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ONTARIO. PROVINCIAL COURT JUDGES
Justice Ayers Couto
Ontario Court of Justice
East Mall
With so many twists and turns and sudden unexpected reversals, witnessing a trial in the courtroom of this judge is the judicial equivalent of a roller coaster--with verdicts that produce as much nausea among defendants and lawyers as an amusement park ride. A Roy McMurtry bench appointee -- a group of appointees said to include an astronomically high number of bad Ontario judges -- Couto practised in the low-rent fields of landlord and tenant law and real estate after coming to Canada from India in 1963.
One Toronto lawyer says Couto is widely known for judgments that are uninformed and not well thought out.
But at least with this judge, there's every chance that the prosecution will go down to incomprehensible defeat, because Couto can get it wrong for either side with equally insouciant ease.
Two years ago, for example, Couto presided over the case of Gary Porteous, an Etobicoke tow-truck driver who had been robbed and attacked by four knife-wielding youths who held him captive in the trunk of his own car before he managed to escape.
Yet Couto acquitted the assailant who wound up in his courtroom, only a few hours after the other assailants were convicted, a discrepancy that the Crown quickly moved to correct by filing an appeal.
During a recent day in Couto's courtroom, the judge presided over a complicated case in which an elderly man accused two grandsons of threatening him with a knife, part of a twisted, longstanding family dispute whose roots include a property argument in India.
Both defendants were clean-cut and soft-spoken, and one of them offered evidence indicating that he was out of the country on the day of the knife-waving incident in which he was charged.
On the other hand, the complainant was proven to have a history of making false accusations of threats by other family members with whom he is at odds. Indeed, so inconclusive was the prosecution side's evidence that the Crown attorney accepted the defence lawyer's request for extreme leniency, suggesting that justice might best be served by the issuance of a peace bond against the two young men.
When Couto, after a few minutes of deliberation, found both defendants guilty -- leaving them with criminal records -- a look of astonishment was evident even on the face of the court reporter, although she was still wearing her transcriber's mask.