Police agent’s credibility questioned at end of trial

In deciding whether Clint James McLaughlin is guilty of 17 gun charges involving prohibited, unauthorized and stolen firearms, a provincial court judge must analyze three different stories.

On March 28, 2014, police searched Noel Harder’s truck and found nine guns. Harder later said eight of them came from McLaughlin, whose home he had left that day as police watched.

Officers had been conducting surveillance on both Harder and McLaughlin, who court heard were members of the Fallen Saints Motorcycle Club. They were targets of Project Forseti, an investigation into biker clubs and organized crime.

Harder offered to work with police on Project Forseti and was not charged with any gun offences. McLaughlin was charged in 2016. His trial was held last month and closing arguments were heard Wednesday.

McLaughlin testified that Harder tried to sell him handguns and rifles, but he refused to buy because he was on conditions prohibiting him from having firearms.

Harder said McLaughlin threatened him into taking the guns, and that McLaughlin’s fiancée at the time, Mariana Cracogna, moved them from her garage to his truck.

However, Cracogna testified it was Harder who brought the guns down from the garage attic.

The contradictory evidence from Harder and Cracogna means the Crown failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt, defence lawyer Nicholas Stooshinoff said.

He argued Harder was a drug kingpin before he became a police agent in Project Forseti and would not have been taking orders from McLaughlin, who one witness testified was Harder’s “errand boy.”

Harder was collecting guns as collateral for drug debts and needed to turn them into cash in order to pay for his drug supply, Stooshinoff argued. He said Harder was angry that McLaughlin refused to buy the guns and “took his revenge.”

Stooshinoff told Judge Shannon Metivier that Harder is a “pathological liar” who gave statements in a “deliberately false and manipulative fashion.” He said Cracogna would be motivated to implicate McLaughlin, who is currently serving a prison sentence for abducting and assaulting her in May 2014.

Federal Crown prosecutor Lynn Hintz said Cracogna and Harder’s stories were essentially the same, and there was no opportunity for them to collude.

She noted Cracogna and Harder testified that McLaughlin was a “middle man” in the Fallen Saints and stored guns for a possible biker war with the Outlaws Motorcycle Club. He couldn’t leave the house to give Harder the guns because he was on electronic monitoring, so he got Cracogna to transport the guns for him, Hintz argued.

McLaughlin’s charges include gun trafficking, possessing stolen guns and unauthorized possession of prohibited guns. A decision is scheduled for June 9.