Hells Angels lawyers continue push to omit undercover evidence
An undercover police officer who discussed an international cocaine deal with Kelowna Hells Angel David Giles testified Tuesday he never tried to steer Giles to specific answers during their 2012 conversations.
The officer, whose identity is shielded by a publication ban, continued his evidence on the second day of the trial between the Hells Angels and the B.C. director of civil forfeiture.
The government agency wants the Nanaimo, Kelowna and East Vancouver clubhouses of the biker gang forfeited on the basis they would be used to commit crimes in the future.
The Hells Angels are fighting back with a countersuit seeking a declaration that the B.C. Civil Forfeiture Act is unconstitutional.
The trial got off to a slow start after lawyers for the Hells Angels challenged the admissibility of the 2012 recorded conversations, arguing they are hearsay evidence.
The intercepted conversations were part of a case that led to convictions against Giles, Hells Angel Bryan Oldham and several associates in 2016.
Giles died last year just months into a lengthy jail sentence.
The officer, who posed as a South American drug lord during four meetings with Giles, described the biker showing his Hells Angels tattoos and reassuring the cop his “brothers” in the gang had his back in the deal.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Barry Davies will hear submissions Wednesday on whether or not to admit the evidence.
Hells Angel lawyer Greg DelBigio questioned the officer about his role in the earlier investigation.
“One of the issues you need to pay attention to is whether or not the target you are dealing with is simply lying to you, right?” DelBigio asked.
The cop responded that he is deliberately not provided with other details of the investigation so he can’t assess the truth of the target’s answers. He simply passed his information about what was said to the officer in charge of the undercover operation, he said.
“If, for example, you were steering too hard and Mr. Giles lied to you, that is something you can’t comment on one way or the other?” DelBigio asked.
The officer replied: “Again, I was not trying to steer him.”
He said he would try to push a certain “topic of conversation,” but did not try to elicit specific answers.
The officer said Giles also admitted to having previously imported cocaine from South America to Canada, including a 2001 shipment of 2.5 tonnes on a fishing boat called the Western Wind that was seized by the U.S. Coast Guard.
Brent Olthuis, a lawyer representing the B.C. government, also tried Tuesday to get the ruling that convicted Giles admitted as evidence in the case. But the Hells Angels lawyers said it would be improper to do so.
In the earlier ruling, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Carol Ross cited Giles’ conversations with the purported drug lord, which took place in Panama.
Giles described himself as the “consigliere” of his co-accused, Kevin Van Kalkeren.
“Mr. Giles discussed his history in the Hells Angels and some aspects of the club in relation to the criminal activities of members. He said any business on the side, like the stuff they were talking about, had to be brought to three people in his room,” Ross noted.
The civil trial continues.