Man sentenced for threatening to beat up Nova Scotia judge in Truro

A Nova Scotia man has found out the hard way it's not a good idea to threaten a judge.

Bradley Alan Sturgeon, 53, has been convicted of uttering threats and intimidating a justice system participant for threatening to beat up Judge Alain Begin of the Nova Scotia Provincial Court.

The charges stem from an incident on Dec. 30 of last year. Sturgeon was attempting to renew his driver's license when he was told he couldn't because his license had been suspended following a conviction for impaired driving.

According to an agreed statement of facts, Sturgeon became agitated at the news and said, "I'm going to go down and beat the f--- out of Judge Begin."

It was Begin who convicted Sturgeon of impaired driving in May 2022.

Sturgeon made the threat at the courthouse in Truro, but the judge was not present when the threat was made. Sheriffs initiated what was described as "a medium risk safety protocol" as a precaution. RCMP also assigned extra patrols around the judge's house.

Man says he was stressed that day

Sturgeon was arrested four days later.

"I really didn't mean that I was to harm anybody," Sturgeon said at his sentencing hearing last Friday. "It was a really bad day and I was really stressed out. I acted very inappropriately."

Sturgeon pleaded guilty without having to go to trial.

Judge Claude Hache of the New Brunswick Provincial Court presided at Sturgeon's sentencing. The judge appeared by video from his courtroom in Saint John where he normally presides.

Hache sentenced Sturgeon to two months of house arrest, followed by two months with an overnight curfew.

Once he's completed the conditional sentence order, Sturgeon will be on probation for a year. His DNA has also been entered in the national DNA database.

Previous threats to Judge Begin

This is not the first time Begin has faced a threat to his safety.

In April 2020, the judge was warned he could be a target of Gabriel Wortman, the gunman who killed 22 people.

Before he was appointed to the bench, Begin represented one of Wortman's uncles in a property dispute, and there were fears the gunman's rampage was partly to settle old scores.

Begin even left his home for a time that deadly weekend, but there was never any evidence he was targeted.