R. v. BAT, [ABPC, Red Deer – July 2020]

BAT was charged with trafficking in cocaine, possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking and possessing proceeds of crime. The RCMP, used the services of a civilian agent (witting or unwitting) to orchestrate a hand-to-hand transaction of a street level quantity of cocaine. The police observed the civilian agent meet with BAT and thereafter return to the police with the substance purchased.

The police thereafter followed BAT, stopped his vehicle and a search revealed the presence of a substantial quantity of cocaine and cash. Regarding the cash in BAT’s possession, several of the bills had serial numbers which had been recorded by the police prior to the transaction involving the civilian agent.

As the Crown was seeking a lengthy period of imprisonment in a Federal institution, BAT retained Patrick Fagan to defend this prosecution.

While it appeared that BAT was “dead in the water” in relation to all charges, Patrick Fagan identified several deficiencies in disclosure provided by the police vis-à-vis the “civilian agent”. In other words, Patrick Fagan asked hard questions that the police were not prepared to answer.

BOTTOM LINE: As a consequence of leverage acquired by way of pressure brought to bear on the police vis-à-vis the non-disclosure of information germane to the civilian agent, Patrick Fagan was successful in resolving this most serious prosecution by way of a complete withdrawal of ALL charges in exchange for a plea of guilty to “simple” possession of a controlled substance. Consequently, instead of serving a prison term in a Federal institution, BAT was able to deal with the matter by way of a $500.00 fine.