July 06, 2017 - 8:20 AM
VANCOUVER - A timeline of the delays in one case that led a B.C. Supreme Court judge to decide it should be thrown out:
Jan. 15, 2012: Police find a marijuana grow-op while searching a home in Chilliwack.
May 11, 2012: A man is charged with cultivating marijuana and possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking.
July 5, 2012: The accused attends court for the first of seven appearances, all before December, six of which the judge says are the defendant's fault as he looks for a lawyer.
September 2013: The man's lawyer withdraws from the case and the original date for a preliminary hearing on Nov. 25 is pushed back by a year to Nov. 3, 2014.
Nov. 3, 2014: The preliminary hearing is held. A trial date is set for four days, beginning Nov. 23, 2015.
November 2015: The case is delayed for three months because a witness is unavailable after the death of a family member. The Crown and defence agree there is a need to resolve whether the accused's charter rights were breached before the trial can proceed.
Feb. 15-17, 2016: The charter application is heard and dismissed. The court schedules three days for a trial, starting Oct. 31, 2016. The accused fires his lawyer, pushing the trial dates back to May 16, 2017.
May 16, 2017: The trial proceeds.
May 23, 2017: The judge finds the man guilty on both counts.
June 5, 2017: The man applies for a stay of proceedings because of unreasonable delay, citing the Jordan ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada.
June 9, 2017: Justice William Grist of the B.C. Supreme Court grants the man a stay of proceedings, blaming 38 of the more than 60 months of delay on complacency in the court system.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2017