05 Apr Police questioned about omission in search warrant information
Several people died after overdosing on fentanyl-laced cocaine
A police officer who provided a judge with information to obtain a search warrant in a fentanyl trafficking investigation said he was unaware that two of the suspected drug dealers were not picked out of a photo lineup.
That detail wasn’t included in the information to obtain (ITO) presented to a judge on March 11, 2018, a day after seven people overdosed from fentanyl-laced cocaine, a judge heard on Thursday at the trial of two men accused of selling the tainted drug.
Japmanjot Grewal, 22, and Shervin Dass Beeharry, 20, were charged with drug trafficking and weapons offences after a search warrant was executed on a Pawlychenko Lane home in the Lakewood Suburban Centre.
Four of the seven people who overdosed on March 10, 2018 died. Beeharry and Grewal were charged in February with manslaughter and criminal negligence causing death. The current trial only involves the drug charges.
Judge Doug Agnew allowed the men’s lawyers to cross-examine Const. Gregory Pozniak, the police officer who prepared the ITO. On Thursday, they were also allowed to question the officer involved in the photo lineup.
Sgt. Corey Lenius was the lead investigator who tasked a third officer to complete the photo lineups. He said he was aware that two victims did not pick out the targets of the investigation, but he was not able to communicate it before the search warrant was granted.
Beeharry and Grewal’s Saskatoon provincial court trial is in a voir dire, or hearing within a trial, after the defence filed a Garofoli application, challenging the information that led to the search warrant.
Judges issue search warrants, and police carry them out. Officers must give judges sufficient and accurate information to prove that a search is justified.
The Garofoli hearing has been adjourned until June for arguments. Beeharry’s lawyer, Brian Pfefferle, said other charter applications will be made before the trial proper gets underway.
Related
[ad_2]
Source link
No Comments