Curtis Sagmoen leaves the Vernon court house Sept. 9, 2019.

(BEN BULMER / iNFOnews.ca)

The search of the Salmon River Road property in September 2017 was valid and admissible as evidence in the trial against Curtis Sagmoen, a B.C. Supreme Court Justice has decided.

Justice Alison Beames' decision on Monday, Dec. 9 came the week after Sagmoen's trial began with a voir dire hearing – a sort of trial within a trial – in which defence lawyer Lisa Helps argued that the warrant issued to police days after the incident and before Sagmoen's arrest outside his Salmon River Road property in September 2017 should not have been issued.

Helps argued the affidavit police filed in court requesting a judge grant them a search warrant of Sagmoen's property was based on "rumour, gossip, unsubstituted information (and) conclusory statement" and was "drafted in such a way" to "mislead the issuing judge."

Justice Beames decided that the judge had "ample evidence" to issue the warrant.

Some details were excised from the report, however, such as alleged sightings of a man who had a similar appearance to that of Sagmoen during the execution of the search warrant on Sept. 1, 2017.

Sagmoen is standing trial on charges involving an incident where he allegedly masked his face and pointed a gun at a sex worker who he'd called to his rural property. Sagmoen was charged with covering his face with intent to commit an offence, intentionally discharging a firearm while being reckless to the life or safety of another person, threatening to cause death or bodily harm while using a firearm, uttering threats and possession of methamphetamine. At the beginning of the trial in September 2019 he pleaded not guilty to five of the charges.

The decision essentially allows the trial to proceed as Crown intended.

In October 2017, just over one month after the alleged incident Sagmoen is currently standing trial for took place, the remains of Tracy Genereaux's body were discovered on Sagmoen's family's property. Charges have not been laid in relation to that case and if police know how she died, they haven't said.

Court will reconvene at 11:30 a.m.

For more stories on Curtis Sagmoen go here.

-With files from Ben Bulmer.

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