Government to pay Eid’s legal costs
Required for fair trial: judge
Roland Eid won a significant legal victory Friday that compels the federal government to pick up the tab for his legal defence in an upcoming fraud trial.
“Mr. Eid cannot have a fair trial unless provided with financial assistance necessary to retain counsel,” Superior Court Justice Jennifer Blishen said during a reading of her 12-page judgment.
Eid, the former head of now-bankrupt ICI Construction, applied for state assistance earlier this year through a Rowbotham application — a mechanism for ensuring Charter rights to a fair trial for penurious defendants in complicated criminal trials.
Eid faces multiple counts of fraud and forgery in connection with the transfer in 2007 of $1.7 million from ICI to a personal bank account in Lebanon, where he grew up. ICI went bankrupt shortly after.
A six-week trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 9, 2014.
To succeed with his Rowbotham application, Eid had to show he was denied legal aid and was facing criminal proceedings too complex for him to handle on his own. More importantly in this case, Eid also had to establish he was too poor to afford counsel.
The first Rowbotham conditions were relatively easy to meet. It was the third element that received most of the Crown’s attention during a three-day hearing last September.
There were two separate aspects to the issue of money. The first was the question of what happened to the $1.7 million.
Judge Blishen considered evidence from Legal Aid Ontario, which had earlier demanded Eid’s bank statements from Lebanon and disclosure related to his business dealings during the four and a half years he and his family spent there. Eid said he was unable to secure full disclosure because any attempt to do so would have put family members in Lebanon at risk.
Legal Aid officials accepted Eid’s explanation. So did Judge Blishen, not least because the Crown produced no evidence during the Rowbotham hearing that suggested Eid had secreted away any cash.
Indeed, the Crown acknowledged that it had been unable to trace how Eid spent the $1.7 million he transferred to Lebanon.
Eid said he burned through nearly all the cash after investing in a movie project, paying for bodyguards and losing money on business investments.
Eid claims the money was his legitimately, representing a down payment on the sale of ICI to the company controller, Sebastien Dagenais. The Crown alleges no such sale took place.
Judge Blishen has confined her role to assessing the state of Eid’s current finances.
“Mr. Eid has not taken steps to hide any significant assets or income from the Court,” Judge Blishen noted.
Nevertheless, the provincial agency early this year denied Eid legal assistance on the basis that family members, who include eight siblings, along with his wife, Marlene, and her family, could help out with legal costs.
One of Eid’s brothers, Jean, owns part of the high-end Rinaldo hair salon business. Another brother, Eid, is a successful high-tech executive and former chief technology officer of Corel Corp.
However, Judge Blishen noted, “I am not prepared to require Mr. Eid’s family or for that matter, Marlene Eid’s family members, to contribute to Mr. Eid’s defence.”
The judge added that such assistance should be voluntary.
The cost to taxpayers will be less than anticipated because Eid’s lawyer, Richard Addelman, said he will accept the rates paid to Legal Aid lawyers.
According to Legal Aid Ontario, the rate for senior lawyers such as Addelman in a criminal proceeding is $141.75 per hour. The annual cap is about $291,000.
Judge Blishen’s ruling Friday halts the proceedings against Eid until the federal government provides the necessary funding for his defence.
The Crown didn’t appear to have an issue with this and has agreed to pay Addelman for legal assistance provided to Eid for his successful Rowbotham application, along with all work related to preparing for next year’s trial.