SECTION 9 - LOCKED UP UNTIL SAFE TO RELEASE
Saturday, March 29, 2014 at 9:27PM Mr. Poletz was charged with driving while "over 80" and open liquor in a vehicle. To set the context, Mr. Poletz’s arrest took place at the Craven Country Jamboree, which is attended by over 20,000 people annually, after RCMP officers observed him slowly navigating his vehicle through a large crowd of Jamboree attendees. The trial judge made a finding that the RCMP had arbitrarily detained Mr. Poletz for 12 hours following the conclusion of their investigation of the charges against him and entered a judicial stay on his charges. The summary conviction appeal judge set aside that judicial stay and the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal agreed:
[I]t would seem to the public utterly incongruous to have properly found Mr. Poletz guilty on the two charges he faced only to then stay the entering of his convictions on those charges simply because the state had held him in detention longer than was appropriate in the circumstances where its resources were taxed by the policing demands of the Craven Jamboree. To the public, this would amount to an acquittal in the face of clear, convincing and admissible evidence of guilt and would only serve, in the circumstances, to itself raise questions as to the integrity of the justice system. R. v. Poletz, 2014 SKCA 16
Compare the decision in R. v. Key, 2011 ONCJ 780 (see January 28, 2012 blog entry).