ve been told that, and I guess I’m going to have to go to jail,’ Skibinsky explained. “So she’s making these comments on the record.”
There was a breakdown in the communication over “what the plan was,” Skibinsky told Dawson.
A health issue
The defence lawyer also confirmed for the judge that a health issue allegedly affecting Pastuch is central to a potentially “stronger” argument with regard to reopening the sentencing.
However, Skibinsky did not elaborate on the record with regard to the nature of the issue and how it had relevance to Pastuch’s sentence.
Dawson set a deadline in early September for Pastuch to file required paperwork, with the issue of reopening the sentencing to be addressed at a later date.
bharder@postmedia.com
