Lawyer who attacked family during marijuana-induced psychosis cleared to return to practice
Mark Phillips must be supervised by another lawyer and abstain from the drug under conditions imposed by LSO
A Toronto personal injury lawyer who attacked a family with a baseball bat during an episode of marijuana-induced psychosis has been cleared to return to practice by the Law Society of Ontario.
Mark Phillips pleaded guilty to one count of assault causing bodily harm following the Dec. 7, 2017 incident in St. Thomas, Ont., which was captured on video and attracted considerable media attention at the time.
A CBC report on Phillips’ sentencing says the lawyer lunged at the Colombian-Canadian Estepa family – who were speaking Spanish – telling them they were terrorists and not welcome in the country.
The news outlet reported that Phillips originally faced a more serious aggravated assault charge before his guilty plea to a lesser offence when the father Sergio Estepa was left with cracked ribs and bruising after stepping in to protect his 13-year-old son.
According to the story, Ontario Court Justice John Skowronski accepted the attack was not a hate crime after hearing evidence that Phillips’ mental health problems were exacerbated by smoking several joints on the day of the incident.
The judge ultimately granted Phillips a conditional discharge with three years probation – including 240 hours of community service – rejecting Crown counsel’s call for a suspended sentence that would have left him with a criminal record, says the CBC story.
"To the Estepa family, I say this is not normalcy," Justice Skowronski told the court. "This is an aberration that took place because of a mental illness."
According to an order recently posted on the law society’s website, a hearing panel found that Phillips was incapacitated between January 2018 and December 2020, but was now free to return to practice, subject to several conditions.
In addition to abstaining from marijuana, the order says Phillips must abide by a treatment plan and undergo random drug screening for the next five years. His first year back in practice must also be under the supervision of a lawyer approved by the LSO’s executive director.
Despite receiving clearance to return to practice, Phillips still faces an outstanding disciplinary hearing based on his previous conduct. A notice of application filed in September 2019 alleges that both the St. Thomas attack and an earlier incident at the Vaughan Mills shopping mall constituted conduct unbecoming a barrister or solicitor.
The LSO notice says Phillips entered into a peace bond as a result of the October 2017 incident at the mall, when the law society claims he communicated with staff in a “threatening or otherwise inappropriate manner.”
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