Accused’s lawyer challenges arrest, judge says RCMP did everything by book

Members of the Penticton RCMP Targeted Enforcement Unit did everything by the book during a traffic stop two years ago that turned up drugs and a sawed-off shotgun, a judge ruled Thursday.

Warren Johannesen-Quail, 28, is accused of two counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking and single counts of possession of a weapon without a licence and occupying a vehicle knowing a firearm is present.

He was charged following the traffic stop May 25, 2016, in the parking lot of the Cascade Gardens townhouse complex.

Johannesen-Quail’s trial kicked off this week in B.C. Supreme Court with a voir dire to determine the admissibility of evidence, as his lawyer challenged the lawfulness of his client’s arrest and subsequent search of the vehicle in an attempt to have the charges tossed.

Court heard Cpl. Scott Vanevery and Cpl. Kyle Richmond were in an unmarked vehicle when they drove by Cascade Gardens to check on one of the units that was a hotspot for illegal activity.

While passing through the parking lot, the officers, who testified they’d had a combined 50 or so dealings with Johannesen-Quail and knew he didn’t have a valid licence, saw him drive past them behind the wheel of a sedan.

They watched the sedan drive onto Penticton Avenue and back into the townhouse complex’s parking lot and into a stall, at which point Johannesen-Quail, who was indeed a prohibited driver at the time, was arrested.

A subsequent search of the vehicle — ostensibly to look for vehicle ownership documents — turned up a shotgun shell and scale in a bag on the passenger seat, which led to the discovery of a sawed-off shotgun in the trunk, plus 8.7 grams of cocaine and 16.3 grams of a heroin-fentanyl combination.

Defence counsel Michael Patterson argued the traffic stop was simply a ruse created by the officers to harass his client and breached his Charter rights. He said police had no legitimate reason to look in the bag on the passenger seat, so the drugs and gun that flowed from that should have been excluded as evidence.

Justice Alison Beames disagreed, however, ruling police had grounds to arrest Johannesen-Quail for prohibited driving and to search the car for ownership documents because they believed it may have been stolen.

Most crucially, the judge accepted Vanevery’s explanation that, based on past experience, he searched the bag on the passenger seat for ownership papers.

“I find that, objectively and subjectively, that was a reasonable purpose that was incidental to the arrest of the accused for driving while prohibited,” said Beames.

“The accused had a limited expectation of privacy in the car itself, and in the bag.”

Johannesen-Quail, who is in custody, put his head in his hands after hearing the ruling.

The trial itself commenced immediately afterwards and is expected to run through next week.