2015-12-01 Travis Vader's lawyer accuses Crown of strategic ploy to delay trial | CBC News
Published by Bretton McCann,
Travis Vader has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the disappearance of Alberta couple Lyle and Marie McCann. (CBC)
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The lawyer defending Travis Vader on two counts of first-degree murder says the Crown prosecutor stayed the charges to buy more time for police to bolster their case.
Vader is accused of killing St. Albert, Alta., couple Lyle and Marie McCann in July 2010. Their bodies have never been found.
- ■Travis Vader's lawyer to grill RCMP, Crown about handling of McCann murder case
- ■Travis Vader, accused of McCann murders, released on bail
- ■Travis Vader, accused in murders of the McCanns, sues RCMP
- ■McCann couple's remains still missing 2 years later
The charges against Vader were stayed in March 2014, just one month before the trial was set to begin, then reactivated nine months later.
The Crown says the only reason for the stay was due to a massive amount of last-minute disclosures made by the RCMP.
However, lawyer Brian Beresh, who is representing Vader, suggests the Crown's actions amount to an abuse of process.
At a hearing in Alberta Court of Queen's Bench before Justice Denny Thomas, Beresh is asking the judge to stay the charges.
Lawyers spar over lack of bodies
During cross-examination Tuesday morning, Beresh grilled chief Crown prosecutor Michelle Doyle about the strength of her case, which he described as "a case where you were alleging murder and you had no bodies."
Doyle confirmed the McCanns have not been located.
Beresh continued: "Number 2: there was no proof of the cause of death because of that, correct?"
Doyle replied: "There was evidence that tended to suggest the cause of death."
Doyle said it was a circumstantial case with forensic evidence that would require the court to "make a reasonable inference."
When Beresh suggested the stay issued in 2014 by the Crown was a strategic ploy to put the trial on hold, Doyle bristled.
"There was nothing positive about having to direct a stay of proceedings in this case," she said. "Secondly, I had in mind no pending investigation, no avenue that the police were anticipating to go down."
Crown blames disclosure issues
Beresh referred to notes from an RCMP meeting held the day after the stay was issued. They outlined 10 new tasks assigned to officers on the McCann investigation.
Edmonton's chief Crown prosecutor Michelle Doyle said under oath she had lost all confidence in the RCMP's ability to turn over all evidence in the Travis Vader case. (CBC)
When Beresh asked Doyle if she had been told police were going to continue the investigation at that time, she responded: "I would have expected the investigation to continue, absolutely."
However, a brief submitted last week by the new Crown prosecutor on the case states: "Subsequent to the stay of proceedings, essentially no further investigation of Travis Vader by the RCMP occurred other than checking out tips that came in."
Another email from March 2014 between two RCMP members entered as an exhibit stated: "The charges on the accused were stayed yesterday due, in part, to disclosure issues. The Crown would like to bring the charges back to court ASAP."
Testifying in court Tuesday, Doyle once again said the only reason the charges were stayed was because of disclosure issues.
And for that, she blamed the RCMP.
"There's no doubt that all police officers I dealt with took it upon themselves as their mistake," she testified.
Doyle also suggested RCMP were negligent about disclosure.
"I can tell you it absolutely was not intentional and it ought to have been done, so the only remaining descriptor was it was negligent."
RCMP Sgt. Rick Jané told the hearing the case is the largest investigation he's ever been involved in.
Lyle and Marie McCann investigation by the numbers
- ■Length of Investigation before charges laid — almost 2 years
- ■Number of RCMP officers who worked on case — 756
- ■Primary investigators — 100
- ■Number of tips — 1,400 (including tips from psychics)
- ■Number of documents — 5,000 (average document 100 pages)
- ■Number of police tasks — 1,200
- ■Number of audio files (wiretaps etc.) — 78,000
- ■Mounties assigned to fix disclosure problems — 45
- ■Salary cost of Mounties assigned to fix disclosure problems - $302,000
(Source: Sgt. Rick Jané)
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- 28 Comments
- BlahBlah
seems like it is a no win situation for the cops, as they mentioned it was huge investigation with massive amounts of investigation required. The cops appear to have done what the could to get Vader of the streets and if you think that there is not strong evidence tying him to this then I believe you are fooling yourself. His lawyer is doing whatever he can to get Vader off, as is his job. Hopefully at the end of the day Vader will be convicted and jailed.
- 12 hours agoLikes8888
- gaddflyy
All the know nothings are assuming guilt as it is not necessary for them to see any evidence. If it's good enough for the police to lay the charge lets just get on to sentencing.
Steven Truscott, Donald Marshal, David Milgard - have you not learned anything or is it you just don't care?
- 9 hours agoLikes5555
- Edmontonian
@Mrs.Shovlshtski
If you are insinuating that police brutality is the answer in extracting evidence from someone who is guilty, then along with that goes the production of evidence from someone who is innocent.
Better to live in a system where the odd guilty person might go free than in a system where innocent people regularly go to jail. That has been tried lots of times and never worked out very well.
- 9 hours agoLikes3333
- Avatar100
Remember the statue of "justice"?…..She's blind……that tell us that I am….We are…. Equal under law…….Unless the cops can create a fiction and find a lawyer to sell the fiction to a judge and jury…….…A great recipe for alcoholism and a lifetime membership in AA…….. I’ll bet police and assistant school principles have been chasing this guy around the back roads of the Rockies since he pushed little susie in daycare………
- 12 hours agoLikes3333
- Mako_26_
Good to note all this stuff since the justice system does not give a dam about the victims or the families of victims. If someone had murdered my parents like this piece of crap I would wait till he was out of jail, kidnap him, waterboard him until he told me where the bodies were, go get my parents bodies then deal with the murderer.
Our justice system is a joke.
- 13 hours agoLike1111
- moggie
@Avatar100 "are you related to Obama?"
More like related to Donald Trump: ""Would I approve waterboarding? You bet your ass I'd approve it, you bet your ass -- in a heartbeat. And I would approve more than that...It works. Only a stupid person would say it doesn't work... And you know what? If it doesn't work, they deserve it anyway for what they're doing to us."
—Donald Trump"
- 11 hours agoLikes0000
- Edmontonian
@Mako_26_
"If someone had murdered my parents like this piece of crap..."
And there is the problem with your statement right there. However unlikable the suspect may be, he has not been convicted of the murders. So, your assumption that the justice system is a joke because he hasn't been convicted presupposes that he is guilty, which is circular logic.
- 9 hours agoLikes4444
- KommonCentz
Huge difference between knowing it and proving it so who was responsible for laying the charge prior to having sufficient evidence to secure a conviction? Obviously, either the cops, the Crown or both dropped the ball on this one. It definitely appears that the stay was a move to buy time, unthinkable considering its a double murder. Regrets to the families.
- 11 hours agoLike1111
- greatwallsoffire
@KommonCentz Charges were laid after Crown was satisfied there was sufficient evidence. What caused the stay was failure to disclose reams and reams of highly technical and circumstantial evidence on a basis the justice system considers "timely". Stay was vacated after that disclosure finally occurred. It's pretty clear most of this circumstantial evidence is in the form of physical evidence connected the accused to the various crime scenes, which were remote and dozens of miles apart. ... » more
- 11 hours agoLikes3333
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