Protestors outside the Vernon courthouse Feb. 11, 2020.

(BEN BULMER / iNFOnews.ca)

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Gordon Weatherill has found Curtis Sagmoen guilty of assault causing bodily harm for driving his quad into a sex worker who he had called to his rural North Okanagan property.

Justice Weatherill made the judgement today, Feb. 11, at the Vernon courthouse.

The trial ended this morning with both parties in agreement that the 39-year-old did drive his quad into a sex worker that he had called to his rural North Okanagan property in the summer of 2017.

However, the defence lawyer Lisa Helps claimed the incident was an accident and stated the complainant in the case is not credible and is an unreliable witness, poking several holes in her testimony.

Crown prosecutor Juan O’Quinn disagreed telling the court “everything she tells tells us is consistent… over and over and over again.”

The complainant in the case - whose name can not be published under a court ordered publication ban - told the court yesterday, Feb. 10, Sagmoen had driven his quad at high speed into her while she was walking back down a dirt road to her car at his parents Salmon River Road property.

The incident had taken place Aug. 10, 2017, just weeks before Sagmoen ambushed a different escort and pointed a gun at her, an event he was found guilty for in December 2019. Sagmoen was also facing another charge of assaulting a female sometime during the summer of 2017, but the charge was stayed by the Crown in March 2019. 

In the fall of 2017, the remains of the body of Traci Genereaux was found on Sagmoen’s parent's Salmon River Road property where he lived. No one has been charged in this case, and police have not released any details of how she died.

During his submissions, O’Quinn told the court the complainant was a credible and reliably witness. The court heard the complainant had only spoken to the police because her mother had pushed her to do so.

What motive would a sex trade worker and intravenous drug user have to go the RCMP?" O’Quinn told the court.

“There’s a reason she’s doing this, because she’s telling the truth," he said.

However, Helps pointed to holes in the complainant's testimony.

“There is no correlation between the accident and the actual injuries suffered,” Helps told the court. “The injuries do not fit the stories (the complainant) is telling.”

Sagmoen is not in custody and is currently serving 36 months probation, ordered at his December 2019 trial. A condition of his probation is to live at his parent's Salmon River Road property. He will be sentenced at a later date.

For more stories on Curtis Sagmoen go here.

— This story was updated at 2:23 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2020, to say Sagmoen is currently not in custody.

— This story was edited at 8 p.m. Feb. 12, 2020 to correct the name of the judge in this case. 

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