Judge's verdict reveals comic's sad descent-Rosato Found Guilty Of Harassing Wife; Committed

Judge's verdict reveals comic's sad descent
Rosato Found Guilty Of Harassing Wife; Committed
Joseph Brean, National Post
Published: Thursday, September 06, 2007

KINGSTON, ONT. - Tony Rosato, 52, the former comic actor whose turns on SCTV, Saturday Night Live and Night Heat made him famous in the 1980s, was found guilty by a judge yesterday of harassing his wife, Leah Rosato, 30.

The verdict brings to a close a two-and-a-half-year legal saga for Mr. Rosato, who has a mental illness, perhaps a form of schizophrenia, that causes him to believe his wife and infant daughter have been replaced by impostors. He has been in jail, denied bail, since May 5, 2005.

Granted a conditional discharge by Mr. Justice Gordon Thomson, which will spare him the criminal record that would have made future acting work in the United States impossible, Mr. Rosato was promptly committed last night, under a probation order, to a psychiatric hospital in Kingston.

He made some confused protestations in court, demanding the jury trial he previously refused and calling the ruling "horrendously unfair," but eventually went quietly, even thanking the judge at one point.

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=2fc21502-f905-4409-8a86-603c4632f2e9&k=48220

avoid a criminal record for him... I think I do remember him from SNL way back when...

I hope he gets the right kind of help too. And that his poor wife gets the support she needs after all this.