Gang member acquitted due to witness reliability

Probable guilt is not enough to meet the criminal standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

A member of the Fallen Saints Motorcycle Club who was caught up in the massive police investigation called Project Forseti was found not guilty of 17 gun charges.

The charges against Clint James McLaughlin dated back to March 28, 2014, when police were conducting surveillance on two people — Noel Harder and Steve Mychan — who they believed were going to exchange guns. On that day, Harder drove to both McLaughlin’s and Mychan’s homes. As Harder was driving away from Mychan’s house, police stopped him and found nine guns in his truck.

Instead of facing charges, Harder made a deal with police to work as a confidential informant in Project Forseti, a 15-month investigation that spanned seven cities in Saskatchewan and Alberta and resulted in seizures of drugs and firearms and numerous charges against members of the Hells Angels and Fallen Saints biker gangs.

Harder told police all but one of the guns in his truck had come from McLaughlin’s garage.

The informant told court that McLaughlin told him to take guns from his house on March 28, 2014. Harder said he agreed because McLaughlin threatened to drop the firearms off at the Fallen Saints’ clubhouse if he did not. Harder said McLaughlin’s girlfriend, Mariana Cracogna, loaded the guns into his truck. Cracogna said it was Harder who took the guns from the garage attic.

McLaughlin, meanwhile, told court that Harder came to his house on March 28, 2014, with the guns in his truck and tried to sell them to him. McLaughlin, who had been arrested for weapons offences earlier that month, refused to take the guns because he was not allowed to under his release conditions.

In her written decision, Saskatoon provincial court Judge Shannon Metivier said she had “serious concerns about the credibility or reliability” of all witnesses in the case and “grave concern” about the evidence Harder provided.

“After carefully considering the testimony of each witness in light of all the evidence, I am left with the distinct impression that I still don’t have the full story of what happened. While I believe that (McLaughlin) probably had some firearms in his attic, probable guilt is not enough to meet the criminal standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Metivier noted that Harder is a self-described “master manipulator” who had a motive to get back at McLaughlin because he believed McLaughlin had tipped off police that he had guns in his vehicle.

She also said she did not buy Harder’s story that he was threatened as a way to get him to remove guns from McLaughlin’s house.

“Harder was clearly higher up in the hierarchy of the Fallen Saints Motor Cycle Club than (McLaughlin) ... It is difficult to believe that Harder would pick up (McLaughlin’s) guns as a favour,” she wrote.