Drug rehab staffer injured in attack by armed resident

A staff member at a Winnipeg drug rehab centre, frequently used as an inpatient facility for people involved in the criminal justice system, was attacked and seriously injured by a resident armed with a weapon.

City police responded to reports of an assault at the Behavioural Health Foundation at 35 Avenue de la Digue shortly after 9 p.m. on Oct. 24. The victim, a person in their 20s, was transported to hospital in unstable condition, and later upgraded to stable condition, Winnipeg Police Service spokesman Const. Claude Chancy said.

Officers arrested a 29-year-old woman and charged her with assault with a weapon and breaching a release order. Police withheld further details about the victim.

The Free Press has confirmed the accused involved in the attack is Jennifer Marie Pollard, who was being treated at the foundation’s inpatient facility in St. Norbert.

A judge in Manitoba’s mental health court had ordered her to complete addictions programming during a hearing on Aug. 14, after she pleaded guilty to a pair of robberies at Winnipeg grocery stores.

In one case, she stole about $55 worth of batteries and hygiene products, and then tried to punch a loss prevention officer. In another case, she threatened an employee at a different grocery store with a knife while attempting to steal a donation box containing about $20, court heard.

A review of court records shows Pollard has had a handful of other convictions in recent years.

Crown prosecutor Eric Hachinski once told court she suffered from an “exceptionally traumatic past.”

“From the Crown’s perspective, certainly, our primary concern is that she gets help, I think both for the sake of the public, in terms of what’s being going on, and for her, as well,” Hachinski said to Judge Sidney Lerner during a sentencing hearing in August 2023.

At the time, Pollard was appearing before the court on charges of breaking and entering, and mischief.

Defence lawyer Amado Claros said Pollard was born in B.C. and spent time in Chilliwack in the early years of her life. Her father killed her mother when she was a child, at which point her grandparents brought her to Winnipeg to live with them.

He said Pollard turned to the “heavy consumption” of marijuana as a coping mechanism.

“That, unfortunately, was worsened by her hanging around with the wrong crowd, where she started experimenting with meth,” Claros said.

Lerner urged Pollard to stay off drugs, warning her, “Meth is going to turn you into a regular customer at the Winnipeg Remand Centre.”

During the hearing in August, Judge Kael McKenzie granted Pollard release into the drug treatment program. She was ordered to appear weekly in mental health court; records show she had been complying with that requirement.

The Behaviour Health Foundation is frequently relied on by the Manitoba justice system. Fifty-six per cent of the residents who used the facility in the 2023-24 fiscal year were on bail or probation, or serving a conditional sentence, the latest annual report shows.

The circumstances that led to last week’s attack, and how the foundation has responded, remain unclear.

The foundation and its executive director, Paula Hendrickson, did not respond to multiple requests for comment via email and phone calls throughout the day on Monday and Tuesday.

The Free Press visited the foundation in an attempt to connect with Hendrickson in person Tuesday afternoon, but staff said she was not around and they did not know when she might return.

At least one other person working for the foundation has been attacked by its residents. A Red River College Polytechnic student who was completing a work practicum was nearly beaten to death by two teens staying at a youth addictions facility that formerly operated in Selkirk in 2016.

More recently, James Lorne Hilton — a man accused of causing a fatal three-vehicle crash in a stolen truck while impaired last January — fled from the St. Norbert facility after being placed there in September to await custody.

He was later rearrested by police.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca