Police misconduct not enough to toss case
Bacon to go back to court to face murder, conspiracy charges, appeal court rules
A judge who stayed charges against accused killer Jamie Bacon overstated police misconduct during the Surrey Six murder investigation, the B.C. Court of Appeal has found.
While some conduct by investigators during the probe amounted to an abuse of process, throwing out the charges against Bacon was too extreme a remedy, justices Mary Saunders, Richard Goepel and John Hunter ruled.
On Friday, B.C.’s highest court released some of the reasons why murder and conspiracy charges were reinstated against Bacon on May 21 — two and a half years after they were stayed by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Kathleen Ker.
When Goepel announced last month that the Crown’s appeal was successful, he said that “a consequence of issues of various privileges and confidential information, the British Columbia Supreme Court judgment is sealed and the hearing of the appeal was in camera.”
But he also said some reasons for the appeal decision would be released once lawyers in the case had a chance to vet them.
The more detailed ruling released said Ker mistakenly determined there were “four categories of misconduct that she found met the test for abuse of process.”
“We have concluded that two of the four areas of conduct found by the judge to be abuses of process did not amount to abuses of process,” the judges said. “We find the balance favours a full trial of the charges on their merits, where Mr. Bacon will be found not guilty or guilty. The charges against him allege he was at the head of a terrible conspiracy, a conspiracy that led to the execution-style murders of the target and five other persons, all for expansion of business in the illicit drug trade.”
Bacon is charged with one count each of first-degree murder and conspiracy for allegedly plotting the execution of drug trade rival Corey Lal.
On Oct. 19, 2007, Lal, his brother Michael, associates Ryan Bartolomeo and Eddie Narong, as well as bystanders Ed Schellenberg and Chris Mohan, were all shot to death on the penthouse floor of Surrey’s Balmoral Tower.
Two members of the Red Scorpion gang — Cody Haevischer and Matthew Johnston — have been convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy.
An associate identified only as Person X pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.
The judges said that because murder is “the most heinous of peacetime crimes ... the community has ‘a profound interest’ in seeing guilt or innocence of these charges alleged against Mr. Bacon determined on the merits.”
Details of the police misconduct are not spelled out in the ruling.
The appeal court justices also criticized some of the secrecy surrounding the proceedings that led to the Dec. 1, 2017 stay.
“We have had the opportunity to review the record in detail and recognize that certain portions of the evidence raise concerns of extraordinary seriousness, and require the highest level of confidentiality,” they said.
“For that reason, high security levels were employed in this Court, and the entire hearing was held in camera.
“Nonetheless, we are disquieted by learning that some of the pretrial proceedings proceeded off-docket, and so were not made known to the community.
“Closing a courtroom is a serious and rare step. It is even more serious to hide the fact a hearing is ongoing.”
The judges also said “such secrecy in the court process is an anathema. A court should not hide the fact a hearing is proceeding.”
The ruling laid out details of the lengthy Surrey Six investigation, described as “one of the largest and most complex investigations ever undertaken in the province.”
“By November 2012, the investigation had involved over 900 officers and by November 2016, had involved approximately 1,300 officers,” the ruling said.
Managing almost 80 informants was “exceedingly complicated,” the ruling quoted Ker as saying.
“The judge found that the difficulties faced by investigators included reluctant witnesses and a disciplined organization that used tactics to defeat police techniques,” the appeal court said.
Despite overruling Ker, the appeal court expressed its appreciation, saying “she was faced with a Herculean task of almost unprecedented complexity.”