Brian Reum appears in this May 2023 photo.
Image Credit: FACEBOOK: Rotary Club of Merritt, BC
March 04, 2025 - 6:00 PM
A former Rotary Club president has pleaded guilty to aggravated assault after he attacked his wife with a serrated hunting knife at their Keremeos home last spring.
Brian Gene Reum appeared in a Penticton courtroom Tuesday, March 4 and pleaded guilty to aggravated assault.
The 68-year-old was also charged with attempted murder, but Crown prosecutors said that charge would be stayed.
Details of what took place weren't mentioned in court, but Reum's wife filed a civil case against him last year.
The court document claims that during an argument the former Rotarian president approached her from behind and cut her throat with a serrated hunting knife.
"(He) then attempted to stab himself," the court document reads.
Reum's wife also claims that a month earlier he attempted to smother her with a pillow on multiple occasions.
Last September, he was charged with attempted murder and aggravated assault. He was released on bail and appeared in the courthouse Tuesday sitting next to his lawyer.
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According to the civil suit, Reum is from Surrey and his wife is from Keremeos. They started living together in March 2023 and got married in February 2024 – a month later the attack occurred. Divorce proceedings were filed a month afterwards, court records indicate.
Reum had been an active member of the Rotary Club along with his wife. He was once co-president-elect of the Merritt Rotary Club.
He doesn't appear to have a criminal record in B.C.
Reum will now undergo a psychological evaluation and reports will be written ahead of a sentencing hearing which will likely take place in May.
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