Superior Court of Justice Chatham-Kent, April 5, 2016. (Photo by Simon Crouch) Superior Court of Justice Chatham-Kent, April 5, 2016. (Photo by Simon Crouch)
Chatham

Decision Day Coming For Tilbury Dog Fighting Case

Two men accused of operating a dog fighting ring in Tilbury will soon know if they will stand trial.

The judge says he'll have a decision on February 9 that will determine whether or not the 66 charges surrounding the alleged abuse of pitbulls and possession of firearms will get thrown out.

Defence lawyer Ken Marley says there were too many delays, including court adjournments to add co-accused Robert Tomlin and Candice Johnson to the proceedings and it took almost a year before data from a seized computer was disclosed.

Assistant Crown lawyer James Boonstra says the massive disclosure (17,000 pages) was too much for police and the OSPCA to analyze and some was sent to the province. He says the OSPCA euthanasia application also delayed the process. Boonstra also defends adding Tomlin late in the game and eliminating other co-accused, saying it minimized the impact to proceedings.  Tomlin received four months house arrest, two years probation and a lifetime ban of owning pets.

Marley says 31 months to conclude a case is unacceptable and surpasses the 30 months allowed under the law.

"The only way that 30 month limit can be saved is if the Crown can point to the delay on the part of the defence and the position of the defence is that there was little or no delay that's directly attributable to us," says Marley.

Boonstra says Marley is partly to blame for the delays because he was not available when the Crown was, adding that “Marley is sucking and blowing at the same time.”

Justice Thomas says delays were also created because the court and justice schedules did not meet defence availability.

An illegal search and seizure application is still outstanding. The defence alleges that police trespassed when officers busted the alleged dog fighting ring in 2015. That issue should be resolved on March 28, if the case goes to trial.

Marley says the prosecution fumbled the ball and he feels good about where his clients stand.

"You don't take on a case like this if you're not ready to read 17,000 pages of disclosure. I think at the end of the day the justice is going to say, this is a very straight forward case and there's nothing complicated about it at all," he says.

Marley says his clients have dealt with this for far too long and people should not be upset if the charges get tossed because all cases should be processed in a timely manner.

"We're asking for a stay of proceedings and that's an extreme remedy but our law protects the interests of everybody in the criminal justice system by making sure that criminal cases don't go on forever," says Marley.

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