A Stanley Cup rioter with one of the highest profiles -- and the lightest sentence -- has pleaded not guilty to breaching conditions of that sentence.
UBC student Camille Cacnio, 23, who was caught laughing on camera as she looted two pairs of men’s dress pants from a tuxedo shop, didn’t appear in Vancouver provincial court on Monday.
Her lawyer, Jason Tarnow, entered the plea on her behalf and said her defence will be “lawful reason.”
Crown Prosecutor Daniel Porte said he will call one or two witnesses. The reason for the alleged breach wasn’t disclosed.
A one-day trial was set for March 15.
In September, Cacnio was given a suspended sentence plus two years probation with a 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew for the first year, plus other conditions.
It is the only suspended sentence given to the two dozen people who confessed to rioting during the five hours after the Vancouver Canucks’ loss in the Stanley Cup final on June 15, 2011, and who have been sentenced so far.
“There is no need to teach Ms. Cacnio a severe lesson” by sentencing her to jail, Judge Joseph Galati said in his judgment, because she “suffered unpleasant consequences” after a video of her was posted online.
Court heard that Cacnio, after drinking at a friend’s downtown home, walked with friends to where the riot had been going on for about an hour and watched a vehicle burn, “laughing and apparently enjoying herself.”
She then stole the pants from Black and Lee and told police she thought it was “just funny at the time.”
Porte had asked for a jail sentence of 15 to 30 days, to be served on weekends, even though her involvement was at the “lowest end of the spectrum of persons charged.”
Tarnow, had recommended a conditional discharge, which would have spared her a record, arguing the notoriety she suffered would deter others.
Tarnow noted she had lost three jobs because of the infamy of the arrest and charges, and had to temporarily leave university one course short of her degree because of the harassment of some students.
Galati agreed that jail time wasn’t necessary, calling the stigma Cacnio suffered because of “significant” media attention and online comments enough of a general deterrent to others.
Galati also said Cacnio has been “unjustly persecuted by the would-be pundits of the social media.”
