Evidence thrown out in trial of doctor accused of trafficking opioid pills
The Crown’s case to prove a Tantallon doctor accused of prescribing 50,000 opioid pills to a patient who claims he did not receive them got a bit more difficult on Friday.
Dr. Sarah Dawn Jones, who graduated from high school in Amherst, is facing six charges, including possession of narcotics for the purpose of trafficking, drawing a document without authority and fraud. She has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges, which have not been proven in court.
Bridgewater provincial court Judge Timothy Landry ruled Friday that statements Jones allegedly made to the Nova Scotia College of Physicians and Surgeons, as well as a letter she allegedly wrote to the regulatory body after her license was suspended in 2015, will not be allowed in the trial because they violate her constitutional right against self-incrimination.
Jones was suspended by the Nova Scotia College of Physicians and Surgeons in August 2015. After her suspension, she was compelled by the college to provide information, which she did by writing a letter. She was also called to a hearing before the licensing authority, where she gave a statement.
The Crown had planned to use a transcript of that statement and the letter in its case
against Jones.
However, her lawyer, Stan MacDonald, argued those documents were a violation of Jones’ Charter right against self-incrimination because she was compelled to make the statements at a college hearing and provide the letter through the province’s Medical Act.
In an oral decision handed down Friday, Landry ruled that Jones had indeed been compelled to make the statements under threat of losing her profession.
He pointed out that Section 13 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects people from self-incrimination.
He also ruled that he was satisfied that some of the information she provided to the governing body was incriminating.
The trial will begin on April 11.