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The last time Michael Stacey sat in the prisoner’s dock in provincial courtroom No. 7 in St. John’s, he was charged with threatening to blow up the emergency department at the Health Sciences Centre. This time, he’s accused of a serious assault on another man with a beer bottle.
Stacey, 42, had cuts to his face and head as he appeared briefly in court Monday. He’ll be back this morning for a bail hearing.
He was arrested over the weekend and charged with four offences, all alleged to have happened in St. John’s on Friday: one charge of aggravated assault against a man; one charge of assault with a weapon (a beer bottle) against the same man; two charges of threatening to harm different police officers and their families; and one charge of breaching a probation order handed to him on May 19.
That was the day Stacey was sentenced to a 10 1/2-month jail sentence for crimes he had committed just before Christmas. With credit given for the time he had spent in custody on remand, he didn’t have much left to serve.
Stacey had entered the emergency department of the Health Sciences Centre and told a staff member he wanted to speak to members of the media. If reporters weren’t there in 30 minutes, he said, he’d start detonating bombs he was carrying.
Stacey wasn’t carrying any explosives, nor did he have access to any that day. Staff and emergency responders had no way of knowing this, however, and the emergency room was shut down, with patients turned away until Stacey was escorted from the premises in handcuffs.
Stacey also threatened six RNC officers who attended the scene, pointing a finger at each of them and telling them one by one he was going to kill them.
At the lockup, Stacey had used his fist — which was in a cast — to strike a correctional officer in the face.
Stacey told the court he had no memory of that day, since he was in a state of substance-induced psychosis at the time. A report prepared by a forensic psychiatrist who assessed Stacey after his arrest corroborated that possibility, and noted a history of other mental health issues.
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