Cocaine dealer freed due to trial delay

An "unrepentant" Prince George cocaine dealer has been allowed to walk away from his conviction because the legal process took almost four years between his arrest and conviction.

In a scathing judgment, Provincial Court Judge Michael Brecknell blames a serious lack of court resources for the delay.

"The fact that an unrepentant drug dealer who has been convicted of possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking; and while involved in the trial of this matter has been charged with further like offences; should now be able to be free of the consequences of this very serious offence because the judicial system could not accommodate his trial within a reasonable time should alarm and concern the community," Brecknell wrote.

"However, all citizens, even drug dealers, are entitled to the full protection of their rights under the Charter."

In October, 2007, Joseph Hammer and his brother were arrested after trying to sell cocaine for cash or firearms to an undercover police officer.

Hammer's brother, Jim Hammer, was convicted and sentenced to two years in prison on April 1, 2008.

But Joseph Hammer's case began a years-long meander through three scheduled, then cancelled, trial dates. The case was originally only estimated to take two and a half days of court time to be heard.

Among the evidence was Hammer's own statement outlining how he operated his drug distribution system, why he only sold powdered cocaine and his unwillingness to sell to children or pregnant women.

But Hammer's trial was delayed over and over, once because other matters at the court were given priority, again because Hammer's defence lawyer was ordered to finish off another trial and again over a disclosure matter.

Brecknell concluded in his ruling that the case was delayed by 42 months. Some of the delay was reasonable, he concluded, but much of it wasn't.

He noted that in an effort to address the backlog of criminal cases, scant judicial resources were being bled from civil and family cases.

Brecknell noted there are fewer Provincial Court judges now than there were on March 31, 2005.

As of March of this year, 59 per cent of the cases pending at the Provincial Court were taking longer than the 180-day limit the court has given itself to ensure an accused's rights to a speedy trial are protected.

Acting Attorney General Shirley Bond said the case is worrisome.

"We're always concerned when there is a stay of proceedings ruling — no matter what the specific reasons were for each individual case."

But she said in an emailed statement that in the past two years, the ministry has appointed 14 new judges into communities across the province, including adding two in Prince George. One of those will take his seat next week.

Bond said extra resources are being put toward court staff such as sheriffs in an effort to speed things up, the government is "streamlining procedures and using digital technology to get people to trial quicker."

"We need to encourage people to resolve disputes outside of court so they can be as efficient as possible and make room for those cases that require a courtroom," Bond said in the statement.

The shortage of B.C. provincial court judges has been in the news frequently over the last several months, with other judges complaining in their decisions about the lack of resources and warning that more offenders would be set free because of long trial delays.

This isn't the first case that Brecknell has dismissed over lack of court resources.

In July, Brecknell tossed out assault charges against two men after they waited more than two years to get to court.

With files from the CBC's Mike Clarke Accessibility Links

View the original article here

Warren Jeffs to represent himself in sexual assault trial

Polygamist leader Warren Jeffs declined to give an opening statement Thursday after firing his attorneys in his sexual assault trial.NEW: Warren Jeffs says FBI agents "touched ... sacred" objects in a 2008 raidNEW: Representing himself, Jeffs repeatedly interrupts prosecutors in the caseJeffs fired his lawyers Thursday, but then declined to give an opening statementThe sect leader is being tried for sexual assault; he's also been charged with bigamy

San Angelo, Texas (CNN) -- Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs ended his self-imposed silence at his sexual assault trial Friday, repeatedly interrupting prosecutors and launching into a diatribe on religious freedom while acting as his own one-man defense team.

The defendant is charged with two counts of sexual assault on a child and one count of bigamy stemming from a 2008 raid on a ranch near Eldorado, Texas, run by his church, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. This month's trial addresses the first two counts, as Jeffs is expected to be tried later on the bigamy charge.

Several people took the stand Friday in San Angelo, Texas, including a doctor who conducted DNA tests on one of Jeffs' alleged sexual assault victims and her baby; a Texas child protective services agent who took part in the raid; and an FBI agent who took various items from the ranch.

Representing himself, Jeffs interrupted when FBI agent Jeff Broadway began to describe what he found on a computer seized in the raid. Broadway said the computer contained lists of people living at the ranch, including their names, ages and birthdays.

Jeffs then spent about an hour objecting to Broadway's testimony on the grounds that it violated religious freedom, claiming the FBI agents "touched upon what we find sacred to salvation."

"This must stop, in a land ... where we maintain the constitutional right of religious freedom," he said. "We are not a fly-by-night religious organization that just appeared within your borders. Mockery must seize. This is sacred to us, and must remain sacred."

But prosecutors responded that Jeffs' First Amendment arguments were not valid in this case. Over frequent interruptions by Jeffs -- including more than six in a row -- they argued that freedom of religion does not extend to polygamy or infringing on a child's rights.

Eventually, Judge Barbara Walther asked the jury to leave the courtroom. She then urged Jeffs to seek the advice of his available defense counsel, who remained on hand despite his successful attempt on Thursday to fire them so that he could represent himself.

The religious leader had argued Thursday that he felt no counsel could adequately represent him, saying it was necessary "for true justice to be served."

Walther granted the request, but did not push back the plan to have opening arguments later that afternoon.

Prosecutor Eric Nichols told jurors that they would hear an audiotape documenting the sexual assault of a 12-year-old girl. He also promised to present DNA evidence proving that Jeffs fathered a baby girl with a 14-year-old girl.

But when the time came for Jeffs -- who had been verbose earlier in the day -- to talk, he instead sat quiet. He remained that way, with his head down, for about a minute as jurors looked back and forth between him and the judge.

Walther said she understood that, by Jeffs' silence, he had chosen not to give a statement. Then she gave prosecutors the go-ahead to start calling witnesses.

The judge previously had told jurors that she expected the trial could last two to three weeks. But that was before Jeffs won the right to represent himself.

On Friday, prosecutors said that they had worked late into the night readjusting their approach and vowed to rest their case by next Tuesday.

Jeffs' breakaway sect is believed to have about 10,000 followers. Their practice of polygamy, which the mainstream Mormon Church renounced more than a century ago, is part of their doctrine.

The sect's leader, Jeffs, was on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list when he was arrested five years ago during a routine 2006 traffic stop in Las Vegas.

He was convicted in Utah of two counts of being an accomplice to rape, for using his religious influence over his followers to coerce a 14-year-old girl into marrying her 19-year-old cousin. Afterward, he was sentenced to two consecutive prison terms of five years to life.

But in July 2010, the Utah Supreme Court overturned his convictions, ruling that the jury instructions were erroneous. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff told HLN this week that he would be open to putting Jeffs on trial again in his state.

Meanwhile, the Texas legal proceedings were set off after about 400 children were taken from the sect's Yearning for Zion ranch in 2008. Child protection officials said they found a "pervasive pattern" of sexual abuse on the ranch through forced marriages between underage girls and older men.

But the Texas Supreme Court ruled the state had no right to remove the children. The court also said the state lacked evidence to show that the children faced imminent danger of abuse. Most of the children were returned to their families, although some men at the ranch were charged with sexual abuse.

In Session's Jim Kyle contributed to this report.

Quoting : CNN.com