HMCS ATHABASKAN crewmember charged with drug/weapon offences, 11 Aug 16

[jollyjacktar]

Shared under the fair dealings provisions of the copyright act.  Photo at story link below.

HMCS Athabaskan sailor charged with drug trafficking, gun offences in Halifax

Andrea Gunn | Ottawa Bureau
Published August 10, 2016 - 11:03am
Last Updated August 10, 2016 - 6:33pm

A member of the Royal Canadian Navy has been charged with trafficking and weapons offences in Halifax.

Leading Seaman Marshall Smith, 26, of HMCS Athabaskan was arrested by the Canadian Forces Military Police on May 5 after 17 grams of suspected cocaine and one gram of suspected methamphetamine were found in the accused’s vehicle during a routine security check at CFB Stadacona.

Lt.(N) Blake Patterson, public affairs officer with Canadian Forces Provost Marshal/Canadian Forces Military Police Group, told the Chronicle Herald that the substances were found “in plain sight.”

Investigation the following day found an improperly stored shotgun at Smith’s residence. The weapon was not service issued. Smith was charged under the National Defence Act with one count possession for the purposes of trafficking and one count of unsafe storage of a firearm.

The accused was released on conditions on May 6.

As a member of the military, Smith will face military justice. The date for his court martial has yet to be determined.

The Department of National Defence says Canadian Armed Forces and the Canadian Forces Military Police take all allegations of drug offences by Forces personnel seriously and investigate to determine the facts, analyze the evidence, and if warranted, lay appropriate charges.

Drug charges against Canadian Forces members and employees are rare but not unheard of. In April 2015, an international drug investigation led to cocaine importing and trafficking charges against 55-year-old Darlene Margaret Richards, a civilian 14 Wing Greenwood employee. She continued working for the Department of National Defence, albeit with restrictions, until July of this year when she was suspended without pay.

The bust led to charges against a total of 15 people in an alleged drug smuggling ring, including Delbert William Meister a Canadian Coast Guard employee from Halifax. There is no information suggesting the two cases are related in any way.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/1386938-hmcs-athabaskan-sailor-charged-with-drug-trafficking-gun-offences-in-halifax

 

[jollyjacktar]

And now he has been convicted and sentenced.

Sailor gets 4 months, fine for dial-for-dope operation

STUART PEDDLE The Chronicle Herald
Published January 9, 2018 - 7:03pm

A Halifax sailor is going to jail for four months and must pay a $4,500 fine after pleading guilty to drug and firearms-related charges.

At a standing court martial on Tuesday, leading seaman Marshal Smith was facing four charges related to his arrest in May 2016.

Prosecutor Lt.-Cmdr. Darin Reeves said he and defence counsel Lt.-Cmdr. Brent Walden came to an agreement on guilty pleas for three of the charges.

“Per discussion between the prosecution and defence counsel, the proceedings today went as expected,” the prosecutor said after the court martial. “Leading seaman Smith was convicted of three counts on the charge sheet with relation to possession for the purpose of trafficking, possession of substances, both within Schedule One of the Controlled Drug and Substances Act and improper storage of a firearm contrary to the Firearms Act.”

Reeves offered no evidence on a charge of trafficking and the presiding judge, Lt.-Col. Louis-Vincent D’Auteuil, subsequently found Smith not guilty on that charge.

Reeves and Walden jointly recommended the four-month term, to be served at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Dartmouth, the fine and that his DNA be collected.

Before accepting the guilty pleas, the judge heard the prosecution’s statements about the offences.

The court heard that on May 5, 2016, Smith was entering CFB Stadacona in his car, a black BMW, when the commissionaire on duty at the gate asked to see his driver’s licence. Smith handed over what he thought was his licence but it was actually a Nova Scotia identification card. He had gone to get his licence renewed the month prior but was mistakenly given the ID card instead of a licence, but he did not spot the error.

The commissionaire then asked to see his proof of insurance and registration, but Smith said he did not have them with him. They were at his home. The commissionaire asked him to look for them again in the glove box. The guard noticed that Smith seemed nervous and appeared to be trying to block his view of the glove box contents. The commissionaire went around the car and saw sandwich bags in the glove box. When he asked Smith what was in the bags, he said drugs, the court heard.

