Killer seeks release through ‘faint hope’ clause

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This article was published 29/03/2021 (1796 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Brandon man convicted in the 2002 killing of his ex-girlfriend begins a bid for early release from prison under a “faint hope” clause hearing today.

In 2005, Michael Bridges received a life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years for the first-degree murder of 18-year-old Erin Chorney.

Faint hope clause applications allow offenders convicted before Dec. 2, 2011, to apply for early parole. The federal government eliminated the clause in 2011.

Bridges and Chorney were involved in a stormy, sometimes violent relationship that ended shortly before he killed her. The case remained unsolved until 2004, when Bridges was arrested by RCMP after an elaborate “Mr. Big” operation. Bridges told undercover police how he choked Chorney until she was unconscious, then cut the cord from his mother’s hair dryer and used it to strangle her. When she didn’t die, he submerged her head in his bathtub for nearly 20 minutes.

Bridges carried Chorney’s body to a nearby cemetery, dug up a freshly covered grave and placed her body inside.

Bridges lost a subsequent appeal. He claimed he was a victim of police entrapment.

In 2019, Queen’s Bench Justice John Menzies ruled Bridges could proceed with an application to reduce his period of parole ineligibility from 25 years to 15 years.

“Bridges has been described as an exemplary inmate. Despite the heinous nature of his crime and the devastating effects it has had on the family of the deceased, the applicant makes out a meritorious case for the reduction of parole ineligibility,” Menzies wrote.

Bridges said in 2019 that if he successfully secured early release he hoped to get a job, reunite with family and reconnect with his son.

“Overall, I wish to lead a proactive life and never go back to prison,” he said.

Bridges said he thinks about Chorney “every single day” and would like to apologize directly to her family and friends for what he did.

“I have been working with corrections staff and outside resources… to put myself in the best position possible to give the family what they need to heal, should they be interested in engaging with me,” he said. “I am a different person than I was when I committed this offence and when I first came into custody.”

The court hearing in Brandon is scheduled to last two weeks.