Two employees of Fortis BC were conducting service checks in the community of Joe Rich near Kelowna when they discovered that a certain property was receiving far more electricity than it was paying for. The information was passed on to police who eventually obtained a warrant to search the property for the offence of theft of electricity. When the police arrived they found a man walking out of the garage and arrested him immediately. After making the arrest they searched the property and found a 3000 plant marijuana grow operation, along with a number of women who told police that they had been hired as “clippers”. The man was charged with production of cannabis and possession of cannabis for the purpose of distribution. The man hired Mr. van der Walle to defend him. After reviewing the case carefully and questioning the key police officers at the preliminary inquiry, Mr. van der Walle filed his Notice of Constitutional Motion alleging that the search warrant was invalid for three different reasons, the arrest of the client was illegal, and that the police had violated the client’s right to counsel while at the scene of the arrest. With the trial just set to begin the Crown thought better of it and decided to drop the case by entering a stay of proceedings on all charges against the client. Not guilty. No trial necessary.
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