Bathhouse owner upset after judge grants bail to man accused in foiled bombing

The owner of a Notre Dame Avenue bathhouse is troubled after a man accused of planting a pipe bomb outside his club was granted bail.

Erik Lymen Olson, 59, was granted release following a contested bail hearing last Monday.

“I don’t think he should have got out with something like this — at all,” said Christopher Gregoire, owner of AQ Sauna.

Olson was arrested Sept. 12, one day after allegedly planting a pipe bomb outside the sex and lifestyle club.

Olson and his husband, Doug Pomanski, own and operate competing bathhouse Adonis Men’s Spa on Main Street.

A patron arriving at AQ Sauna at about 2:30 a.m. Sept. 11 saw the lit pipe bomb and extinguished it before it detonated, Crown attorney Scott Cooper told provincial court Judge Malcolm McDonald at the bail hearing, noting there were 17 patrons inside the bathhouse at the time.

“Obviously, if it had exploded it would have been a devastating event,” Cooper said. “Mercifully, it did not. That had nothing to do with Mr. Olson. It has everything to do with the luck that there was another witness around who attempted to extinguish the fire and contacted the (police) bomb unit.”

AQ Sauna and Adonis Men’s Spa “are characterized by police as operating in the same alternative community, offering adults a place to have sexual relationships with one another,” Cooper said.

Court heard security video captured a man police allege was Olson leaving the pipe bomb at the rear of AQ Sauna at 2:34 a.m., then fleeing on foot before being picked up a short distance away by a man driving a 2025 Toyota Tacoma. Police later confirmed Olson was the registered owner of the vehicle.

Police arrested him shortly before 2 p.m., Sept. 12, driving in the area of Forrest Avenue and Main Street.

Olson was taken to police headquarters and provided a video statement “admit(ting) to obtaining an incendiary device and placing it behind AQ Sauna, as alleged,” Cooper said. “He explained it was due to a disagreement with the previous owner’s business practices.”

Gregoire, 45, said the disagreement between the parties goes back decades and there were attempts by the owners to resolve the feud over the years but they went nowhere.

Gregoire purchased the business, formerly known as Aquarius Bath House, from Somchai Pengpharsuks earlier this year.

“The fact that one of the things that Erik had said is he did this because he didn’t like how the old owner conducted business and stuff like that,” Gregoire said. “There was nothing wrong with the way the business was conducted, and if there was a problem, that’s not how you go about it.”

Police secured a search warrant for Olson’s home and Adonis and seized a laptop computer, incendiary chemicals and Olson’s vehicle.

The Crown attorney opposed Olson’s release, arguing he poses a danger to the community, the case against him is strong and he faces a lengthy penitentiary sentence if convicted.

“These are incredibly serious charges,” Cooper said. “There is a degree of planning and deliberation that is highly concerning.”

Olson has no prior record and is presumed innocent until the Crown proves otherwise, said defence lawyer Ethan Pollock.

“My learned friend may say that there is a confession that was made,” Pollock said. “The Crown has to establish voluntariness beyond a reasonable doubt. Right now, my client is presumed to have made an involuntary statement until the Crown can prove contrary.”

Pollock described Olson as a “very spiritual” Indigenous man with strong ties to the LGBTTQ+ community.

Pollock provided the judge with a bail plan that included sureties from Olson’s husband and a close friend totalling $50,000, a cash deposit of $30,000 from Olson and a promise to pay $25,000 if he breaches his bail, and a requirement that he wear an electronic ankle monitor.

McDonald accepted the bail plan, calling it “one of the strongest plans for release that I have seen come before the court in some time.”

The judge ordered that Olson abide by a nightly curfew, stay 300 metres away from AQ Sauna and have no contact with Gregoire.

The AQ Sauna owner said he has received many messages of support since the foiled bombing and thanked the community for “holding strong.”

Pomanski said Monday he is glad to have his husband home and is “waiting patiently” for the matter to go through the court process.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca

morgan.modjeski@freepress.mb.ca