R. v. F.J. [Provincial Court of Alberta, Cochrane, April 2019]

F.J. was pulled over for running a stop sign at approximately 2:00am. The police detected alcohol on his breath, observed that he had slurred speech and alcohol was observed throughout the vehicle.  F.J. was arrested for impaired driving. The in-car audio visual recording showed that F.J. was less than courteous with police … this eventually led to an altercation in which the police were allegedly injured by F.J.  F. J. was charged with impaired driving, refusing to provide a breath sample, obstructing a police officer in the execution of his duties and assaulting a police officer. Ms. Fagan scheduled the matter for trial and filed a Charter notice alleging that her client was arbitrarily detained, that he was not given a reasonable opportunity to contact counsel and that his security of the person was violated because he was not released from custody until nearly 18 hours after his arrest.

BOTTOM LINE: Upon receiving Ms. Fagan’s Charter notice all criminal charges against F.J. were completely withdrawn before the commencement of trial.