It is the summer and autumn of 2021, and the Drug Squad of the Police of Ottawa is investigating a man suspected of being involved with drugs and illegal gangs.
Officers think they see the goal in a truck during their surveillance. Later they realize that she is actually the brother of the target with two other men, but continue to look at the truck.
Nothing happens that can be described as a drug business, but the police suspect. They have a feeling.
The truck leads to Toronto, and finally stops in a film parking in Scarborough.
It is night. A car reaches the lot. One of the people in the truck leaves, jumps to the car for a minute and then returns to the truck; A movement that the police believe that it is a drug or replenishment agreement.
Half a kilo of seized fentanyl
The brother of the target, who had stayed close to the truck, leads and then leads to the other two back to Ottawa, arriving early in the morning.
Det.-Const. Aristidis Tasoulis and Det.-Const. Tim Renwick gives the drug team reasonable and probable reasons to arrest the trio for possession of drugs with the purpose of traffic, and arrests are made.
When the police reveal the truck and look for their occupants, they find half a kilogram of fentanilo, 19 oxycodone pills, a single anticonvulsive pill and $ 2,600 in cash.
It sounds like a happy ending for Ottawa police, right?
No.
Without reasons, excluded evidence, the case collapses
It turns out that the brother was never identified to the team as an objective. The truck was never identified as a vehicle of interest. Neither Tasoulis nor the veteran high -ranking officer Renwick wrote anything about the brother in his notebooks. And in fact, there were no reasonable or probable reasons to arrest the brother.
To top it off, Tasoulis then lied in the Court to reinforce the case of the drug squad for having reasons after the fact, when he and Renwick knew they didn’t have the reasons.
All this, according to a written decision of the Judge of the Superior Court, Anne London-Weinstein, last week.
The actions of the officers were so serious that they violated the rights of the brother’s letter. The strength and crown could not use the evidence that the police obtained, so the crown closed its case and London-Weinstein acquitted the brother.
In his defense, Tasoulis testified that his failure in writing notes about the brother and distributing his photo to the team were errors that he will never repeat, and that he was trying to maintain his consistent surveillance forms, says the judge.
‘Antithesis of what a reasonable person could expect’
London-Weinstein described the explanation of the “illogical” and “incomprehensible” officer, and wrote that Tasoulis was not honest in court.
“This attempt to deceive the court for those accused of keeping the letter The rights of those who investigate, arrest and arrest is the antithesis of what a reasonable person could expect to happen in a trial of charges as serious as this, “he wrote.
However, it was a difficult decision. The case was “very serious”, fentanyl and oxycontin are mortal and have “wreak havoc” in the community, and excluding important evidence such as this could be difficult for the public of tragery since the police had led to a significant seizure of Drugs, London-Weinstein wrote.
People could even think that officers were right to act as they did.
But, he added, “it is difficult to imagine a behavior that most effectively undermines the reputation of the administration of justice.”
The Ottawa police did not respond to a comment request on Friday, and the union that represents the basic officers declined to comment.
The defense lawyer Joe Addelman, who successfully represented the brother of the target, also declined to comment.
Tasoulis and Renwick remain assigned to the drug unit.