‘Long arm of the law reached out and brought her back here’: woman on run for 16 years sentenced to eight months

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This article was published 23/03/2023 (1022 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Iwona Rutkowska disappeared nearly 17 years ago, just days before she was to stand trial in Winnipeg for threatening to kill a man.

When police finally caught up to her, it was because she wanted to help someone, not harm them, court heard Thursday.

Rutkowska, 63, was working “under the table” in Toronto, providing home care for an elderly man in August 2022, when he suffered a medical crisis and Rutkowska called 911 for an ambulance.

“She did the right thing and gave her real name to police, knowing that she was wanted… And while the long arm of the law reached out and brought her back here, the fact remains that she stayed out of trouble since she left Winnipeg all those years ago.”–Defence lawyer Martin Glazer

When police arrived, Rutkowska provided officers with her real name. Officers ran it through their database and discovered the outstanding warrant for her arrest.

“She did the right thing and gave her real name to police, knowing that she was wanted,” defence lawyer Martin Glazer said Thursday. “And while the long arm of the law reached out and brought her back here, the fact remains that she stayed out of trouble since she left Winnipeg all those years ago.”

Rutkowska, who has remained in custody since her August arrest, pleaded guilty to one count of uttering threats against a neighbour in 2002, and one count of being unlawfully at large after she fled a Winnipeg halfway house just days in advance of her June 2006 trial.

King’s Bench Justice Shawn Greenberg sentenced Rutkowska to time served for the uttering threats charge and another eight months in custody for being unlawfully at large.

Court heard Rutkowska had been living in a suite in the victim’s home and caring for his young grandchildren, whose parents had died in a automobile accident, when, in late 2001, she arranged to transfer care of the children to their maternal grandmother and she moved to a house across the street.

In January 2002, Rutkowska was visiting the man in his home when he “made an insulting remark,” and she responded with a threat to kill him, Glazer said.

Rutkowska was charged with one count of extortion in relation to a separate incident involving the same victim, and was serving the final stretch of her two-year sentence at a halfway house when she disappeared in June 2006.

“Ms. Rutkowska spent the next 16 years living under the radar, essentially,” working under the table for cash or a place to stay, most often as a cleaner or caring for the elderly, said Crown attorney Melissa Hazelton.

Rutkowska suffered a stroke five years ago, “and actually had a doctor treat her privately outside the confines of the medical system in her efforts to stay off the radar.”

Rutkowska’s sentence Thursday was jointly recommended by the Crown and defence in a plea bargain that took into account weaknesses in the Crown’s case, Hazelton said. “The Crown’s case is significantly weaker due to the passage of time.”

“I’m told everyone loves her soup and she is very popular amongst the inmates because of her cooking abilities.”–Defence lawyer Martin Glazer

Since Rutkowska’s initial arrest, two witnesses originally set to testify at trial have died and the victim is believed to have left the country for his native Poland.

“The passage of time here is extreme,” Glazer said.

Rutkowska is from Poland, and during her years in Ontario, regularly sent money to family back home, where she expects to return after her release from jail, Glazer said.

While in custody at the Women’s Correctional Centre in Headingley, Rutkowska has worked in the kitchen as a cook. “I’m told everyone loves her soup and she is very popular amongst the inmates because of her cooking abilities,” Glazer said.

Greenberg said Rutkowska’s sentence was “a light one,” given the circumstances.

“But I think you are entitled to the benefit of some leniency, because you have demonstrated good conduct for a long period of time and also because of advancing age and health issues.”

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca