Judge dials up two years’ probation for ‘prolific’ 911 harasser

A “prolific” 911 caller has been sentenced to two years of supervised probation after admitting to calling emergency services nearly 200 times when there was no emergency.

Kenneth Jarvis, 53, pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of making repeated harassing phone calls between November 2021 and April of this year.

“Mr. Jarvis is a prolific caller to emergency services, generating numerous unfounded calls for service and this was causing a strain on Winnipeg Police Service officers tasked to attend to determine what was going on,” Crown attorney Nancy Fazenda told provincial court Judge Robert Heinrichs.

Jarvis was arrested in April and released on bail, then rearrested and taken into custody June 21 when he again called 911 without cause. Jarvis was arrested in possession of crack cocaine.

Court heard Jarvis’s crack consumption played a role in his offending.

Jarvis “becomes paranoid when he is using, and because he uses it quite regularly this has caused some concern with respect to his ability to navigate his life,” Fazenda said.

Fazenda said she reviewed a number of Jarvis’s calls to 911 and said Jarvis was such a regular caller many emergency operators knew him by name.

“On one of the phone calls in particular, Mr. Jarvis actually said: ‘I know I’m not supposed to be calling about nonsense, but…’ and then asked for assistance,” Fazenda said.

Some of Jarvis’s calls for service were answered by an Alternative Response to Citizens in Crisis team, which pairs police officers with mental-health professionals. Fazenda said Jarvis was offered counselling resources and medications for his addictions, but because of his cognitive challenges found it difficult to follow through.

A forensic assessment prepared for court found Jarvis “presented with a elaborate persecutory system of thought” involving neighbours breaking into his apartment, stealing his belongings and harming his dog. “Some of these beliefs could be delusional, though he continued to maintain they were true,” the report said.

Jarvis’s brother spoke out in court in support of him, telling Heinrichs he had visited Jarvis’s apartment and found evidence backing up many of his claims.

“He’s not wrong when he says this is happening to him,” the man said. “He’s not delusional.”

That may be so some of the time, Heinrichs said, “but clearly some of the phone calls have been wrong.”

Heinrichs sentenced Jarvis to time served for breaching his bail order and possession of cocaine and an additional two years of supervised probation, during which time he is prohibited from calling 911 services unless there is a real emergency.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca