OFF THE WIRE
http://www.vancouversun.com/Agency+gets+green+light+wiretaps+Hells+Angels+case/4314636/story.html
By Kim Bolan,
Vancouver Sun
The Director of Civil Forfeiture has won the latest round in its long-running court battle with the Nanaimo Hells Angels.
The B.C. Supreme Court has ruled that the government agency can have access to evidence police uncovered -including wiretaps -during a twoyear investigation of the Nanaimo chapter dubbed Project Halo.
The RCMP recommended a series of charges resulting from the probe in a report to Crown Counsel but none were ever laid. The Civil Forfeiture office sought to use the police material in its court challenge to maintain control of the bikers' Nanaimo clubhouse.
The property, assessed in 2011 at $101,000, was seized in November 2007 because the Civil Forfeiture office alleged it was being used as an instrument for unlawful activity.
Since then, the company that owned the property -Angel Acres Recreation and Festival Property Ltd. -has lost a bid to have the case thrown out and another to maintain control of the clubhouse pending a full trial on the issue.
On Friday, Justice Paul Pearlman also ruled against the Hells Angels' claim that the Civil Forfeiture office should not be allowed to review police evidence or listen to wiretaps made between 2001 and 2003.
The court agreed with the government's lawyer who argued police evidence was important to the Civil Forfeiture case because "the wiretaps include conversations involving many of the personal defendants in this action."
The Civil Forfeiture Director said the evidence given to Crown prosecutors "is relevant to demonstrating that members of the Nanaimo Hells Angels Motorcycle Club are participants in a criminal organization, that particular unlawful activities have occurred and that the clubhouse facilitated or was intended to facilitate some of those unlawful activities."
Pearlman agreed and ordered wire tap evidence turned over to lawyers for both sides, with some restrictions. "The request for production of wiretap evidence is limited to those portions of the wiretap identified by the RCMP as providing support for the specific charges recommended."
But Pearlman ordered police to first remove anything from the material that would hamper criminal investigations, amount to solicitor-client privilege or identify confidential informants.
The Civil Forfeiture office was opened in 2006 to go after the assets of suspected criminals in civil court.
kbolan@vancouversun.com
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