COKE PEDDLER CLEARED

Judge Slams Province for Straining Court System: Fifth Case Where
Charges Stayed Due to Lack of Resources

A convicted drug dealer will not be sentenced after a Prince George
provincial court judge stayed the charges against him on Wednesday
because the case took too long to get to trial.

Judge Michael Brecknell blamed a lack of resources for most of the
42.5 months it took to reach a verdict in the case of Joseph William
Hammer, 50, who was found guilty last month of possessing cocaine for
the purpose of trafficking.

Hammer remains in custody on other matters.

That an "unrepentant drug dealer" should "now be able to be free of
the consequences of this very serious offence... should alarm and
concern the community," Brecknell agreed when reading out his ruling.

"However, all citizens, even drug dealers, are entitled to protection
of their rights under the Charter [of Rights and Freedoms]."

The Charter maintains a person has a right to be tried within a
reasonable time, usually 18 months, although Brecknell cited several
cases that took much longer - one that took 62 months among them -
where stays were refused.

ARRESTED OCTOBER 2007

Hammer and two others, brother James William Hammer and wife Theresa
June Malcolm, were arrested on Oct. 2, 2007 after an undercover
officer arranged to purchase a quarter pound of cocaine for cash or
firearms in the parking lot of a local fast food restaurant.

Police arrested the brothers at the scene, where four baggies of white
powder was found on James and cash on Joseph, and a search warrant was
obtained for Joseph Hammer's home where Malcolm was arrested.

There, they seized white powder contained in baggies, a cereal bowl,
160 paper flaps and a 297-gram coffee can, $11,676 in cash, various
other baggies and paper flaps, two digital scales, two notebooks
containing names and monetary amounts, three safes and a 2.2-kilogram
container of dextrose.

In April 2008, James Hammer was sentenced to two years in jail and
charges against Malcolm, whom Joseph Hammer maintained was not
involved in the business, were stayed.

ROUGH START TO COURT PROCEEDINGS

Court proceedings got off on the wrong foot when Hammer appeared in
court on Nov. 27, 2007 but his case was not on the court list. With
the trial estimated to take two and a half days, the first of what
ended up being five trial dates was set for Jan. 20 to 22, 2009 only
to have the matter postponed because other matters before the court
had priority.

Subsequent trial dates were rescheduled due to a conflict with another
trial for the defence counsel, misplacement of notes related to the
investigation by the RCMP, and, in the fourth instance, because other
matters had priority on the first day and no sheriff was available on
the second.

Three voir dire hearings - held to determine if evidence is admissible
- - were held leading up to the fifth and finally successful attempt at
holding a trial over four days in July and August, but Brecknell found
those hearings had only a minor impact.

LACK OF RESOURCES MAIN CAUSE

Brecknell put most of the emphasis on the lack of resources, which he
said accounted for 21.5 months of the delay since the first trial
dates in January 2009.

From a total of six full-time provincial court judges in March 2005,
the complement is now down to the full-time equivalent of 4.5
positions, Brecknell said, serving Prince George, Vanderhoof, Fort St.
James, Fraser Lake, Valemount, McBrid and Mackenzie.

A new judge for Prince George, Roderick Sutton, will be sworn in on
Sept. 19, "which will assist with the present workload but will not
adequately address case backlog issues," Brecknell said.

As of the end of March, the Prince George registry had 976 adult
criminal cases pending, of which 59 per cent were over 180 days old.
And of the 571 cases over 180 days, 13 per cent have been pending for
more than 18 months.

"This case is one of those cases," Brecknell said.

MINISTER RESPONDS

In an e-mailed response, Attorney General Shirley Bond said the
ministry is "always concerned when there is a stay of proceedings
ruling - no matter what the specific reasons were for each individual
case."

Bond, the MLA for Prince George-Valemount, said judges will continue
to be rotated into communities where they are needed to ensure court
hearings proceed and noted that the province is in the process of
hiring and training new sheriffs.

Prince George will get three new auxiliary sheriffs as part of the
province-wide campaign that saw 36 new recruits begin training Aug. 31
to start work in December.

"We are also undertaking auxiliary hiring into court administration
positions to restore to the fiscal 2010-11 staffing level, which
involves increasing staffing up to the equivalent of 55 full-time
court administration positions," Bond said.

She also noted court procedures are being streamlined and digital
technology is being used 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.

BROTHERS REMAING BEHIND BARS

The Hammer brothers continue to remain in custody following their
arrests this summer on drugs and weapons charges.

James Edward Hammer, 57, and Joseph William Hammer, 50, were arrested
July 5 after RCMP searched two homes in the 3400 block of Westwood
Drive.

Police said they found powdered cocaine, crack cocaine, heroin and
morphine and drug trafficking paraphernalia - including scales,
packaging, measuring instruments, score sheets and a large quantity of
cash.

The search also uncovered one loaded and one unloaded handgun, a
rifle, a cross bow with arrows, a composite bow with arrows, brass
knuckles, and a large hunting knife, none of which were were stored
properly, police said.

They each face three charges of possession of a controlled substance
for the purpose of trafficking and eight firearms related charges.

An arraignment hearing for both is scheduled for Sept.
28.

- - Nielsen

CHARGES STAYED FOR FIFTH TIME THIS YEAR

Including Wednesday's decision, it's the fifth time in slightly more
than a year that a case has been dismissed by a provincial court judge
in the Prince George area.

- - In August 2010, Judge Darrell O'Bryne stayed a $196 speeding ticket
against Matthew Robert Pederson because the matter had not been
brought to trial after nearly 20 months.

- - In September 2010, Brecknell stayed charges against Jamie Dean
McComber, accused of running into a police car while drunk, because
the case had not been heard more than 21 months after charges were
laid.

- - In March 2011, O'Byrne stayed drunk driving charges against Arnold
Thomas Trenaman primarily because RCMP took more than two hours to get
a breath sample, triggering the so-called "last drink defence" in
which the accused can claimed to have drank just before he got into
his vehicle but was not yet drunk.

But O'Byrne also ruled he would have dismissed the case anyway,
because it had taken 26 months to deal with the matter.

- - In July 2011, Brecknell stayed charge of assault causing bodily
against brothers Kevin and Rodney Kaiser because the trial had still
not been completed two years after their arrest following an
altercation with a third man in Fort Fraser.

Trouble getting time in Vanderhoof provincial court was cited as the
reason.

- - Nielsen