Fredericton Police Force Const. Jeffrey Smiley will be found not guilty this morning!!!!

What else do you expect from a workplace that romance and socializing does on between the workers at the Justice system and the Cops????

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Hi Charles, Our useless Fredericton City Police and RCMP!!!

I just left the decision hearing and I think you will enjoy this decision to acquit Constable Jeff Smiley - here is a summary, paraphrased.

Smiley was acquitted of breaching an undertaking, and the judge confirmed the FPF was incompetent. Justice David Smith said the question that had to be answered was: if the initial arrest for assault was unlawful, and the charge is not before the court, is the undertaking violation capable of enforcement? He stated, on the record, that Smiley is a highly decorated police office, who saved a life in the river rescue, and suffers from stress and PTSD. He reminded us that the allegations of the assault came from neighbours, to the Chief of Police, Leanne Fitch and that after Smiley was arrested, the initial FPF attempts to record statements failed - the equipment was not working and they had to be re-done.

Justice Smith said "the Fredericton City Police investigation was fundamentally flawed," and the allegations that there had been 20 other such assaults, committed by Smiley against his girlfriend, were not substantiated and the RCMP investigators found no grounds to proceed. Neither the FPF nor the RCMP had investigated sufficiently at any stage, since they did not discover for some time that the alleged assault, for which Smiley was arrested, charged and detained, did not happen in New Brunswick, therefore the FPF and NB RCMP had no jurisdiction to arrest or charge Smiley. They simply failed to ascertain the facts before arresting and charging him.

The Crown stated at the trial, in October, that they would not proceed with the assault charge, and would "present no evidence," but they would proceed with prosecuting the breach of an undertaking related to that charge. Justice Smith went on to say that, since Smiley was arrested without a warrant, for a summary offence, and the arresting officer actually had no grounds for this under the Criminal Code and section 9 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the arresting officer must have "reasonable and probable cause" to arrest. Since they had not even determined that the alleged event happened outside their jurisdiction, and the complaints came from third parties, they clearly did not satisfy these requirements.

Justice Smith confirmed the safeguards against arbitrary arrest must be protected, and the grounds for arrest must be objectively established. He stated categorically that the FPF arresting officer failed to do this, and had no grounds to arrest Smiley. He went on to say that, if the arrest is improper, then the related undertaking cannot be valid. If the original charge is not before the court, the undertaking cannot be either, and that would simply allow criminalisation of persons who should not be bound by the undertaking as a matter of law.

Justice Smith also pointed out that the wording of the FPF undertaking, that Smiley was forced to sign to be released, was "oddly worded." It stated he must not be in possession of any firearms and he must hand over all firearms in his possession to the Fredericton City Police. The judge said these two requirements were incompatible, since he must have been in possession of the firearms in order to hand them over, and this clause basically made Smiley guilty of possession without giving him reasonable time and opportunity to hand over any firearms he had. Justice Smith found that Jeff Smiley handed over his firearms as soon as he had consulted with his lawyer, so, he should not have been arrested by Sgt. Matt Myers when he went to hand them over!

As for RCMP officer, Lavoie, who testified that Smiley had been in possession of firearms, which he identified to the court from photographs and as a result of his "experience" with firearms, Justice Smith found he did not present any actual, credible evidence that proved the firearms were capable of firing, or even real. The Criminal Code defines a firearm as being capable of firing and injuring or killing a person, which was not established. So, Constable Smiley was free to go, with no conviction, after a huge waste of tax payers' money on cops, court staff, judges, Crown Prosecutors and defense counsel - paid for from union dues that originate from tax dollars.

All I can say is, this confirms we have really useless, inept and incompetent police and Crown Prosecution Services, who should know the law and case law they are charging and prosecuting people under. That this happened to a cop, with a lawyer who doesn't have to be a GNB patsy, since he was the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, is perfect because we now have evidence and a judicial precedent confirming they are incompetent and useless.

Way to go! So, Smiley will probably be back in his uniform on Monday and will, hopefully, file a Charter application against the FPC, City of Fredericton and GNB Attorney General for violating his section 9 Charter Rights to not be arbitrarily arrested or detained - which many more people might do now. The down side? The incompetent police and Crown might have let a woman-beater walk free, and that we will never know.