Military police were called and Smith was arrested. A search warrant on the car discovered controlled substances, including cocaine.

His phone was also seized and a data search indicated he was running an alleged dial-for-dope operation, the court heard. Another search warrant was served on Smith’s Danforth Road home, where a shotgun was found without a lock or means taken to secure it.

Judge D’Auteuil also accepted the defendant’s personal evaluation reports and service records for consideration.

In the statement from the defence, Walden said Smith demonstrated remorse and saved the court considerable resources by pleading guilty. He has very good prospects of rehabilitation. He was just 26 at the time of the offences, having joined the reserves in 2006 and the regular forces in 2010. A year prior to the offences, he had been recommended for an immediate promotion and his career was on an upward trajectory. Now, Smith will in all likelihood be released from the military.

After deliberating, D’Auteuil decided that the joint recommendation was reasonable and that, considering the seriousness of the offences, a jail term and fine was necessary to give a strong message of deterrence.

 

[SeaKingTacco]

Why is he serving this sentence in provincial jail, vice Edmonton?

 

[Rifleman62]

BZ to the Commissionaire.

 

[garb811]

Why is he serving this sentence in provincial jail, vice Edmonton?

This is the second instance I know of where two Legal officers have struck a plea bargain which entailed having the convicted individual serve their sentence at a provincial jail near where they were based. 

This turns my crank as JAG is the first one to complain when we (MP) use our peace officer authority to lay a criminal charge downtown because of the "importance and primacy of the Military Justice System when there is a military nexus".  Sorry folks, serving time at the CFSPDB, or Unit Detention Room as warranted by the sentence, is also an integral part of the Military Justice System.  If you're going to walk the walk, then talk the talk as well.

My guess is they have predicated this on the fact release proceedings will be immediately commenced and the member will shortly be released from the CAF as opposed to being retained upon completion of his sentence, hence no need to "rehabilitate" him into the military ethos.

As it stands now, there is a serious review underway as to the viability of the CFSPDB and if this trend continues, the arguments to keep it open will be lost and then there will be no option but to send pers sentenced to serve time to a Federal or Provincial Institution.  If that happens, all you will be getting back into the unit for someone who is being retained is someone who hasn't been re-inculcated into the military mindset via CFLRS on steroids (along with whatever educational and treatment programs the member needs in an alcohol and drug free environment for the duration of their sentence) but instead someone who has spent their time in general population, with all the fun, excitement and learning opportunities that brings.

 

[RCDtpr]

I've seen members sentenced to civilian jails for drug offences due to rehabilitation programs available in those institutions that are unavailable in Edmonton.  Whether this is the case here I don't know.

 

[SeaKingTacco]

I have had subordinates  of mine sent to Edmonton to serve time for service offences on a number of occasions. I have taken the tour of Edmonton given by the staff there. It is very enlightening.

Based on what I know, I do not believe for one second that a CF perp is better off in the general population of your local provincial or federal pen, then Edmonton. Your chances of getting shanked or raped in the showers are effectively zero in Edmonton. You will get counselling for whatever life skill deficiency brought you there. You will get PT and healthy food. You will also get an advanced degree in room cleaning and brass polishing

So, I don't really care how badly you screwed up in the CF. CFSDB may be hard time, but it is safe time. And it will make a better human being at the end (even if release is the ultimate destination) which Is the point, right?

I am not really sure I understand what motivated two military lawyers to recommend to a military judge to send a guy to Provincial jail for a offence that had a military nexus, all of the way.

 

[Journeyman]

I have taken the tour of Edmonton given by the staff there. It is very enlightening.

I once got to escort a buddy of mine out to the SDB; he was doing a 90-day visit.  Even though I was just signing him over, the place intimidated me.* 


* To be fair, I was a young CbtA MCpl then;  I've since done... the training marriage -- not so readily scared off now.  :nod:

 

[Edward Campbell]

Slightly off topic but relative to the "digger:" when I was a young officer we were taught that most service offences were our (institutional Army) failures because we (the institution again) had failed to teach and inculcate our values during recruit training. That, we were taught, and the back half of Vol II of QR(Army) confirmed, was why the "training" regime at Edmonton was a double time repeat of the recruit syllabus ...

As a CO I was never afraid to send a soldier to Edmonton because I believed in the merits of the place ... most soldiers came back "better" in many ways than when they went in and I did not see Edmonton as a step towards release ~ quite the opposite, I saw Edmonton (circa 1980) as an important step towards making a success out of our (institutional) failure.

I'm going to say that was the prevailing view when I was a junior officer 1960s, and a CO (1970s and early '80s) it was shared and enunciated by the likes of HC Pitts the Chief of the Land Staff (but we didn't call it that) and JJ Paradis and Charlie Belzile, the Commanders of the Army at the time.

 

[Rifleman62]

Had a tour sometime in the mid 80's I think. Same thoughts as others. Pt and Drill in the A.M. and Drill and PT in the P.M.

Stainless steel ablutions, with the story they had to mark time when shaving (??).

There was an Officer in custody, sans rank. Treated the same as everyone else.

 

[Blackadder1916]

I am not really sure I understand what motivated two military lawyers to recommend to a military judge to send a guy to Provincial jail for a offence that had a military nexus, all of the way.

Maybe it has something to do with the Notes to QR&O 101.04 - IMPRISONMENT FOR SHORTER TERM

NOTES

(A) Although specialized treatment and counselling programmes to deal with drug and alcohol dependencies and similar health problems will be made available to a person serving a term of imprisonment, a member serving a sentence that includes imprisonment will in most cases be considered unfit for further military service. As a result, service prisoners and service convicts will ordinarily not be subjected to the same regime of training that service detainees undergo. In certain cases, exceptions may be made for service prisoners serving a short term of imprisonment provided that it has either been decided to retain the member or no decision to release the member has been made but the circumstances suggest that retention in the Canadian Forces is likely. A punishment of imprisonment will be considered to be of short duration where the term does not exceed 90 days.

(B) Service prisoners and service convicts typically require an intensive programme of retraining and rehabilitation to equip them for their return to society following completion of the term of incarceration. Civilian prisons and penitentiaries are uniquely equipped to provide such opportunities to inmates. Therefore, to facilitate their reintegration into society, service prisoners and service convicts who are to be released from the Canadian Forces will typically be transferred to a civilian prison or penitentiary as soon as practical within the first 30 days following the date of sentencing. The member will ordinarily be released from the Canadian Forces before such a transfer is effected.

(C) [23 April 2001]

As to the value of the CFSPDB, one thing to keep in mind is that in the scale of punishments "imprisonment" (whether categorized as life, 2 years and more, or less than 2 years) is different from "detention".  Since there is no equivalent to "detention" as a punishment in the Criminal Code and incarceration in a provincial or federal jail, penitentiary or prison is considered imprisonment, then the CF would still require a "detention barracks" to accommodate those members sentenced to the lesser punishment of detention.

104.09 – DETENTION

Section 142 of the National Defence Act provides:

"142. (1) The punishment of detention is subject to the following conditions:
a.  detention may not exceed ninety days and a person sentenced to detention may not be subject to detention for more than ninety days consecutively by reason of more than one conviction; and
b.  no officer may be sentenced to detention.

(2) If a non-commissioned member above the rank of private is sentenced to detention, that person is deemed, for the period of the detention, to be reduced to the rank of private."

(C) [1 September 1999]

NOTES

(A) In keeping with its disciplinary nature, the punishment of detention seeks to rehabilitate service detainees, by re-instilling in them the habit of obedience in a structured, military setting, through a regime of training that emphasizes the institutional values and skills that distinguish the Canadian Forces member from other members of society. Specialized treatment and counselling programmes to deal with drug and alcohol dependencies and similar health problems will also be made available to those service detainees who require them. Once the sentence of detention has been served, the member will normally be returned to his or her unit without any lasting effect on his or her career.

(B) A term of punishment of detention should be expressed in days.

(C) [23 April 2001]

Of course this is what some people want.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlWd_RvUzqw