Hells Angel acquitted in trafficking case
Judge says accused would be 'out of his f. . .in' mind' to store drugs
in his locker
Kim Bolan
Vancouver Sun
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Glen Jonathan Hehn is a full-patch member of the elite Nomad chapter
of the Hells Angels.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Peter Leask acquitted a member of the Hells
Angels on a cocaine trafficking charge Wednesday, a day after swearing
at the Crown prosecutor during his closing arguments.
Leask found Glen Jonathan Hehn not guilty, saying he found Hehn, a
full-patch member of the elite Nomads chapter of the Angels, "to be a
good witness."
"His answers were straightforward and clear," Leask said in his oral
decision.
On Tuesday, as federal prosecutor Ernie Froess made his closing
submissions in the case, Leask used profanity four times, according to
a transcript obtained by The Vancouver Sun.
When Froess argued that the locker where a large volume of cocaine was
located was rented by Hehn, Leask said:
"But to be really clear, he'd have had to have been out of his
f. . .in' mind to store it in his own locker, all right? I mean,
that's for sure he wouldn't do that. Let's not spend any time on that
theory."
Chief Justice Donald Brenner said later Wednesday that he will review
the comments made by Leask, but could not say more without knowing the
context.
"I will first of all try to find out what occurred," Brenner said.
"I haven't seen the transcript and I don't know the context and I am
not in a position to comment one way or the other, not having seen it,
or heard it or read it."
Attorney-General Wally Oppal had reviewed the transcript and said
later that Leask "has had an excellent reputation."
"Most judges would not express themselves that way, but I am not going
to second-guess Peter Leask," Oppal said.
Hehn was arrested in July 2003 when police stopped a truck he was
riding in with Ewan Lilford, a Coquitlam man associated with the
motorcycle club. Investigators from the Organized Crime Agency of B.C.
said that minutes earlier they saw the men loading boxes into the
truck from a storage unit, rented by Hehn, at 5555, 192nd St. in
Cloverdale.
One-kilo cocaine bricks worth a total of $1.5 million were seized from
the vehicle and at the storage locker.
Hehn testified during the six-day trial that he rarely used the
locker, but allowed friends, including Lilford, to have access to it.
He claimed that on the morning in question, Lilford had used his own
key to access the facility, even though police did not find a key on
Lilford when they searched his truck a short time later.
Leask said he gave "anxious consideration" to the fact that no key was
found, but decided that the search of the truck may not have been
thorough enough.
"I am not prepared to reject Mr. Hehn's evidence," Leask said.
Before he acquitted the long-time biker, Leask raised the issue of a
request by media outlets to get access to transcripts of the closing
arguments. He agreed to release the documents, after defence lawyer
Neil Cobb said he had no objections.
After Leask rejected Froess' position that Hehn stored the cocaine in
his own locker, Froess argued that Lilford would have been a fool to
secretly use the locker of a Hells Angel.
"If Mr. Hehn's a Hells Angel and Mr. Lilford stored cocaine in his
locker without his knowledge, Mr. Lilford would know that there would
be serious repercussions if Hehn discovered that cocaine, realized the
jeopardy to which Mr. Lilford was exposing him, legal and otherwise,"
Froess said.
Leask, who has been a judge since November 2005, described what might
have been going through Lilford's mind, though Lilford did not
testify.
"On the one hand, he can minimize his risk of detection and
apprehension by just aborting the whole f---ing thing, right? And
saying, I thought I was going to do these things, but I'm not going to
do them, it's just this morning is not working out for me, or he can
try and make the best of things," Leask said.
He also swore twice more during the morning arguments, while a group
of school children, touring the courts for educational purposes, sat
in the public gallery.
Neither Cobb, nor Froess, would comment on the issue of profanity when
asked about it Wednesday.
Bob Prior, regional director of the Public Prosecution Service of
Canada, said the Crown has 30 days to decide whether to appeal the
acquittal. No complaint has yet been filed about the swearing.
Brenner said if someone has a formal complaint about a judge, they
must contact the Canadian Judicial Council in Ottawa.
"That is the body that is charged with receiving and investigating
complaints against federally-appointed judges," he said.
RCMP Insp. Gary Shinkaruk, who heads the Outlaw Motorcycle Gang Unit,
said police did their job by bringing the evidence to court in the
Hehn case.
"Certainly I am disappointed with the verdict," Shinkaruk said. "But
we respect the decision of the Supreme Court of British Columbia."
Shinkaruk said the other accused, Lilford, pleaded guilty to
possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking and is being
flown to the U.S. today to enter a second guilty plea in a drug
conspiracy case for which he was charged in Indiana in March 2004.
Lilford has reached a plea agreement of a 16-year jail sentence for
both the Canadian and the U.S. charges and will be able to serve his
time in Canada.
kbo...@png.canwest.com
ABOUT THE NOMADS:
- Earlier this year, the group quietly opened a new clubhouse in
Burnaby, expanding its business holdings even further across the Lower
Mainland.
- Police believe the Burnaby clubhouse is home base for the Nomads and
that many of its members either live in north Burnaby or operate
businesses there.
CRIME INC.: OUTLAW BIKERS AND PILL PUSHERS
A special two-part report on the most powerful crime families in B.C.
FRIDAY: Some older members of the Hells Angels are retiring. But
police worry their replacements are even more brutal gangsters who
continue to expand the reach of organized crime across the province.
SATURDAY: The globalization of organized crime has made B.C. gangsters
with ties to India and China more powerful than ever. Find out what
police are trying to do here to crackdown on the lucrative manufacture
and sale of crystal meth.
© The Vancouver Sun 2007
======================================================================T
The above story was on the front page of the Vancouver Sun today and
is on the Canada.com website. I have never heard of a case where a
judge in BC or Canada used profane language let alone a Supreme Court
Judge. Peter Leask is an embarresment to the legal profession and the
judiciary and should be removed from the bench. Judges who use profane
language have no place in the courtrooms in Canada. Why a Supreme
Court Judge would be surprised that a HA full patch would be out of
his mind is beyond me. Members of the Hell's Angels are well known for
their use of cocaine and meth and alcohol and even drugs such as LSD.
It isn't the least surprising that Mr. Hehn would use his own name for
a storage locker in which he had cocaine. This judge is either
amazingly stupid or is corrupt or he is in fear of being gang raped.
In any case I have never heard of another case where someone had care
and control of a storage locker in their legal name and were seen at
the location and cocaine was found there being acquited. Hopefully the
Canadian Judicial Council will call for Leask to be removed from the
bench and the Crown will appeal this sentence. This case only came
about because two RCMP officers decided to act on a hunch and
investigate two suspicious men. Good work and hopefully these men will
ask publicly for this useless excuse of a judge to be removed from the
bench.
Feel free to contact the Canadian Judiacry Council yourself.
