Woman who declined to buy chocolate assaulted: police

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This article was published 26/06/2023 (873 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A woman says a man sexually assaulted her downtown after she declined to buy chocolate from him.

Winnipeg police said Monday a 33-year-old woman was touched in an unwanted sexual manner after she was approached by a man on the afternoon of June 23.

Police said after the woman said she didn’t want to buy chocolate, the suspect said something inappropriate and grabbed her.

She flagged down officers who were on foot patrol and they arrested a 25-year-old man at Graham Avenue and Donald Street.

Const. Jason Michalyshen said the suspect was trying to sell chocolate to earn money for himself, rather than for an organization.

“He was carrying a bag, and it was (full of) chocolate bars. There’s nothing that I’m aware of, that it was a legitimate fundraiser or anything like that,” said Michalyshen.

The spokesman said the victim works in the area and was “quite simply minding her own business” when the suspect approached her.

Ermiyas Isaac Dangerfield, 25 of Winnipeg, was charged with sexual assault and held in custody.

Dangerfield is due to appear at provincial court July 31.

At an August 2021 sentencing hearing for robbery and a number of administrative breaches, including breaching a bail order, provincial court Judge Rocky Pollack said Dangerfield’s offending was tied to an untreated, chronic mental illness and drug abuse.

Charges were laid after Dangerfield went to an African restaurant on Isabel Street after-hours one day in February 2021, asking staff for service.

They declined and Dangerfield left, but he then returned and grabbed a tablet from a table.

A staff member tried to grab the tablet and was hit. He took off with the tablet. She was hospitalized with minor injuries.

Dangerfield was arrested a short time later, but police did not find the tablet.

The judge noted it was likely traded for street drugs.

In sentencing Dangerfield, Pollack noted the robbery was the accused’s first violent offence, in which he victimized a small business owner.

“For a first offender who committed a strong arm robbery with this kind of violence, a two-year sentence would be my starting point, but I cannot ignore the fact that your regression comes concurrent with untreated mental health and documented drug abuse,” said Pollack.

He sentenced Dangerfield to a year in jail, less time already served. Once released, he was subject to two years of supervised probation, which include conditions he continue with a Winnipeg Regional Health Authority community treatment program for people with severe mental illnesses.

He was also banned from possessing weapons for 10 years and ordered to hand over his DNA to the national database.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @erik_pindera