Judge finds officer gave false evidence with intention to mislead the Court – Client Acquitted on all PPT Charges

Our client was charged with 4 counts of Possession for the Purpose of Trafficking in Fentanyl, Carfentanil, and Methamphetamine, and Cocaine.  These charges arose out of a vehicle stop. Our client was pulled over by police to check the status of his license; at the time he was stopped our client was known to police. This officer claimed he was able to observe a pipe in a bag on the floor of the backseat of the vehicle and that he was able to observe drug residue within this pipe. As a result, this officer arrested our client for possession of a controlled substance and a further search of the vehicle was conducted. This officer was vigorously cross-examined at trial about his observations of the pipe and of the substances he claimed could observe within the pipe. The judge did not accept the officer’s evidence about observing drugs in the pipe and did not accept that this officer had subjective grounds to arrest our client.

After he was arrested, our client was subjected to a strip search at the Nanaimo RCMP detachment. At the preliminary inquiry, officers testified that this strip search took place at the booking counter. After the preliminary inquiry defence counsel requested the video footage from the detachment which showed this search in fact took place in a phone room. Officers testified at trial that they decided to conduct the strip search because our client “slammed” something down on the counter after being asked to empty his pockets. The detachment video was played in court, and it was obvious that our client never “slammed” anything on a counter or anywhere else while he was in police custody. The judge found that the officer who testified about this behaviour did so to deliberately mislead the Court.  Ultimately the judge accepted defence counsel’s submissions and found that there had been several breaches of our clients s. 8, 9, and 10b Charter rights. After receiving that decision, Crown counsel directed a stay of proceedings.

2023 BCSC 1786

Outcome: Stay of Proceedings. All charges dropped after judges voir dire ruling.