April Dawn Irving

By Lara Fominoff

Back to Milk River

April Irving released from custody

May 11, 2019 | 9:57 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – A 59-year-old woman facing 14 charges including cruelty to animals and causing or permitting them to be in distress, has been released from jail on a $1,000 no-cash surety.

April Dawn Irving appeared via CCTV from the Lethbridge Correctional Centre Friday, May 10, clutching a stack of paperwork, but said little as the proceedings unfolded.

Prior to her release, Irving’s lawyer Bjoern Wolkmann made two applications. The first included a request for a publication ban on the name, address and location where she and her surety will reside. The second application was to bar the public, including the media, from the hearing entirely.

Wolkmann told the court Irving had received death threats while in custody, and that because her case had received significant media exposure in the past, she now had the right to privacy.

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Judge Derek Redman denied both applications, telling the courtroom there was no evidence to support the death threat concerns or potential vigilantism. Further, he added the media and the public were entitled to be in the courtroom for the proceedings, and the mere fact that Irving did not want them there or to know where she will live, was not sufficient to grant her request of excluding them.

Irving will once again live on a property in Milk River, and must abide by several conditions including keeping the peace, living at a specified address in the town, attending court when required to do so, and not having, possessing, or caring for any household pets including dogs.

Her lawyer will be back in court to arrange for a Pre-Trial Conference May 27.

CASE HISTORY

Irving has so far pleaded guilty to one count of failing to appear and was sentenced to 30 days time served.

In early 2016, a warrant was issued for her arrest, after she ignored two orders to appear in court. Saskatchewan RCMP released a photo of a person they believed was Irving in late 2016, and she was spotted in Jamaica in 2017.

She was located by RCMP in Stonewall, Manitoba in January 2019 and returned to Lethbridge to face her outstanding charges.

A recent psychiatric assessment was completed at the Southern Alberta Forensic Psychiatry Centre, the results of which found that she was not likely suffering from any mental illness at the time of the alleged offences and that she is fit to stand trial.

Irving was charged with animal cruelty in early 2015, after 201 dogs were seized from her property near Milk River, along with five more that were found dead.

The dogs were discovered starving, dehydrated and chained to stakes in a yard.