By Michael Potestio, Kamloops This Week.
A B.C. Supreme Court judge has ruled that a Kamloops man convicted of beating a teenager nearly to death seven years ago deliberately sold his home to his parents for a dollar shortly after the attack in an effort to hide his assets from a potential lawsuit.
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As a result, Justice Joel Groves has ordered the sale of the house in Brocklehurst be done by the mother of the victim, Sue Simpson, who will receive the proceeds. The home’s latest assessed value according to BC Assessment is $973,000.
Kristopher Teichrieb beat Jessie Simpson with a bat in June 2016, leaving the then-18-year-old in a coma and with serious, lifelong brain damage. For the past six years, Jessie Simpson has been confined to a wheelchair, will likely never walk again and will require 24-hour care for the rest of his life.
In 2021, a civil suit awarded Jessie Simpson nearly $7 million from Teichrieb after he was found civilly responsible for damages.
Lawyers representing the Simpson family accused Teichrieb of hiding assets after the attack in anticipation of that lawsuit. Teichrieb sold his $587,000 Clifford Avenue house to his parents for $1 seven months after the assault. In 2016, prior to the assault, Teichrieb, who owned two-thirds of the Clifford Avenue home, paid his parents $100,000 for the one-third of the property they owned to become the sole owner prior to selling it back to them after the assault.
In his ruling of Thursday, Feb. 16, Justice Groves ordered the sale of the house to be done by Sue Simpson beginning on April 1 and said Teichrieb’s parents must be out of the home by April 30. Court heard Teichrieb’s parents currently live on the ground floor of the house, with the upper floor under renovation. Court heard Teichrieb’s mother, Cheryl, is caring for her husband, Cornelius, who is infirm after suffering a stroke. Court heard Cheryl wishes to leave Kamloops.
Kristopher Teichrieb was last known to be residing in a halfway house as part of his sentence for assaulting Jessie Simpson.
Court heard the house is Teichrieb’s lone asset, with his company, KCR Construction, being taken over by his father after the attack and eventually collapsing.
Teichrieb pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and began serving a seven-year sentence in 2018. He had originally been charged with attempted murder. In the spring of 2021, he was granted statutory release and moved to a halfway house.
Jessie Simpson, then 18, was celebrating high school graduation on June 19, 2016. He became separated from friends and ended up on Teichrieb’s property, near the corner of Holt Street and Clifford Avenue in Brocklehurst, in the early morning hours.
Teichrieb attacked the teen with his fists and a metal baseball bat.
Teichrieb’s neighbours called 911 to report the June 19, 2016, attack, the bulk of which took place in the middle of the street after Jessie Simpson attempted to flee. Neighbours told police they could hear the teen crying and saw him covered in blood. When police arrived on scene minutes later, they found Teichrieb standing over a bloodied, motionless Jessie Simpson, saying, “I got him.”
The teen’s injuries were significant. His mother said the baseball bat attack left a dent so large in her son’s head she can place her hand within it. Her son lives at a care home in Kamloops, but this past year has been able to spend weekends at his mother’s house in Savona.
Sue Simpson, along with friends of the family, continues to organize various fundraising activities to help pay for her son’s care costs. None of the funds owed to Simpson by Teichrieb have been paid to date, Groves said in court.
In the weeks leading up to the attack, Teichrieb had threatened vigilante action after calling police to report a number of incidents of theft and trespassing. Police warned him not to take matters into his own hands.
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