Pubdate: Thu, 15 Mar 2007 Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC) Copyright: 2007 The Vancouver Sun Contact: http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477 Author: Kim Bolan, Vancouver Sun Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?188 (Outlaw Bikers) HELLS ANGEL ACQUITTED IN TRAFFICKING CASE Judge Says Accused Would Be 'Out Of His F. . .in' Mind' To Store Drugs In His Locker 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. 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. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek