No reason was provided in court for why Wolfe wants to erase his 12 guilty pleas in connection with sexual assaults between 2013 and 2021.
Wolfe’s new lawyer, Harvey Neufeld, is expected to make an expungement application during a case management hearing scheduled for Jan. 23, Crown prosecutor Lana Morelli said during Thursday’s appearance in Saskatoon provincial court.
Lawyers must apply to have a hearing to expunge, or withdraw, a guilty plea.
No reason was provided on the record for why Wolfe, 61, wants to erase his guilty pleas in connection with sexual assaults during treatment sessions in Saskatoon, Loon Lake and on the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation between 2013 and 2021.
However, during the first day of his sentencing hearing in October, Wolfe repeatedly denied touching the women for a sexual purpose.
The methods Wolfe used are not consistent with traditional practices and violated the women’s sexual integrity, Morelli said when explaining why the touching meets the criteria for sexual assault.
In an agreed statement of facts presented in court, Morelli outlined that Wolfe was a trusted elder and medicine man when he touched the breasts and genitals of 12 women during what they were told were healing treatments.
Morelli said the women, who were suffering from ailments like depression and cancer, reported being scared of the “bad medicine” Wolfe said he found inside them, and consented to the touching because they trusted the treatments were “traditional and righteous.”
The Crown and Wolfe’s previous lawyer, Loretta Pete-Lambert, had jointly proposed a sentence of nine and a half years.
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