Corpulent Canadian Criminal Clashes with Cops

Canadian scales of justice were strained last Friday when it took 15 minutes for an extremely large Edmonton man to plead guilty to charges stemming from a bizarre and violent police standoff. The challenge was getting the man – who weighs between 400 and 500 pounds – in and out of the courthouse.

Troy McMath, 40, was scheduled to appear in court at 9:30am, but his hearing was delayed more than three hours as his lawyer had to pick him up at his home and there was then a logistical nightmare getting him into the building and up to the third-floor courtroom.

An oversized chair with wheels was initially being used to move him through the building, however it couldn’t be pushed onto the elevator so he was transferred into a wheelchair supplied by the courthouse sheriffs.

After the brief guilty plea, an ambulance was called to take him to hospital as he was having breathing problems and high-blood pressure, but that turned into a nearly-90-minute ordeal involving paramedics and firefighters who couldn’t figure out how to load him into the ambulance. McMath was finally taken away about 2:15 p.m. after his wheelchair was loaded onto a city bus.

McMath pleaded guilty to possession of a weapon dangerous to the public peace and resisting arrest. Prosecutor Rob Beck told court police responded to a reported family fight at McMath’s home in May 2009, and discovered he was intoxicated and throwing and breaking items in the residence.

McMath, who was six-foot-two and weighed more than 350 pounds at the time, locked the door when police arrived and was agitated and “extremely belligerent” with the officers, said Beck.

There were several children in the home, ranging in age from 13 to seven months, and McMath could be heard by police yelling instructions at them, including “soldier up kids, flip the couch and barricade the door, bring me my Glock gun, get my axe, (and) bring me the hatchet.”

He was also heard to say to police “better get the tactical guys” and “get more backup.”

Court heard police eventually got into the home and twice tried to stun McMath with a Taser, but he kept struggling.

Another officer used head stuns on him, but that had no effect, so he began using closed-fist punches, said Beck, adding it took four or five officers to finally get him under control and into handcuffs. A hatchet was also seized.

Defense lawyer Ron Morin told the judge his client’s perception of the incident was different from the police and said he “acted impulsively” as a result of alcohol, but is now “no longer a danger.”

No longer a danger… I guess putting on an extra hundred and fifty plus pounds doesn’t make him any kind of flight risk. He’s just a risk to furniture and any kind of basic structural engineering.

So much for the stereotype of the friendly Canadian. I would expect this type of behavior of someone in Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, parts of the Florida panhandle or Idaho. But Canada?

A pre-sentence report and psychiatric assessment were ordered and a sentencing hearing date is to be set Sept. 3.