Colby Leamon had lost a close relative and was looking for a dog to provide emotional support.
At that time, in 2021, he was a student who lived alone and wanted company.
After finding what seemed like a legitimate offer online, Leamon disbursed the “a few thousand dollars”, but never received the dog.
“The seller disappeared and I stayed with anything,” Leamon said in a recent interview with CBC News.
Leamon was not the only one who believed he was scammed.
The RCMP investigated, already mid -2022 presented fraud charges against a man and a woman who lives in Eastern Newfoundland. There were 23 alleged victims appointed in judicial documents.
“We informed the authorities seeking justice, but unfortunately that never happened,” Leamon said.
Fast advance 2 and a half years, until the beginning of January this year.
The lawyers of the two defendants had submitted a so -called Jordan application, holding that it had taken too long to reach the trial.
The prosecutor, who appeared in the Provincial Court in St. John’s on January 7, did not call evidence and those 23 fraud charges were retired.
Back in western Newfoundland, Leamon says he didn’t know that none of that had happened until CBC News contacted him almost two months later.
“It’s frustrating, disappointing, to say the least,” he said.
“I am surprised. Losing the money was bad enough, but not even if I was told that the case was discarded makes it look like it didn’t matter. I trusted the system to handle it and they didn’t even give me the courtesy of an update. It simply makes me ask me how many other victims are in the dark like that?”
If the provincial justice department has the answer, it does not share it publicly.
Last October, officials wrote an informative note for Justice Minister Bernard Davis, in the event that they asked him about cases like these in the Assembly Chamber.
“The frequency of Jordan’s applications has decreased greatly in the last issue of years,” said that information note. It was launched through access to information.
Then, CBC News asked the Department of Justice to support that statement, including the number of Jordan requests submitted every year, broken down by court level and how they were resolved.
The Department of Justice refused to provide that data.
In an email, spokesman Eric Humber advised that “Jordan’s requests filed in the court are reflective as a snapshot over time.”
So, does that mean that the department does not track the data related to the cases of Jordan, or monitor this data and does not discuss it or release it publicly?
“Applications made under [Jordan] They are fluids, and the number of applications submitted reflects a time in time, “Humber replied in a monitoring email.
The department did not put anyone available for an interview for this story in response to initial applications more than a month ago.
While the department cannot, or not, provide more information, CBC News has been tracking what seemed to be an unusual increase in Jordan requests in the province in recent months.
This is what we find.
In the decision of Jordan, the Supreme Court of Canada established deadlines for the judgments that are concluded from the moment someone is accused.
The limit is 18 months in the Provincial Court and 30 months in the Supreme Court. It is presumed that anything longer that is unreasonable, unless these delays can be justified.
As of last September, there were only three pending requests from the Jordan Provincial Court here. That is according to the information note provided to Terranova and the Minister of Justice of Labrador in October.
But at the end of November, CBC News found up to 15 active Jordan applications in Progreso only in Provincial Court. That is in accordance with a review of the businesses of the Provincial Court, the audio of the associated judicial procedures and presentations.
In a period of one month from the beginning of January to the beginning of February, 10 people saw that their positions fell due to delays in the trial.
Seven of them were members of the Innu nation who had been accused of illegal hunting and possession of Caribu under the Wildlife Law.
Two of the people who walked without trial were the accused in the supposed scam of puppies that caught Colby Leamon and another 22.
Grogy driver deviated in traffic, the charges fell
The remaining matter was a case of deteriorated driving that dates back to the spring of 2021.
According to judicial documents, the RNC received a call after midnight from a subcompact hatchback that revolved all the way and in the approaching traffic.
The officers tracked the car and arrested him in Topsail Road in Conception Bay South. The driver had blood eyes, was stunned and had trouble assembling prayers and answering basic questions.
The RNC found marijuana, and told the driver that he would be taken to the detachment in Mount Pearl to perform tests through an expert in drug recognition.
Before leaving the scene, the officer who arrested him asked the driver if he would like his vehicle to move to a safer place. He said yes, but he told the Police that they wouldn’t need to move it because his passenger could do it. However, there was no passenger; He was the only one in the car.
On January 10 of this year, 1,329 days later, the judge granted a request from Jordan and dismissed the charges.
Another case of deteriorated driving had been launched in the Provincial Court in St. John’s less than two months before, in mid -November.
However, not all Jordan applications were successful.
At least four presented in the Provincial Court were rejected in a period of about two months at the end of 2024 and early 2025. Those included cases of sexual assault, forced confinement, aggravated assault and possession at the end of trafficking.
According to published decisions, two most failed requests of Jordan were denied in the Supreme Court in the autumn of St. John, a case of robbery, the other that involves sexual crimes.
Other provinces publicly trace and disseminate the information related to Jordan.
Alberta reported 27 Jordan requests filed for a period of one year that ended in March 2024. Two of those requests were granted and eight were proactively by the Crown.
That seems to be a marked contrast with Newfoundland and Labrador, where 10 defendants had their retired cases due to Jordan only in a recent period of one month.
The murder position remained in the summer of 2024
Last summer, a Judge of the Supreme Court remained against a man accused of murder after a homicide of 2020 in St. John’s.
Ironically, both the defendant and the victim had previously submitted the successful requests of Jordanes years before, so that drug charges are thrown.
Following the judge’s decision to stop the case of murder last September, Justice Minister Bernard Davis told reporters that his officials were evaluating ways to improve the system.
Since then, the crown has presented an appeal.
Following a decision that saw a case of murder released before reaching a trial, Justice Minister Bernard Davis did not say Friday if the lack of prosecutors of the Crown contributed to the delay that frowned the case.
Meanwhile, in the Supreme Court in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, the defense lawyer in another case of murder recently indicated that a request from Jordan can be submitted.
Eric Rich was accused in 2021 and declared guilty of second degree murder in December.
Defensor lawyer Mark Gruchy told the Court on January 17 that he had “received instructions from Mr. Rich to seek an award of Jordan’s problems in the case before the sentence concludes.”
Earlier this week, the court officials in Labrador said that a Jordan application had not submitted. Gruchy did not respond to an email application for an update.
The case is due in June by sentence.
The past fall, after prosecutors became public with concerns about the overwhelming workloads, the Minister of Justice said the work was underway to address the problem.
A week later, Davis announced that 18 new prosecutors would be hired in the next three years.
The Department of Justice recently said to CBC News that there were four active requests from Jordan filed in the Provincial Court in mid -February.
Applications currently in the file include a case of deteriorated driving in western Labrador and a assault case in St. John’s.
‘His justice never arrived’
Jeremy Mitchell was one of the almost two dozen plaintiffs in the alleged puppy scam that was recently expelled.
His family wanted to get a Siberian Husky a few years ago. They ended up dealing with the same breeder as Leamon.
Mitchell says there were “red flags” practically immediately. The sellers said they would reduce the price if they would send cash quickly.
“We never got the dog and [were] It was a large sum of money, “Mitchell said in a recent interview.
He and other alleged victims found themselves in a Facebook group and went to the police.
“Just on the other side of the island, these people were being attacked,” he said.
Mitchell says that the judicial process moved slowly, before finally stopping, something that did not know that it had happened until CBC News contacted.
Look | This is what reporter Rob Antle found about the number of dismissed cases:
From fraud charges to cases of illegal hunting and deteriorated driving. The Province Department of Justice does not say how many cases are being dismissed due to delays.
“They were on the alborants. There were many judicial dates in which they were still deferred and pushed,” he said.
“I guess your justice day never came.”
He understands that some people may not think that this is a big problem, but for families that reported being Bilked, $ 1,000 can be a lot of money.
“It’s discouraging to know that our justice system is defective,” Mitchell said.
“These people have no repercussions of what happened. There is nothing that prevents them from doing it again.”
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