The Prince George firefighter convicted in June of possessing a stolen jetboat became a subject of interest on the first day of a related trial for Jeremy Matthew Kostyshyn, accused of trafficking and possession of stolen property over $5,000.
The Crown hoped to call Benjamin Taffy Williams as a material witness for Kostyshyn's trial and asked a judge Monday to issue a warrant for his arrest to guarantee his presence in court. RCMP officers hadn't been successful in their attempts to serve a subpoena.
Supreme Court Justice Ronald Tindale dismissed the warrant application, but agreed to order a new subpoena for the trial dates.
"It seems to me the police have done very little," said Tindale of the RCMP's efforts to get the paperwork before Williams, who is no longer in Prince George.
He is said to have left soon after his June conviction when he lost his position as a firefighter.
"In my view the evidence doesn't establish that Mr. Williams is evading service of this subpoena," Tindale said.
Court heard of several different ways RCMP tried to serve notice for his presence at Kostyshyn's trial, which is scheduled for five days this week.
Crown prosecutor Marie Louise Ahrens called the evidence of evasion "overwhelming," but Tindale disagreed.
Corp. Jamie Baker tried twice tried to reach Williams at his Prince George residence, in July and August. The first time, Baker testified a car was in the driveway, but he couldn't recall sound or lights. Still, Baker told the judge "my belief was that somebody was home." But Tindale later said there was "no evidence, no basis" for that belief.
In August, Baker tried to hand the subpoena to Williams' wife when she answered the door. She refused and when Baker placed the papers inside the door, "She threw them at me," Baker said.
Other attempts were similarly unsuccessful. Baker had another officer try to serve Williams during an August court appearance and also reached out to the firefighters union.
While Ahrens argued those actions constituted "more than ordinary attempts," Kostyshyn's defence lawyer Patrick Fagan stressed Baker visited the house twice and should have done more.
Fagan asked why police hadn't tried to contact Williams earlier about the trial, when the first trial date had been set for December 2014 (the subpoena for this trial wasn't issued until June 2015).
"The police had," said Fagan, ticking off the months on his fingers, "six months within which to do something. They did nothing."
"All of these factors taken together suggest a pattern of evasion," countered Ahrens, who also spoke of an attempt to get the subpoena to Williams through his lawyer, who suggested she "put it in the mail."
"This is not an honest misunderstanding. This is active resistance to the idea of being served."
To build evidence of that pattern, Ahrens called Const. Wayne Connell, who served a different subpoena to Williams. That time, as Connell walked to the door, he saw Williams through the window. They locked eyes and Williams "jumped" from view, and stayed there while Connell shouted that he knew he was hiding and wasn't going anywhere.
Fagan suggested the three minutes it took Williams to answer weren't unusual and challenged the assertion Williams was hiding in a terse back-and-forth with the officer.
"He comes visible and then he hides," Connell said.
"He goes into the other room," replied Fagan.
"No, he jumps out of sight," said Connell, who later said "I found it very bizarre."
Fagan then stressed that Williams answered the questions and was in court for his trial, which suggested Williams is someone who complies with court orders.
In a brief email, Williams' lawyer told Ahrens that the former firefighter was not in Prince George, a choice that had nothing to do with Kostyshyn's trial.
"(The lawyer) says both too much and too little," said Ahrens, arguing it was clear the lawyer was in touch with his client and had a duty to inform Williams he'd been called before court.
Ahrens said Williams was important as a material witness, having been convicted for purchasing a boat allegedly sold to him by Kostyshyn. Fagan objected to that statement mentioning Williams' conviction and the connection to Kostyshyn, saying it could "potentially prejudice the court."
Kostyshyn's trial continues today.
