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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Judge orders new trial for cops

By: Mike McIntyre

Posted: 09/28/2012 1:00 AM

A technicality freed two Winnipeg police officers facing serious criminal charges -- but a long-awaited ruling from Manitoba's highest court means they'll go back on trial.

Const. Peter O'Kane and Const. Jess Zebrun were cleared of perjury in a February 2011 decision that likely saved their careers. Their lawyers successfully filed a motion for a dismissal of the case, saying the Crown attorney failed to have any of his witnesses properly identify the two accused in court.

It was surprising, considering there appeared to be no dispute that the O'Kane and Zebrun sitting in court were the same O'Kane and Zebrun referred to throughout the internal police investigation on display for the jury.

The case was heard by the Court of Appeal in late 2011. In a decision released Thursday, the high court said the judge was wrong to dismiss the charges. The acquittal was overturned and a new trial was ordered against both accused. No dates have been set.

"I am more than happy to see a ruling I always said was wrong was reversed, and I'll be able to see some justice done in this case. And justice there will be," special prosecutor Robert Tapper said Thursday. He said he feels "vindicated" that his actions -- which were called into question by defence counsel and Queen's Bench Justice Brenda Keyser -- have been upheld on appeal.

Tapper successfully argued Keyser denied him the right to make a formal submission on the issue of the identity of the two accused. He said the judge should have allowed him to reopen his case and set the record straight about the officers' identification. He argued no damage was done because it was clear to everyone the officers at the centre of the controversy were O'Kane and Zebrun.

Tapper also said Keyser should have accepted identification had already been proven because defence lawyers had agreed to notebooks and phone records of O'Kane and Zebrun being tendered as exhibits. Defence lawyers insisted Keyser was correct in finding there would be "prejudice" to the two officers if she allowed Tapper to reopen his case.

The charges stemmed from an allegedly improper search of a downtown hotel room and the seizure of nearly a kilogram of cocaine and $18,000 cash in 2005. The Crown stayed drug-trafficking charges against the suspect and an accomplice when questions were raised at a preliminary hearing about the validity of a police search warrant. O'Kane, 40, and Zebrun, 33, were arrested in January 2008.

O'Kane and Zebrun are alleged to have lied to a magistrate to obtain a search warrant, which they used to enter a room at the Fairmont hotel and seize the drugs and cash.

At the preliminary hearing, O'Kane and Zebrun said their suspicions were based on the information of a mysterious informant, and they didn't enter the hotel room until they had a search warrant. They also gave different accounts of when they first went to the hotel.

www.mikeoncrime.com

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 28, 2012 A8