N.S. lawyer admits seeing woman despite court order was 'foolhardy'
Paul Palmeter | CBC News | Posted: December 28, 2016 10:03 PM | Last Updated: December 28, 2016
Duane Rhyno is expected to be sentenced Friday for two breaches of court orders
A Lower Sackville lawyer previously charged with human trafficking will learn Friday if he'll be jailed for contacting a woman he was ordered to stay away from as part of that case.
Duane Rhyno pleaded guilty to two charges of breaching a court order in October.
Rhyno testified in his own defence Wednesday at his sentencing hearing in Dartmouth provincial court.
"It was a foolhardy decision on my part," Rhyno said from the witness chair in front of a stack of papers.
"It was an emotional decision and it was a mistake."
Jail time, conditional discharge or fine
Rhyno was charged in 2014 with human trafficking and sexual assault after being accused of selling the sexual services of the woman at a hotel in the Annapolis Valley. The charges were later dropped.
His licence to practise law was briefly suspended as the matter went through the courts.
Crown attorney Erica Koresawa is seeking a 30-day jail sentence for Rhyno, who has asked for a conditional discharge or a fine.
Koresawa told Judge Dan MacRury it would not be in the public interest to grant a conditional discharge, which means Rhyno would have no record of the offences if he complies with the conditions of his sentence.
On-again, off-again relationship
In court Wednesday, Rhyno said he had a long on-again, off-again relationship with the woman.
Rhyno said she was a prostitute with a cocaine addiction.
He said he wanted to get her away from drugs and prostitution and bought her a chihuahua named Pickles "so she would have someone in her life to care about."
Rhyno said he knew he was taking a risk when he met with the woman twice, albeit briefly, in a Dartmouth parking lot in February 2015.
Consensual meetings
He said he delivered the woman a coffee and a breakfast sandwich and submitted Tim Hortons receipts as evidence.
Rhyno said he also gave her a laptop loaded with movies to watch while she was enrolled in a drug rehab program.
He said the two meetings were consensual and were instigated by the woman.
Rhyno also submitted photographs to the court that showed them as a couple during happier days, one from a mall photo booth and another on a Florida trip paid for by Rhyno "to reward her for her sobriety".