FILE PHOTO - Curtis Sagmoen leaves the Vernon Law Courts, June 19, 2020.

(BEN BULMER / iNFOnews.ca)

Curtis Sagmoen has had his charge of assaulting a police officer stayed by Crown council.

The charge that dates back to October 2020 was due to go to trial this summer, but Crown prosecutors stayed the charge yesterday, April 26.

B.C. Prosecution Service spokesperson Dan McLaughlin said in an email that Crown had concluded the charge assessment standard was no longer met.

McLaughlin said Crown had to measure all available evidence on whether there was a substantial likelihood of conviction.

Few details are known about the incident that led to the charge, but Sagmoen was alleged to have slammed into a police officer while he was under arrest and in handcuffs in October 2020.

Police were searching his family's Salmon River Road property at the time of the alleged assault.

READ MORE: 'Curtis is not changing:' Neighbour says sex worker seen at Sagmoen property

Crown prosecutor Simone McCallum had previously described the events as a "30-second incident" within a 10 minutes interaction between police and Sagmoen.

It's not known why police were searching Sagmoen's property at the time, but days earlier the RCMP had made the unusual move to publicly warn sex workers not to go to the area.

A neighbour of Sagmoen's told iNFOnews.ca that sex workers were seen near Sagmoen's property at the time.

Sagmoen has multiple convictions for violence against sex workers and was on strict probation terms at the time of the alleged offence.

In December 2019, Sagmoen was convicted of ambushing a sex worker and pointing a gun at her.

Several months later he was again convicted for driving a quad into a sex worker. Following the December 2019 conviction Sagmoen was released from custody having spent more than two years in custody.

Both assaults took place in the summer of 2017 at his family's Salmon River Road property. 

In the fall of 2017, the remains of the body of 18-year-old Traci Genereaux was found at the family property.

No one has been charged in relation to Genereaux's death, and police have not said how she died.

For more stories on Curtis Sagmoen go here.

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