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MERRITT HERALD FREE
THURSDAY, JULY 4, 2013 • MERRITT NEWSPAPERS
No jail time for ex-Merritt top cop By Emily Wessel THE HERALD
newsroom@merrittherald.com
GOOD CLEAN FUN The second annual Merritt Mud Races held this past weekend at the former site of the Merritt Mountain Music Festival by the North West Mud Racing Association drew a large crowd over two days. Many racers, such as the one pictured above, came out to let the mud fly and put on a show. The stars of the races were the F-Class pro paddle vehicles, which flew through the 200-foot mud lanes in under three seconds. Michael Potestio/Herald
Merritt’s former top cop will not spend any time behind bars for stealing and using cocaine from police evidence lockers. Former Staff Sgt. Stuart Seib, 54, was given a conditional discharge in a Kelowna courtroom on Tuesday, which means he will not have a criminal record if he does not breach his oneyear probation. Provincial court Judge Jane Cartwright also ordered him to
perform 50 hours of community service. Seib pled guilty to breach of trust for the thefts, which occurred while he was stationed in Merritt. In court this spring, he testified that he was self-medicating to cope with post traumatic stress disorder following the 2002 death of a girl who had sought his help for issues at home two years earlier. The 19-year veteran of the RCMP resigned from the force in 2012 and will face no internal discipline.
Stabbing just beginning of trauma By Michael Potestio THE HERALD
reporter@merrittherald.com
Merritt mother Tracey Johnson still doesn’t know when the trauma will come to an end. The single mother of two was stabbed between 15 and 18 times on Feb. 27, 2012 after answering her door to a man she didn’t know who was seeking a ride home. Eighteen-year-old Gibson Rhyss Smithers attacked Johnson from behind, stabbing her in the head, neck, arms, chest and back.
Johnson’s then threeyear-old son Kolten witnessed the incident. Johnson had her lungs punctured and they collapsed. She lost a lot of blood and her injuries were life-threatening. She was initially sent to the Nicola Valley Health Centre and then transferred to Royal Inland Hospital. She went on to make a full recovery. Smithers was charged with aggravated assault for his attack on Johnson. Last Thursday in a Kamloops provincial court-
room, Judge Dev Dley accepted a joint submission by the Crown and the defense council that will see Smithers spend two years in federal prison and serve a 10-year-long supervision order. Smithers received credit for the 16 months he’s served in provincial jail so far as he’s been in custody since the incident occurred. He was also given a 10-year weapons ban and is required to submit a DNA sample for the national registry. Smithers had no prior
criminal history before the attack on Johnson. Speaking with the Herald from her Quilchena Avenue home, Johnson said seeing Smithers get the jail time is not satisfying to her, but the 10-year supervision order is. She said having him under supervision is better than jail time could ever be. However, she also said seeing Smithers get charged with aggravated assault rather than attempted murder for the stabbing incident makes her question the legal system. Johnson said the worst
part of the ordeal was the fact the attack came from behind. “The worst part for me was it all happening from behind, not seeing any of it coming,” Johnson said. She said last Thursday’s sentencing wasn’t a moment of closure for her. That closure first came six days after the incident, when Johnson was about to get out of the hospital. She said her then threeyear-old son Kolten — who is five now — asked her, “Mommy, are we safe now?”
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“And I answered my son, ‘Yes, we’re safe, Kolten,’ and he [said], ‘Well, that’s good Mom, because we’re just going to pray for him to be a good man when he gets out of jail,” Johnson said. She said she was out of the hospital in a week even though it was expected she would need to spend a month there. Johnson said it’s hard for her to forgive her attacker, but she does so because of her son.
See ‘Mother fighting’ Page 5
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