Initial legal wrangling in the Brian Skakun trial appears to be at an end as Judge Ken Ball dismissed late Tuesday an application from defence lawyer Jon Duncan for a much wider disclosure of documents from the City of Prince George.
Ball made his decision immediately after hearing a rebuttal from Duncan of submissions from city lawyer Barry Williamson and Crown counsel Judith Doulis.
Ball said his pending written decision will be based entirely on the reasons Williamson provided earlier the same morning.
The collection of 34 e-mails supported by affidavits from a range of sources already before the court are enough for a fair trial, Williamson had asserted, and dismissed Duncan's request a "fishing expedition."
"What the defence seeks with this application is to literally turn city hall on its head and shake out every piece of paper and take an inordinate amount of time in a fruitless search which is unlikely to produce much further relevant material," Williamson said.
Duncan had maintained, in part, that the search of city documents was constrained by limiting the search terms to Heller, RCMP and CBC. In particular, Duncan maintained there should be more documentation from a meeting between city council member Debora Munoz, then-mayor Colin Kinsley and Derek Bates regarding the matter.
Duncan said he found it strange that such an important meeting would produce just a two-page record from Bates and called for a further search of any further notes, e-mails and other documents related to the meeting.
The court heard on Tuesday, the first day of the trial, that Skakun confessed to Munoz in September 2008 he leaked the so-called Kitty Heller report to CBC in August 2008. She passed on what she heard from Skakun to Kinsley and Bates at a Nov. 21, 2008 meeting, the court was also told.
Two weeks of court time has been booked for the trial, during which as many as 18 witnesses are expected to testify. So far, just one witness has been heard - RCMP inspector Ray Noble. who was assigned by the provincial RCMP headquarters to investigate the allegations.
Skakun is charged with violating provincial privacy regulations. It's alleged he leaked the so-called Kitty Heller report, which looked into allegations of conflict of interest between then Prince George RCMP superintendent Dahl Chambers and Ann Bailey, the city's top civilian employee at the detachment.
