Pubdate: Thu, 01 Dec 2005
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Copyright: 2005 The Ottawa Citizen
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326
Author: Jake Rupert

CROWN DROPS BOTCHED 'GANG' PROSECUTION

Won't Appeal After Police Found To Have Breached Accused's Charter
Rights

The already shattered prosecution of an alleged street gang leader
officially died yesterday.

The case against Nnanyere Obiorah, 25, described by Ottawa police as a
leader of the Ledbury Banff Crips, is over because the Crown decided
it won't appeal a judge's ruling that halted proceedings against the
suspect due to "serious" breaches of his Charter rights by police.

A month ago, Ontario Court Justice Hugh Fraser ruled the evidence
gathered by police against Mr. Obiorah had to be excluded at trial
because of police actions during the investigation.

Judge Fraser ruled that police weren't acting in good faith when they
erroneously named Mr. Obiorah as a murder suspect to get another judge
to allow a wiretap on his phone.

Judge Fraser found police purposely fingered Mr. Obiorah as a suspect
in the slaying of Brashir Sahal, when they knew, or should have known,
he was not, in order to get the wiretap for the drug, weapons and gang
investigation that led to his arrest.

The judge found the officers purposely misled Ontario Superior Court
Justice Lynn Ratushny in their application for the wiretap. So
egregious were the officers' actions, the evidence against the accused
had to be excluded to protect the integrity of the justice system,
Judge Fraser said.

After the ruling, the federal Crown's office examined the judge's
decision to decide whether to appeal. It has decided it will not.

"We've reviewed the ruling, and we've decided the grounds don't exist
to successfully challenge the ruling," Ottawa-Gatineau's head federal
Crown prosecutor, Eugene Williams, said yesterday.

Mr. Obiorah's defence lawyer, Susan Mulligan, said the decision is the
right one. "I think the judge's ruling was the correct one, and it
should be respected. These were serious breaches and the evidence was
properly excluded."

Mr. Obiorah was arrested, along with several other young men, during
what police billed as a major gang bust in April 2004. At the time,
police held a press conference and displayed guns, drugs and cash
seized from alleged members of the gang, which gets its name from a
housing project near Bank Street and Walkley Road.

Some of the things on display came from a search conducted in Mr.
Obiorah's family home. In his bedroom, police found a machine pistol,
ammunition, a magazine for the gun, a flak jacket, 196 grams of crack
cocaine worth about $39,000 on the street, and about $64,000 in cash.

Charges were laid against 14 alleged members of the gang and
associates.

Police said the investigation into the August 2003 killing of Mr.
Sahal, 23, exposed the workings of a volatile gang involved in drug
trafficking, weapons and prostitution. They also cited the bust as
evidence of an increasing gang problem that they needed more money to
fight.

A few months later, charges against the men began to be dropped. Much
of the information against the accused was also gathered in the
wiretap on Mr. Obiorah's phone.

Judge Fraser found that officers deliberately misled Judge Ratushny in
order to get the wiretap. He said these actions demanded that the
evidence gathered on the tap and during the search, an application for
which was partially based on wiretap evidence, be thrown out.

To admit the evidence would be to condone grossly inappropriate
actions by officers sworn to uphold the laws of Canada, including the
Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Judge Fraser found.

With no evidence to present, Mr. Obiorah was found not guilty and
released from custody after 18 months in jail. Mr. Obiorah said he was
not a member of any gang.

The next day, police Chief Vince Bevan said he was concerned that
Judge Fraser didn't have a full picture of the evidence, and that he
was satisfied his officers were acting in good faith -- despite the
judge's finding to the contrary. The chief said the problem was that
there was a disconnect between the provincial Crown's office, which
was helping with the murder investigation, and the federal Crown's
office, which was prosecuting Mr. Obiorah.

"This was a serious case," Ms. Mulligan said yesterday, "and,
therefore, the police should have dealt with it properly from the
beginning. What they did was at worst dishonest and inappropriate, at
best it was sloppy and incompetent."

Ahmed Mohamed Ali, 23, and Ahmed Shurk Aden, 21, were arrested and
charged with first-degree murder for Mr. Sahal's killing. They await
trial.
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