Provincial Court Judge Victor Galbraith issued a judicial stay of proceedings Tuesday against a man facing charges of production of a controlled substance in relation to a marijuana grow op.
Van Bao Pham was first arrested on March 4, 2010 but after a series of delays his case was finally set for a two-day trial beginning Friday at the Prince George courthouse. Defence lawyer Keith Aartsen successfully argued, however, that the delays were prejudicial to his client and the trial shouldn't proceed.
"I find this is one of the clearest of cases where the only remedy is a judicial stay of proceedings," Galbraith said in issuing his ruling.
The judge didn't accept Aartsen's submission that the entire 40-month pre-trial time be considered and instead narrowed it to 23 1/2 months dating back to August of 2011 when the information about the case was first sworn before the court. A second arrest in the case was made in March 2012.
While conceding that the information in front of him wasn't as complete as he would have liked, Galbraith ruled that 12 1/2 months of that time was a result of unnecessary delays, to which he attributed six months to the Crown and 6 1/2 months to a lack of institutional resources.
In the case of the Crown, Galbraith said that that since Aartsen sent three letters to the prosecutors asking for updates on the case, it would have been possible to speed up the time it took for a summons and warrant to be executed in 2012. The institutional resources delay stemmed from a cancellation of a January trial date due to lack of available court time.
"I find no actions of the accused have delayed this matter," the judge said.
Galbraith determined that the delays caused financial hardship on Pham because he needed to retain his lawyer for a longer period of time and needed to make additional trips to Prince George from his new home in the Lower Mainland.
He also ruled that some of the time Pham spent in custody was unnecessary, but did not determine that it was prejudicial and that was not a factor in issuing a stay of proceedings.
According to information presented to Galbraith, the case was complex and revolved around a marijuana grow op with 1,670 plants.
