What about the two anglophone bikers?
With the first SharQc trial aborted, questions remain about the second
One question left hanging after a Superior Court judge called an abrupt end to the first trial to go before a jury in Operation SharQc is what will happen to the second trial involving two anglophones.
Justice James Brunton’s decision on Friday put an end to the trial of five men who were members of the Sherbrooke chapter Hells Angels during Quebec’s biker gang war between 1994 and 2002.
The decision was a stinging criticism of how the Crown stonewalled defence lawyers for years and prevented them from seeing evidence, until the trial was well underway, that would have allowed them to challenge the credibility of Sylvain Boulanger, a former full-patch member of the Sherbrooke chapter who decided to become an informant. Boulanger’s statements to the police formed the very basis of the conspiracy to commit murder accusation that almost everyone arrested in Operation SharQc was charged with.
Among many other things, Boulanger gave the police several statements about the March 12, 1997 murder of Sylvain Reed, a drug dealer the Hells Angels suspected had sided with the Rock Machine while it was at war with that gang.
What the Crown failed to disclose to defence lawyers representing four of the five men on trial was that two other informants had given investigators a completely different version of how Reed was killed. Evidence of the alternate version was only disclosed to the defence on Sept. 21.
The Crown is now left with a key witness — who was provided with an informant contract that calls for him to be paid $2.9 million in total if he ever testifies in a trial — whose credibility can be hammered before a jury.
The trial of the two anglophones — John Coates, 49, alleged to be a former underling in the Sherbrooke chapter, and Robert Bonomo, 68, an alleged member of the Montreal chapter — is scheduled to begin on Jan. 9, 2017. The date was based partly on the assumption the trial of the five men whose cases ended on Friday would last 18 months.
Thomas Walsh, the lawyer representing Coates, said on Wednesday that he did not expect the Crown would have proceeded with a trial against Coates even before Brunton’s decision. Walsh said that because his client was not a full-patch member of the Hells Angels during the war, he was never part of the vote that was taken to join in the conflict. Coates is only charged with being part of a conspiracy and, unlike many other Hells Angels arrested in SharQc, does not face first-degree murder charges.
Walsh said he plans to argue his client would have had no decisionmaking power in the general conspiracy. “Before the Crown goes to trial it takes a really good look at its evidence. I believe that when they do so (in Coates’ case) they won’t proceed with a trial. That was my opinion even before (the first trial was aborted).”
When asked if he will file a motion, pertaining to the trial scheduled in 2017, Walsh said he has yet to decide the next step for Coates.
“I’m going to wait for the dust to settle (on Brunton’s decision),” Walsh said. “There were some really interesting points made in it. The bottom line is that when the police and prosecutors team up and work closely together it’s a slippery slope.
Part of the Crown’s agenda is to have a fair trial. They are supposed to be separate from the police and be able to say ‘no’ to them when they have to.”
Walsh said defence lawyers have met with similar problems in the past and he praised Brunton’s decision as “encouraging.”
“We need that from time to time — to remember what the principles (of justice) are,” he said.
Bonomo’s lawyer could not be reached for comment.
On Wednesday, a spokesperson for the Directeur des poursuites criminelles et pénales, the office that represents the province’s prosecutors, said it is still analyzing Brunton’s decision and has yet to decide whether to appeal it.
The bottom line is that when the police and prosecutors team up and work closely together it’s a slippery slope.