COURT OKS BLOOD TEST RESULTS

A B.C. coroner was correct in turning over a Langley teenager's blood
test results to police, a B.C. Provincial Court judge ruled last week
in a case that has put the spotlight on marijuana use and driving.

In Surrey provincial court last week, Judge Bill McDonald said that
coroner Marj Paonessa "was legitimately engaged in her duties . . . in
seizing the blood.

"And I cannot imagine a circumstance when a coroner could withhold any
information that might lead to a criminal charge, from the police. She
has, in my view, a public duty to provide that information to the police."

The youth was charged with impaired driving causing death and
dangerous driving causing death, following a crash that took the lives
of two other 16-year old Langley boys. The uncommon case involves an
allegation of impairment by marijuana.

Dayton Unger and Simon Featherston died after the 2000 Ford Mustang in
which they were riding went off the road in the 6300-block of 264
Street, at 10 p.m. on April 4, 2002.

The driver of the Mustang, also 16 at the time, cannot be identified
under provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

Earlier this year, the accused's lawyer, Allan Hoem, launched a
Charter of Rights challenge on behalf of the youth.

Hoem argued before Judge McDonald that the youth's blood samples had
been taken at Langley Memorial Hospital for medical purposes only. The
samples were later seized by the coroner in her investigation.

She notified the police of the results of the analysis.

Police had no probable grounds to seize a blood sample, the court
heard. Hoem argued that using the blood analysis results in a criminal
prosecution was a violation of the youth's Charter rights.

Crown prosecutor Winston Sayson argued that the coroner was lawfully
allowed to seize anything she had "reasonable" grounds to believe was
material to her investigation into the deaths of two innocent youths.

She had been at the accident scene, saw one dead youth and saw a
baggie (allegedly of marijuana) taken from the body, Sayson said.

She would have been negligent not to request the blood sample,
"already in the (LMH) refrigerator, in usable form," Sayson told the
court.

But while the methods of the police were highly criticized by the
appeal judges in a case (Colarusso) cited by Hoem, the blood sample
evidence was allowed.

In the Colarusso case, the coroner had gone with police to the
hospital, requested a sample of the accused's blood from a technician,
then turned the sample over to the police.

Three days are scheduled in March for final summations.