Janis Warren, The Tri-City News
The case against a Coquitlam Mountie charged five years ago with assault with a Taser gun will be back in Port Coquitlam provincial court this fall.Monday, the B.C. Court of Appeal upheld a B.C. Supreme Court judge’s ruling ordering a new trial for Cpl. Russell Hannibal.
In 2004, his charge was stayed after Hannibal’s lawyer, David Butcher, successfully argued the case had taken too long to get to trial. (Under section 11b of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, a defendant is guaranteed to have his or her trial within a “reasonable amount of time.”)
Butcher argued some 39 months had passed from the date of the alleged offence to the trial because of tie-ups by the RCMP and the federal Solicitor General over funding for Hannibal’s defence.
Crown prosecutors appealed the provincial court judge’s ruling to stay the charge and, earlier this year, won the case, then Butcher appealed to B.C.’s highest court.
The case is set to return to the PoCo courthouse Sept. 12.
Hannibal is accused of inappropriately using a stun gun on a patron outside the Foggy Dew pub in Coquitlam Aug. 25, 2001; he arrested the intoxicated patron after the patron squeezed the bottom of a female officer during a routine bar check.
In 2003, Hannibal was acquitted of assault with a Taser on another man during an arrest at the victim’s home Aug. 26, 2001 — the day after the Foggy Dew incident. It was the first case in Canada involving the use of a Taser.
Coquitlam RCMP’s internal affairs section has also charged Hannibal with eight counts under the RCMP Act in connection with the incidents.
A hearing on those charges won’t start until after the criminal matters are dealt with.
Hannibal has not been working but has been collecting his salary — about $70,000 a year — from the RCMP’s E-Division since the two charges were laid in February 2002.
Calls to Butcher were not returned by press time yesterday.
In other court news:
ANOTHER COP ASSAULT CASE
The case against a Coquitlam Mountie charged with assault with a weapon in connection with a domestic dispute was adjourned this week.
Const. Curtis Musgrove, a two-year RCMP member, is also charged with assault with assault causing bodily harm, uttering threats and breaching an undertaking for a previous arrest.
A Surrey provincial court judge put the case over until July 13 for arraignment.
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