Image Credit: Facebook/Rick Eldridge
Armchair Mayor

ROTHENBURGER: Court ruling ends two years of stress for security guard

Mar 4, 2023 | 6:42 AM

RICK ELDRIDGE got an early birthday present this week when an assault charge was taken off the books almost two years after an incident that led to it.

On Wednesday, he was instead ordered to do 40 hours of community service and avoid contact with the man he got into a physical confrontation with at the 48 Victoria Street West storage facility used by the street-entrenched.

“The world was lifted from my shoulders” when he was declared not guilty of assault, the security guard said as we sat down to talk about the good news.

Eldridge, who turns 58 this month, got a lot of media attention after he tried to move the guy away from a no-loitering area at the storage building and was caught on cellphone video putting him to the ground and kicking him.

Eldridge later said he himself was assaulted, that the man had spat at him and pushed him before he reacted. Some people were outraged by his actions, others have regarded him as something of a folk hero protecting the street.

The ruling from Provincial Court Judge Raymond Phillips is that, on that March day in 2021, Eldridge “did commit an offence of fear of injury/ damage to property” contrary to Section 810 of the Criminal Code. (Eldridge acknowledges that one of his kicks made contact with the man’s bicycle wheel.)

To briefly recap the aftermath, the incident resulted in Eldridge losing his job and temporarily losing his security licence. Seven months after it happened, RCMP decided to recommend the assault charge.

In the wake of the 48 Victoria Street West scrap, he says, he received at least 20 death threats originating from the area. A couple of months later he was set upon by several assailants and beaten up, receiving a gash on his forehead that required stitches at the hospital, leaving him with a scar.

“I’m pretty tough,” says the six ft. five inch Eldridge, but there were too many of them.

“I called the cops. No cops ever showed up.”

He had to drive himself to Royal Inland.

Though Eldridge found new employment with a different company, Ronik Security, the charge put his life in limbo, a seemingly endless round of court appearances, having to represent himself because he was working and ineligible for legal aid.

In one appearance last month, he explained to the court he was trying unsuccessfully to get subpoenas served on the owner and a former colleague at Lapper Security, the firm he was working for in March 2021. He was also seeking records from his former employer relating to the incident.

Then, a chance came to end it. With prosecutors and judges having changed over time, he was offered the option of a peace bond. This past Wednesday, the day of his trial, that option became reality.

Wednesday’s decision means Eldridge has been found not guilty of the assault charge, has no criminal record and is instead under an order by the court to do certain things over the next few months — namely the community service, the no-contact order and some other standard stuff.

That beats having to defend an assault charge. While first-time common assault doesn’t usually involve jail time, that possibility — or a heavy fine — was hanging over Eldridge’s head since March 2021.

“I was the poster child for being mean to homeless people, which I wasn’t,” he now says, adding that he did his best for the homeless on Victoria Street West, sometimes even helping them find shelter. At the same time, he was regarded by the businesses there as someone they could rely on, who had their backs.

When I talked to him last November, he was unable to find a place to stay that he could afford, and was sleeping in his car. That hasn’t changed, except that he’s lost his Victoria Street West parking space because the friend who owned a business there has moved away.

Nowadays, his nightly parking space is anywhere he can find one on a quiet, dark street. One night he was rousted by a cop who told him he couldn’t sleep in his car.

“I told him it was a motor home,” Eldridge says, smiling. “He said, ‘This isn’t a motor home.’ I said, well, it has a motor and it’s my home.”

It’s been a rough winter in the “motor home.” Four quilts and waking up every couple of hours to run the motor for a few minutes have gotten him through the cold nights.

He’s been taking some time off work but he expects to be back on the job with Ronik soon. Last year, he told me that as soon as his legal issues were resolved, he planned to leave Kamloops.

He still intends to do that after his community service and a couple of small claims he wants to file. He’s thinking of Whitehorse, where he used to live, or Calgary. Whichever it is, he’ll keep doing security work.

Meanwhile, things have gotten worse, not better, on the street he tried to defend. Eldridge keeps tabs on what’s going on there and at City Hall.

“People go down and stand in front of council because they’re sick and tired of being ignored,” he says of recent concerns expressed by merchants at the public inquiries section of the agenda.

Eldridge, though, is grateful for the support he received from those merchants and the friends who have helped him out. And now, a lot of the stress of two very bad years has been relieved.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops, alternate TNRD director and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.

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