Snelgrove’s legal battle ends
Supreme Court of Canada dismisses suspended RNC officer’s request to appeal sexual assault conviction
The Supreme Court of Canada has dismissed the appeal application of suspended Royal Newfoundland Constabulary officer and convicted sexual offender Doug Snelgrove.
The dismissal marks the end of a lengthy legal road that included three trials and multiple appeals, and the woman he raped testifying about it several times since 2017.
The country’s top court released its judgment Thursday, Feb. 29, on the application Snelgrove filed last June for permission to bring his case forward.
As is typical for such applications, the SCC did not provide reasons for rejecting the application.
BACK TO JAIL
Snelgrove, 47, is expected to return to jail to complete the four-year sentence he was given in 2021 for sexually assaulting the woman known publicly as Jane Doe after he drove her home from downtown St. John’s in his RNC vehicle while on duty nearly a decade ago.
He has served six months of the prison sentence so far. He will be eligible for parole after serving 16 months.
MULTIPLE TRIALS
Snelgrove was originally acquitted by a jury in 2017, and the Crown appealed.
The Newfoundland appellate court — and later the Supreme Court of Canada — ruled the trial judge had erred in instructing the jury.
A second trial in 2020 ended in a mistrial due to an error by the presiding judge related to the dismissal of a jury member.
Snelgrove was convicted after his third trial and was granted bail a month after he was sentenced, pending the outcome of his appeal to the provincial appellate court.
THE ARGUMENT
His lawyers asked the court to overturn his conviction and stop further legal proceedings instead of ordering a fourth trial, arguing the third trial judge, Justice Vikas Khaladkar, had made errors when he instructed the jury and responded to its questions during deliberations.
They also argued the court had breached Snelgrove’s right to be present during discussions between Khaladkar, the Crown and defence lawyers.
The Court of Appeal agreed with the Crown, finding the document Snelgrove had signed designating his lawyers to represent him had no expiry date, and deeming the trial judge’s instructions and responses appropriate.
Snelgrove returned to jail with that decision last April, but was granted bail again in June to await the decision from the higher court released Feb. 29.
“As everyone knows, it’s been a really long road,” prosecutor Kathleen O’reilly told reporters Thursday afternoon. “It was just a tremendouse relief that there is some finality to the process and some accountablility, and that there’s justice in the end. Hopefully at this point Jane Doe can find some closure and she can move on with her life, because it takes a tremendous amount of strength and bravery to ... participate in the process for that long.”
IMPACT ON JANE DOE
Jane Doe, who testified at Snelgrove’s preliminary inquiry and all three trials, also provided a victim impact statement at his sentencing hearing. She described the physical and emotional pain and trauma she has endured as a result of Snelgrove’s crime and the legal proceedings, which at that point — more than two years ago — had spanned seven years.
“No one will ever understand what I have gone through fighting this case,” she wrote.
“For the rest of my life I will be thinking about that night, trying to piece together what happened to me.
“I was violated in my own home, on my own couch, by a man in uniform.”
In handing down Snelgrove’s sentence, Khaladkar described Snelgrove’s actions as reprehensible and offensive to Canadian values.
“They bring the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary and the administration of justice into disrepute,” the judge said. “Members of the public, including the complainant in this case, deserve to be secure in the knowledge and belief that no harm will befall them at the hands of a police officer. That knowledge has been severely strained, if not shattered, by what happened in this case.”
DECISION FINAL
Decisions by the Supreme Court of Canada on applications for leave to appeal are final; barring exceptionally rare circumstances, this is the end of Snelgrove’s criminal case.
It is, however, the start of the RNC’S internal disciplinary process, which could not get underway until all court proceedings were completed, as per provincial legislation.
Snelgrove remains an officer on unpaid suspension, as he has been since he was charged in 2015, while the internal process happens.
“Under the RNC Act, the chief of police must preside over the RNC public complaint proceedings related to the subject matter of the criminal charge. To protect the integrity of the public complaint proceedings, the chief cannot comment on this case,” RNC media relations officer Const. James Cadigan said.