An arrest warrant has been issued for former Woolwich mayor Todd Cowan after he failed to appear in court Tuesday to answer to charges of fraud and breach of trust.
Accused of double-billing expenses to the township and Waterloo Region, Cowan did not attend his court date on July 21 despite a court order to attend. His lawyer, Thomas Brock, said he made more than 30 attempts to reach his client before the trial date.
“On June 17 I wrote Mr. Cowan a letter confirming the pre-trial and asking that upon receipt he contact my office. On June 23 I appeared in court, adjourned the matter to July 21. It was on the 23rd that an order was made requiring him to be here and I confirmed that by letter to him June 23 telling him he had to be here,” Brock said at the Ontario Court of Justice in Kitchener on Tuesday, the seventh such court date so far.
Cowan’s expense records came to light last July when a citizen acquired records of his claimed expenses for the Region of Waterloo and Woolwich Township via a freedom of information request. An examination revealed Cowan received a double reimbursement of more than $2,700. He paid back the full amount, $2,770.68, in August, and chalked it up to poor accounting on his behalf.
There were six cases of double reimbursement found, spanning 2012 to 2014. The expenses covered mileage, meals, and conferences he attended as Woolwich’s representative on regional council.
“Since June 23 to today’s date, I must have phoned him over 30 times. I’ve left messages on his answering machine, sometimes the machine would be full of messages. The following day there would be space on the machine for new messages. So I assume that he received those messages. I advised him that should he not contact me and not be here today, more likely than not a warrant would be issued for his arrest and I would be asking for an order to remove myself as counselor,” Brock said.
Brock said he was initially worried something untoward had happened to Cowan, but he realized someone must be listening to the messages to free up space on the answering machine.
“On July 13 I wrote him another letter, telling him once again that he was court ordered to be here in person. I’m prepared to file these letters with the clerk. In any event, he was well aware that he was required to be here,” Brock said.
He then asked for Cowan’s name to be paged to the courtroom, which was done, but he didn’t show.
Justice of the Peace Zeljana Radulovic said if Brock wanted to be removed from the file he would have to file the proper application. Brock decided to remain as counsel for Cowan, once Radulovic issued a warrant for his arrest.
Radulovic said she was absolutely satisfied there were grounds to issue a warrant for arrest.
“Being satisfied that counsel did take upon himself to make every effort to obtain instruction from his client, he was not successful and the name of the accused person was paged at 10 past 10, the bench warrant for his arrest shall issue and not to be endorsed, considering he was well aware that he should be here a number of times,” Radulovic said.
Cowan’s case has been before the court since March 3. It has been unable to move forward, due to Cowan’s lack of communication with his lawyer. Once he makes his appearance they will set a trial date, which is estimated to last four days. The Crown requested the arrest warrant be issued.
In an interview after the court session, Brock explained the meaning behind issuing the arrest warrant but not endorsing it.
“Upon his arrest he must be brought back before a justice of the peace. She could endorse the warrant for him to be released by a police officer or a peace officer, but she refused to do so. She wanted him arrested and brought back personally to court before a justice of the peace,” Brock said.
Cowan is required to appear before the court because Brock has already judicially pre-tried the case and is in a position to resolve it or set a date for trial, neither of which can be done without Cowan.
“I am hesitant to set a trial date and waste those particular resources,” Brock said.
The case will not continue until Cowan shows up or is brought to court. Now that the arrest warrant has been issued, the police might try to track him down at his house over the weekend, Brock explained. Or if he’s pulled over for speeding, or something of that nature, the police will see there’s a warrant out for his arrest when they run his name. He’ll be taken into custody to be brought before a justice of the peace that day if there’s sufficient time or alternatively the next day, and if it’s a weekend he’ll be detained in custody until Monday.
“I just don’t know what’s happened,” Brock said. “He’s failed to meet with me to give me instruction as he wishes to proceed, so I’m in a little bit of a bind.”
