Todd Cowan was released from custody after meeting bail terms that he pay $1,000 and promise attend his next court date. A warrant for his arrest was issued Tuesday, and the former Woolwich mayor turned himself in to the Waterloo Region Courthouse in Kitchener at 9 a.m. on Friday.
He was held in court custody until that afternoon’s bail hearing.
An arrest warrant for Cowan was issued July 21 by Justice of the Peace Zeljana Radulovic when he failed to appear for a scheduled hearing.
He claims he missed the court ordered trial date because of a scheduling error. When asked to comment after the bail hearing, Cowan declined to do so.
“My lawyer told me not to say anything,” Cowan said.
He will return to court August 11 to set a date for his trial to answer to charges of fraud and breach of trust.
News of the arrest warrant became public at 7 a.m. on Friday here: https://observerxtra.com/arrest-warrant-issued-for-todd-cowan.
Cowan had failed to appear to Tuesday despite the court ordering him to be there. He’s accused of double billing the township and the Region of Waterloo more than $2,700 for expenses during his time as mayor and regional councillor.
He claimed the billing was an accounting error on his part, paying the money back last August.
On Tuesday, Cowan’s lawyer, Thomas Brock, explained to the court he had made more than 30 attempts to contact Cowan about the court date, with no success.
“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,” Brock said.
Cowan must 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 present.
Brock had initially asked to be removed from the case as counsel, but changed his mind once the arrest warrant was issued.
Once the trail begins, it is estimated to take four days to complete.
Cowan’s next court appearance is set for August 11 at 9 a.m. in courtroom 106 at the Waterloo Region Courthouse.
