The trial into the snow-clearing incident that has a local chiropractor facing criminal charges is delayed until at least June.
Jon Daniel Cooper, 36, is facing charges for obstruction of justice and resisting arrest relating to the Jan. 8 incident where he tried to free an ATV from a snow bank after his father got it stuck while trying to clear an area sidewalk.
The trial was expected to conclude on Friday, however, defence lawyer Tom Engel introduced a Charter of Rights violation notice, alleging mistreatment by the RCMP, on the first day of trial that has yet to be dealt with.
The allegations continued Friday, with Engel accusing St. Albert RCMP Const. Danielle Joevenazzo of covering for her co-worker and arresting officer Const. Travis Matlock by altering her notes to protect his actions.
“We don’t converse with other officers,” she said, in regards to discussing matters before she wrote her report on the incident.
She revealed in her testimony she did not see Matlock take Cooper to the ground, adding her attention was focused instead on freeing her service pistol from her seatbelt, which took roughly 15 seconds.
Engel said it was unusual that this incident was not reflected in her notes and suggested it was a matter of convenience that Joevenazzo did not see Cooper being taken to the ground, as this is one of the instances where Matlock allegedly violated Cooper’s charter rights.
Engel questioned whether she saw the incident, but chose not to comment in order to prevent disciplinary action against Matlock.
Joevenazzo denied this accusation.
“I can absolutely say I did not see how he went down on the ground,” she said.
She was unable to provide a description of Cooper’s demeanour, but told the court Matlock was “somewhat excited.” She was quick to point out this was typical of an officer making an arrest.
When Cooper testified Monday, he said he was not read his rights and was unaware why he was being arrested until being booked at the St. Albert RCMP detachment. Joevenazzo said he was read his charter rights while sitting in the back of the police cruiser.
“He wasn’t listening to what was being said. He just kept saying ‘no comment,’” she said.
The RCMP on-dash camera should have captured the ordeal, but Engel said it was conveniently not working the day of the incident.
It is RCMP protocol that officers conduct a pre-service inspection and report any faulty equipment. It is also suggested that the use of on-dash cameras is vital to helping exonerate officers when accused by members of the public.
Joevenazzo said Matlock completed the pre-service inspection that day and told her the equipment wasn’t working. This was not reported to superiors by either officer.
In the charter rights violation notice, Engel claims the equipment was in fact recording, but the recording has since been destroyed.
The trial was in voir dire since Tuesday to deal with the matter of the charter rights violation, before moving to the regular trial. No date has been chosen for when the trial will resume, however, Judge Larry Nemirsky said he suspects it to be no sooner than June.
