A provincial court hearing in Revelstoke was abandoned after a judge found that a search warrant with a false address was used in a nighttime police entry that led to the arrest of two people accused of using bear spray.
A release from Revelstoke RCMP in July 2024 recounts that officers forced entry into a mobile home at 318 Humbert St. in the Southside neighbourhood, for an ongoing investigation under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
Once inside the home, the officers were reportedly bear-sprayed by a man and woman but repositioned to safety. The detachment called in a regional emergency response team for backup, and the individuals surrendered and were arrested.
They faced four counts each of assaulting police with a weapon on July 15, 2024, along with one count each of resisting or obstructing officers and a single count of reporting an offence that didn’t happen.
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Following a voir dire — a mini trial within a larger trial to determine the admissibility of evidence or competence of a witness — held this Feb. 5 and 6 at the Revelstoke Courthouse, the tide turned when the accused challenged the validity of the search warrant used to breach the property.
Defence lawyers discovered that an error was made in the warrant.
An affidavit from Denay Davies, a paralegal helping represent the accused, reports that a land title search of the Humbert Street property found a discrepancy in the address police used for the warrant.
According to defence lawyer Daniel McNamee and the affidavit, which Black Press Media obtained through an application to the judge, the mobile home was located at 4-318 Humbert St. but listed in the warrant as 4-310.
To confirm the correct address, Davies conducted a search for the parcel identifier.
“I was able to check through the City of Revelstoke’s planning department website to find parcels in Revelstoke, and upon searching for 318 Humbert Street, I located a number of mobile homes on a parcel in Revelstoke, including 4-318 Humbert Street,” Davies wrote. “I also conducted a query for 310 Humbert Street on the City of Revelstoke’s same website. There were no results, and the website indicated that no such address existed.”
With the defence finding the search warrant had listed a nonexistent address, the grounds for the police to have forcibly entered the 318 Humbert St. property were undermined.
“Ultimately, (the accused) were completely right to defend themselves because even though it was the police, they had no lawful authority to be barging into my clients’ home,” McNamee told Black Press Media by text. “The only charges arising from execution of this unlawful warrant related to my clients’ efforts to defend themselves against the unknown intruders.”
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Damienne Darby, communications counsel for the BC Prosecution Service (BCPS), told Black Press Media that on March 6, after the voir dire, the court granted an application by the accused that the search warrant was invalid, jeopardizing all charges by police.
“Charges will only be approved if Crown counsel is satisfied that the evidence gathered by the investigative agency provides a substantial likelihood of conviction and, if so, that a prosecution is required in the public interest,” Darby explained by email. “If, at any point, the prosecutor concludes that the evidentiary standard is no longer met or that a prosecution is no longer required in the public interest, a prosecution cannot proceed.”
In this case, she said the prosecutor found that the “test” of the provincial charge assessment guidelines wasn’t met by the Crown without police having a valid search warrant.
The provincial court judge ruled that Revelstoke RCMP’s entry into the residence without a valid warrant meant police had breached Section 8 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms — that “everyone has the right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure.”
The Crown subsequently stayed its proceedings this March 6, dropping all charges against the accused.
In an email to Black Press Media, Staff Sgt. Chris Dodds of Revelstoke RCMP said the detachment generally doesn’t comment on the Crown’s decisions.
“Charges were originally approved by the Crown in this matter,” he noted.
Crown counsel also typically doesn’t share the reasoning behind its decision-making in prosecutions, Darby said.
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The BCPS doesn’t have any oversight of police for carrying out invalid search warrants, she added, and Revelstoke RCMP won’t be penalized or disciplined for acting on this warrant.
“That’s not something the court penalizes them for,” Darby said. “They just make a declaration.”
The accused faced no conditions leading up to the stay of proceedings, and will bear no criminal record from the proceedings going forward, she confirmed.
“This case is a perfect example of why police need to engage in careful investigative work,” McNamee said. “The way things went down shouldn’t have happened, and I’m going to do everything I can to ensure my clients are fairly compensated.”