Successful Nunavut carver gets time served for 2012 charges

Billy Merkosak gets 95 days for two assaults and one sexual assault, all of which were deemed of a “minor nature” compared to other crimes which come before the Nunavut court, said Justice Bonnie Tulloch Dec. 7. Merkosak’s total sentence of 95 days has already been served in pre-trial custody. (FILE PHOTO)

Billy Merkosak, a well-known carver from Pond Inlet, pleaded guilty to two counts of assault and one count of sexual assault at the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit Dec. 7.

The convictions relate to three separate complainants and incidents in Pond Inlet between 2011 and 2012.

“On behalf of Mr. Merkosak, as agent and counsel, I enter a plea of guilty,” defence lawyer James Morton said to each charge read out by Justice Bonnie Tulloch.

Merkosak, 53, did not appear in the Iqaluit courtroom Dec. 7 through no fault of his own, Tulloch said. His appearance on the next Pond Inlet circuit court was moved to an earlier date in Iqaluit instead.

Two of the convictions — one for assault and one for sexual assault — relate to incidents with employees of the local co-op store, the court heard.

Merkosak, highly intoxicated both times, groped a male and then a female in two separate incidents at the store, Crown prosecutor Barry McLaren said in an agreed statement of facts.

For grabbing the male “on the bum” after “pantsing him,” Tulloch sentenced Merkosak to 20 days in prison.

For grabbing a female co-op worker “on her vaginal area outside of her clothes,” Tulloch sentenced Merkosak to 45 days in prison.

The third conviction — for an assault on Merkosak’s wife after she confronted him about a love letter to another woman — Tulloch sentenced Merkosak to 30 days in prison.

All sentences, to be served consecutively for a total of 95 days, have been credited by time-served, Tulloch said.

That’s because Merkosak spent about three months in detention recently for multiple historic sex crime charges stemming from incidents alleged to have occurred when Merkosak was a youth in Pond Inlet in the 1970s and 1980s.

Nunavut’s Crown prosecution office stayed all 26 of those charges, however, citing a lack of reasonable prospect of conviction.

Morton said his client has cleaned up his act since these more recent charges were laid in 2012.

“The difficulties come up, frankly, because when he drinks he does very stupid things,” Morton said.

But Merkosak has been sober since 2012, Morton added, which is crucial to Merkosak’s work as a carver and his ability to provide for his family.

“I said to him, look, you’re a man in your 50s and this isn’t how you behave. And he agreed,” Morton said.

In handing out her sentence, Tulloch said she took a number of factors into consideration, including Merkosak’s good behaviour since 2012, the long gap between 1995 and 2012 in Merkosak’s criminal record and the relatively minor nature of the charges compared to many other assault and sexual assault cases handled by the Nunavut court.

“I hope, Mr. Morton, that you will relate to [Merkosak] that it’s the court’s hope that he’s now grown up, taken responsibility and put this behind him,” Tulloch said.

Merkosak’s carvings have been sold around the world, Morton said in court, sometimes for large sums.

But that doesn’t mean Merkosak makes a lot of money, the lawyer added.

At a preliminary inquiry held in Pond Inlet last year into the historical sex charges Merkosak faced at the time, the court heard that one of Merkosak’s carving sold in B.C. for $18,000 but the carver only received $500 from that sale.