Steve Vogelsang seeking preliminary hearing on Alberta bank robbery charges

The lawyer for a former Winnipeg broadcaster charged with robbing banks in Alberta and Saskatchewan is seeking a preliminary inquiry before trial on the Alberta charges.

SteveVogelsang, 54, is accused of robbing two banks in Medicine Hat, Alta., three in Regina and one in Saskatoon.

Vogelsang appeared in court in Medicine Hat on Tuesday in connection with the Alberta charges.

Greg White, Vogelsang's lawyer, said he was seeking a preliminary inquiry, but the Crown said that would take longer than the usual one day. The case was adjourned for a month to co-ordinate a two-day preliminary hearing in the future.

Vogelsang served as news director and longtime sports anchor atCKY, now known asCTVWinnipeg, beginning in the early1990s. He became a journalism instructor at Red River Collegein 2002 and resigned in 2011.

White says he would like to see a preliminary inquiry before the trial begins so he can get a sense of the Crown's case against Vogelsang.

"The issue here, of course, is identity," Whitesaid.

"[The witnesses would] have to come and testify, and who knows? You might get somebody on the stand and look at Mr.Vogelsangsitting beside me in the courtroom and say, 'No, that's not the guy.'"

Preliminary inquiries are also helpful for the Crown to see its own case, White added.

"There's people that are saying that Stephen Vogelsang did these robberies," he said. "And our position is, you're going to have to prove that."

Vogelsang will next appear in court in Medicine Hat on Aug. 23.

Pleads guilty to 4 charges

Vogelsangentered guilty pleas on Tuesday to four Manitoba charges of breaching conditions of release while in Winnipeg, which White says are unrelated to and predate his client's robbery charges.

"Stephen had conditions not to contact an individual in Winnipeg when he was living there, and long before these robbery charges came out he sent a text message or something," White saidTuesday. "They're just very minor in nature and that's why they were resolved today."

The charges stemmed from Vogelsang sending text messages to his ex-wife despite conditions not to do so, he said.

White says the charges had previously been waived from Manitoba to Alberta which requires the accused to agree to plead guilty but Vogelsang hadn't formally entered the pleas until Tuesday.

He was ordered to pay a $200 fine for each of the four charges.

White says he's also looking at the possibility of waiving Vogelsang's Saskatchewan charges to Alberta but only if Vogelsang were to ultimately plead guilty to those charges, which has not yet been determined.