After years of terrorizing women on buses, a repeat exhibitionist was caught masturbating in a park. But the man got off with a lenient sentence due to the possibly excessive force used by the police.
“Thank your lawyer who did an excellent job negotiating this sentence. Today, normally, it would have been a severe prison sentence,” concluded Judge Salvatore Mascia, endorsing without enthusiasm the common suggestion of the parties: a lenient sentence of six months of home confinement, followed by probation. of three years.
Rosenthal Jr Dorleans pleaded guilty on May 3 to one count of indecent actions in a public place committed in the summer of 2022. The 35-year-old man was roaming around Thomas-Chapais Park, in the east of Montreal, when he targeted a woman who was accompanying her 4-year-old nephew.
Dorleans stands three meters from the victim while pretending to talk on the phone. The woman then realizes that the man is masturbating while watching her. Panicked, she managed to scare him away. A month later, she saw him again and called 911.
Police officers appear quickly, but by pure chance. They start chasing the exhibitionist. The race is spread over 500 meters. The police use their OC spray, but the winds blow the cayenne pepper back at them.
Eventually, a police officer managed to spray Dorleans in the face. But the product has no effect on him. The police ended up grabbing him by the neck and putting him on the ground. But the fugitive resists. A police officer places a knee on his shoulder blades. When he refuses to place his arms, the police officer sprays him in the eyes with spray.
“Excessive force”, lenient sentence
The defense had filed a Charter motion to end the legal process due to the alleged “excessive force” used by the police during the intervention. Without this request, the sentence imposed could have been “more significant”, agrees Crown prosecutor Me Sylvie Barrette.
Rosenthal Jr Dorleans is an inveterate exhibitionist. In recent years, he has increased his indecent actions on Société de transport de Montréal (STM) buses, to the point of being banned from the network four times. He could display his penis very close to his victims’ faces on the bus or rub against women. He once grabbed a teenage girl’s butt.
Already in 2020, Judge Salvatore Mascia was skeptical of the accused’s chances of rehabilitation. “I would not pledge my mortgage on Monsieur,” said the judge.
At the beginning of May, Judge Mascia asked the accused what he could do to avoid returning to court.
“I have had a different life thought since 2019. It helped me a lot not to do it again on the buses. I never did that again. I made a lot of effort,” said the accused, defended by Me Charles Schiller.
“I am far from convinced,” replied the judge.
“You won’t see me again,” Dorleans concluded