A Toronto-area pharmacist with ties to the Chatham and Windsor area has walked away a free man after being accused of opioid trafficking three years ago.
John Gerges, 38, who previously operated pharmacies in Tilbury and Windsor, managed to evade jail time following a major blunder by York Regional Police (YRPS) and the prosecution.
The judge ruled Gerges' trial took too long and threw out the charges because the police and the Crown refused to disclose the radio recordings during the surveillance prior to the arrest December 2019.
York Regional Police said they didn't want to disclose the entire 100 hours of recordings to protect the undercover officers and the informants. The judge said police could have removed the protected parts of the recordings before disclosure, but police said vetting or cleaning them up would take about a year.
Justice A. A. Ghosh decided the delay violated Gerges' right to a speedy trial.
"Once YRPS learned of the existence of these recordings, certain steps should have been taken to mitigate the delay that followed. An audit of outstanding impacted investigations should have been conducted. YRPS should have obtained legal advice regarding its disclosure obligations. The prosecuting counsel for each impacted file needed to be promptly advised of the existence of these recordings, regardless of the police position on disclosure. In turn, impacted defendants needed to be notified of their existence in contemplation of disclosure applications. None of this was apparently done, at least not in a timely manner that may have insulated the delay here," Ghosh said. "The Crown has an obligation to mitigate delay arising from late-breaking disclosure issues. Instead, the state caused the delay by resisting its clear disclosure obligations in this case. The gross delay was already up against the presumptive ceiling when the Crown chose to oppose disclosure. Had the defence received these recordings soon after their discovery in December of 2020, the trial dates almost certainly would have been preserved."
The accused waited 26 months for a trial, exceedingly over the 18 months allowed by law.
The Crown's application to forfeit $26,000 in funds seized was also denied because the judge deemed the prosecution had "no reasonable prospect of success" and the funds were returned to the defendant.
However, Gerges has been banished from the pharmacy profession by the Ontario College of Pharmacists.
The College said Gerges agreed to permanently resign as a member of the College; to no longer have any proprietary interest, direct or indirect, in any pharmacy; and to never work or be employed in a pharmacy in any capacity, including but not limited to volunteering.
He had several allegations of professional misconduct pending including drug trafficking, possession of forged documents, and possession of the proceeds of crime.
The pharmacies in Tilbury and Windsor are now under new management.