Canada - Judge rules Bob Pammett didn't breach conditional sentence by meeting with bikers

OFF THE WIRE
BY: FIONA ISAACSON
Source: thepeterboroughexaminer.com
“She (Madam Justice Esther Rosenberg) understood, the police harass me to death, that’s what they do. So now it’s got to come (to) an end. Do they want to be embarrassed again?” Bob Pammett..

Bob Pammett wasn't breaching his conditional sentence when he was spotted with members of the Outlaws motorcycle gang this summer, a Peterborough judge ruled Friday.
"(And) if Pammett had stopped to chat with anyone but a biker, I don't think we'd be here," Madam Justice Esther Rosenberg said.
Pammett, a convicted cocaine dealer who openly admits to being a member of the Bandidos biker gang, was serving a two-years-less-a-day conditional sentence that went into effect May 21. It was from an assault conviction from the Niagara Region.
For the first year Pammett is under house arrest but is allowed out from 1 to 3 p.m. on Saturdays for "shopping, food, clothing and other necessities."
Rosenberg said Pammett provided a "reasonable excuse" to explain, in what he called a coincidence, why he ran into members of the Outlaws gang first at the Tim Hortons at Lansdowne St. E. and Ashburnham Rd. and then at a Brown St. home, associated with known Outlaws biker associate Rory Vader, on July 24.
Pammett testified he wanted to rent a room at the Brown St. home and had stopped at the Tim Hortons when he was on his way to getting his tires checked.
There is no court order barring Pammett from meeting with bikers or having bikers at his home, Rosenberg said.
"He has carte blanche to do so, in short of participating in criminal activity."
The biker issue aside, Rosenberg said Pammett's conditional sentence order doesn't say that the two-hour period is "solely" shopping time and also doesn't say that Pammett must go directly to or from a shopping establishment.
Pammett's conditional sentence supervisor MaryAnn Bakker, in her testimony, "clearly gave the go ahead" for him to look for a new place to live during his personal shopping time, Rosenberg said.
Rosenberg said the Crown failed to prove its case. She also questioned why police video footage of Pammett and the bikers in the Tim Hortons parking lot wasn't shown in court.
"I'm not sure why, as it may have clarified some of the evidence," Rosenberg said.
Pammett told reporters after the verdict that it was time for the "police harassment" to stop and called Rosenberg a "very fair judge."
"She understood, the police harass me to death, that's what they do. So now it's got to come (to) an end," Pammett said.
"Do they want to be embarrassed again?"
Pammett testified that on July 24 he went to the Brown St. home three times. The first time was to look at a room, but the man renting the room didn't show so he left. At Tim Hortons he realized he'd lost his money pouch.
It was in that parking lot that police videotaped Pammett shaking hands with a member of the biker gang. Pammett said the man was someone he had "seen in my tracks" but didn't know him. The bikers wanted directions.
Police stopped Pammett and the bikers on Lansdowne just west of Park St. to check their licences and registrations.
Afterwards, Pammett returned to the Brown St. house a second time to look for his money, when he ran into Vader and told him about the police stop. Vader went to see what happened.
While waiting outside the house Pammett saw the bikers drive north on Monaghan Rd., with Vader behind them waving for them to turn.
Pammett testified he followed them to catch up to Vader and give him a message for Ross Silvester, the man renting the room.
Eventually the bikers, Vader and Pammett ended up back at Brown St. before Pammett left and was arrested.
Police testified Pammett wasn't carrying a wallet or money pouch.
Pammett, who wears an electronic monitoring device, said his house arrest now ends in July. He's serving it as his mother's home.
He drove off from court Friday in his bright yellow Dodge Ram Rumble Bee pickup truck.

fisaacson@peterboroughexaminer.com