Michael Hatch pleads not guilty on the 1st day of trial
37-year-old Iqaluit man, who was director of court services, faces six charges including assault against his ex-wife
An Iqaluit man, who was director of court services when police charged him, is on trial for allegedly assaulting his ex-wife, a justice of peace, in 2023. (File photo by Jeff Pelletier)
Members of Nunavut’s legal community gathered in an Iqaluit courtroom on Wednesday to witness their former boss and colleague stand trial in connection to an alleged incident two years ago.
Michael Hatch, 37, faces six charges including, four weapons offences, forcible confinement and assaulting his ex-wife, Nunavut Justice of the Peace Amanda Soper.
Hatch was director of court services when he was charged. That job made him responsible for managing and administering court operations, including the security of the Nunavut Justice Centre in Iqaluit. He pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
Prior to his work at the courthouse, he served in various positions in Nunavut’s Justice Department and as the chief bylaw enforcement officer for the City of Iqaluit.
Hatch, a man with greying hair and a beard, appeared in court in a blue three-piece suit alongside his lawyer Scott Cowan
Because of Hatch’s connections to the Nunavut legal system, the case was prosecuted by “conflict” Crown lawyer Sobia Virk.
On the night between Sept. 16 and 17, Hatch and Soper had a few friends over at their house in the Road to Nowhere area, Soper told the court in her testimony.
By that time, the two had separated after Soper caught her husband cheating two months earlier, but they continued to live together.
They were having wine and recreational marijuana. Around midnight, as the friends started leaving, Soper noticed that Hatch’s demeanour changed and that something was “off,” she said.
When the two were alone, Soper went to the master bedroom. Hatch followed, started insulting her and slammed the door over and over until it broke, Soper said.
After that, she says he grabbed two ceramic candleholders and hit himself on the head and started bleeding.
“Go ahead, call the cops, I’m gonna tell them you did this to me,” Soper recalled him saying.
Yet, when she tried to call the police, he took away her phone and didn’t let her get out of the house. At some point Soper overheard him muttering, “Where did I put it?”
She says she didn’t know what he was referring to, but when Hatched pushed her and exited the house, Soper also ran out of the building.
She went to her neighbours’ house across the street, banging on their door, but nobody responded.
“Get back here, you’re gonna regret this,” Soper recalled Hatch saying with a gun underneath his chin.
“I thought he was gonna kill me,” she said.
“And I was under the impression that if I didn’t get back there he was gonna kill himself and that would be my fault.”
After that, Soper says she convinced Hatch to put down his gun and entered the house. Hatch cleaned the remains of the ceramic candleholders and washed the blood-stained clothes.
Soper said she didn’t report Hatch to the police at the time because she felt “embarrassed” and wanted to “protect” him.
Shortly after the incident, she told her neighbours what had happened and asked them to hold onto all the guns that Hatch possessed in the house, including the handgun that she said he threatened her with.
The two neighbours later confirmed that in their testimonies.
In the months afterward, Soper applied for emergency staff housing with the Government of Nunavut and moved out of their mutual house.
She only made the report to the police a year after the incident, in September 2024.
Cowan suggested she made the report because she was infuriated after learning that Hatch’s mistress, “woman who ruined their marriage,” was home-sitting their former mutual house, while he was on duty travel.
Soper denied it, saying she had spent a year in therapy after the incident and no longer wanted to “protect” her ex-husband.
To Cowan’s question on whether she thought Hatch’s “sad and pathetic” disposition that night was a mental health breakdown, Soper said she couldn’t evaluate his mental state.
The trial is set to continue on Thursday morning with both Crown and defence presenting their arguments.
The neighbours willingly accepted to hold onto handguns(restricted), and not inform the police? That is quite shocking. I get why the victim did what she did, but the neighbours accepting the handguns to hide them, that is quite interesting.
My thoughts exactly, they knew she was in danger, withheld that information and holding firearms including a restricted firearm? I get “I was just respecting her wishes.” But come on, I wouldn’t want a neighbour like that, having said that I just see what the news portrays but it seems pretty cut and dry to me.
The article doesn’t say the neighbours “willingly accepted” the guns, or even that they accepted them at all. It says they were *asked* to take them. They may indeed have accepted them (I have no idea), but they could also have refused. The story doesn’t say. Unless you have info from another source, you’re making an assumption there.
Oh really about the family problem in court house. This is why so many injustice being going on by those who say who do there work. And look at it carefully, they ex working in court system and now being in court after all that work. See how they are working. That’s what people don’t like to hear about them self.
What was she wearing in court tho? Seems like a pretty important detail missing from this stellar article.
She was probably wearing something fairly normal. She also isn’t the one on trial.
Describing what the accused was wearing is actually noteworthy since a 3-piece suit is a little overdressed and cocky. It’s also consistent, for those who’ve met or dealt with him, with his character of being egotistical.
Somebody should ask city council what they think of all this.