LEAD INVESTIGATOR IN BOTCHED ECSTASY CASE FACING CHARGES IN SURREY SIX PROBE

The RCMP officer who was lambasted by a Richmond provincial court
judge over a botched ecstasy lab investigation, is one of the Mounties
now facing criminal charges in connection with a high-profile murder
case in Surrey.

In tossing out all evidence gathered by police in January 2007 at a
massive Raymond Avenue ecstasy lab, Richmond provincial court Judge
Paul R. Meyers put the blame on RCMP Cpl. Danny Michaud, who was in
charge of the investigation.

"The RCMP officer in charge of the investigation was Cpl. Michaud and
he must accept the responsibility for leading an investigation that
ignored and flaunted the accuseds' Charter of Rights, and did so
consistently over a 14 month period," Judge Meyers wrote in a June
ruling.

Michaud was charged in June with breach of trust and attempting to
obstruct justice in the Surrey Six multiple murder case, where six
people were murdered in a Surrey condo in October of 2007.

Michaud is also accused of attempting to mislead Ontario Provincial
Police investigators, who were conducting an internal investigation
into allegations of an inappropriate relationship with a potential
witness in the case. Three other Mounties were also charged.

In the ecstasy ruling release last week, Judge Meyers tossed out all
evidence seized by police from the ecstasy lab, and wrote:

"From Cpl. Michaud's initial choice to apply for a Telewarrant rather
than to apply to a justice or judge in person, to knowing that the
suspects probably would not speak or understand English very well but
yet not bothering to arrange to have interpreters there to explain to
them the reasons for their arrest and what their charter rights were,
to not showing or reading the warrants to the occupants of two of the
houses, to leaving two of the accused half-naked, outdoors in the
middle of winter to be hosed down with cold water while in view of
their neighbours, to not knowing that they had a legal obligation to
file a report in the Richmond court registry within seven days of the
execution of the warrants, all cumulatively, in my view, amount to an
unavoidable conclusion that the officers in charge of this case, were
totally unconcerned with what charter rights these co-accuseds were
guaranteed by virtue of Canadian law. The officers in charge, just did
not seem to care."