ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — Taken in context, the threatening words a New Harbour man is alleged to have left on the voicemail of a Crown prosecutor may not actually constitute a threat, a St. John's judge said Monday.
Judge Mike Madden granted 63-year-old Edward Gellately bail, with a number of conditions, including that he pay a $5,000 deposit before he is released.
Gellately was arrested last week and charged with threatening a female prosecutor — specifically, engaging in conduct to provoke fear in a justice system participant in order to impede her in the performance of her job — as well as charges of careless use of a firearm and careless storage of a firearm. Monday afternoon, a second charge of threatening the prosecutor was laid.
The court heard Gellately had attempted to obtain from the Crown a copy of the disclosure in a court case involving his son, but was denied. After being escorted from the Crown's offices in Harbour Grace and St. John's on Nov. 28, Gellately reportedly left a voicemail for a specific prosecutor.
"I was talking to you about the disclosure which you didn't release for (my son)," Gellately is alleged to have said in the recording. "I'm pursuing that to the fullest extent of whatever remedies I have against your department, you personally. I will see you on Monday morning. I will see you in court and I want the disclosure document given to me right there in the courtroom. I'll ask for it with the judge present. I'll wait for him to come in. ... You won't have to face me and talk to me because you're afraid to and you figure you're going to breach some kind of confidentiality."
At the end of the voicemail, Gellately reportedly said, "I'll see you Monday morning. Be prepared, I will be with my double barrels and I will be going after everything I can for this injustice to my son from you, the Crown attorney's office, the Justice Department."
Gellately is alleged to have later told police he wasn't out to destroy the prosecutor's career, but wasn't "finished with her yet."
"I'll see you Monday morning. Be prepared, I will be with my double barrels and I will be going after everything I can for this injustice to my son from you, the Crown attorney's office, the Justice Department."
The firearms charges were laid in relation to a police visit to Gellately's home the next day as a result of the alleged threat, during which they surrounded it. During Gellately's bail hearing the court heard that he was observed moving toward the door with a firearm, which he put away when police identified themselves. Madden said it wasn't clear whether or not Gellately knew it was the police outside.
"I was very concerned about the fact that, if true, an individual who threatened to show up at court 'with my double barrels' later on that day or the next day reacted to a police presence on his property by getting his .22 semi-automatic," Madden said, noting none of the allegations have yet been proven. "I thought if he did say, 'I'm getting my double barrels,' and he did walk out the front door knowing the police were there, with his rifle, then he'd have a very hard time indeed getting bail in my courtroom."
Upon reviewing the evidence presented at the hearing, however, Madden wasn't convinced Gellately, if he had left the voicemail, had been talking about a gun and not speaking metaphorically.
Madden released Gellately on bail, with conditions that he pay the cash deposit, abide by a curfew, have no contact with the prosecutor and stay away from the Crown's offices in St. John's and Harbour Grace, and surrender any weapons. He will make his next court appearance Feb. 3.
Madden stressed a number of times that he was dealing only with the information presented for bail, and that a trial judge might still have grounds for a conviction on the same facts later on, even if it was found that Gellately wasn't speaking about a gun.
Evidence presented at a bail hearing is often banned from publication, but in this case, no such ban was requested.
