Defence cites delay in bid for dismissal of charges in collision that killed cyclist
Steven Conley’s defence team made its charter case Tuesday to dismiss dangerous driving charges due to unreasonable trial delay.
Despite Crown objections over a late filing, defence lawyer Dominic Lamb was allowed to proceed with the application under Section 11b of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, now commonly known as a Jordan application after the 2016 Supreme Court of Canada decision.
Ontario Court Justice David Berg said he took the long weekend to consider arguments from both sides and ultimately allowed the Jordan application to proceed, saying the protection of Conley’s constitutional rights outweighed the strict adherence to court-imposed rules on deadlines.
Conley ’s trial began last week as he pleaded not guilty to dangerous driving and criminal negligence causing death in the Sept. 1, 2016, collision that killed 23-year-old cyclist Nusrat Jahan.
Lamb argued in court Tuesday there was a delay in the disclosure of a key piece of Crown evidence — the collision reconstruction report, which re-enacted the morning rush hour crash between Conley’s dump truck and Jahan’s bicycle at the intersection of Laurier and Lyon streets.
Lamb said he first received that “important missing piece” in January 2017.
“There’s not a single time period attributed to defence delay,” said Lamb.
The defence calculates the gap between charges and the scheduled end of trial at 22 months, seven days.
The July 2016 Supreme Court ruling places a ceiling of 18 months from the time charges are laid to the time the case reaches trial in Ontario Court cases, while placing a 30-month limit on Superior Court cases.
In Conley’s lower court case, Crown prosecutor John Ramsay countered it was in part a “defencecreated delay,” and calculated the gap at just over 14 months, within the 18-month ceiling prescribed in the Supreme Court’s Jordan decision.
Ramsay further argued the trial delay was due in part to the complexity of the case.
Lamb argued, however, Conley ’s case “is not a complex case as contemplated by Jordan.”
He said the Supreme Court ruling allowed for a trial delay using a complexity argument only under “exceptional circumstances.”
Those cases would typically involve complexities like a large number of witnesses, charges laid over a long period of time, “voluminous disclosure ... requiring an inordinate amount of preparation time,” Lamb said, or cases where a large number of issues is in dispute.
“A typical murder trial is not complex enough,” Lamb said. “It’s clear in this case — this isn’t a terrorism case, this isn’t a complex murder prosecution — it’s just not even in the same ballpark as what we know are complex cases.”
Berg was to consider defence and Crown arguments as the trial resumes Wednesday. Conley ’s trial had been suspended temporarily while waiting for a defence expert to become available.
The judge in the meantime considered arguments on two outstanding issues — the late filing of the defence’s Jordan application, and a separate argument over whether to admit Conley’s police statement, which he gave without the presence of a lawyer on the day of the crash.
Berg said his decision was still pending on the admissibility of the police statement.
The trial continues.