The date for the decision in the Pender Harbour May Day assaults trial will be set on April 21 in Sechelt provincial court. The trial concluded last Friday (March 24).
In his closing arguments March 23, Crown prosecutor Trevor Cockfield said the law is clear that evidence should be considered in its totality rather than by piecemeal, to see the big picture of what happened the night of May 23, 2004. The witnesses' evidence has weight when taken together, he said.
The five Gibsons-area men who stood trial are accused of an alleged assault with hockey sticks on longboarders who were staying at a private campsite in Kleindale during Pender Harbour's May Day long weekend festivities. Daryl Costello, Drew Johnson, Paul Johnson, Michael Webb and Daniel Wood each now face four counts of assault causing bodily harm, two counts of assault with a weapon, three counts of assault and, with the exception of Wood, one count of possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose.
Cockfield argued identification is a side issue in the case.
"What this case comes down to is two sides of a fight," he said. "The issue is what happened in that fight."
He recapped Crown witness testimonies describing the atmosphere as relaxed until the new group of people arrived, or the "calm before the storm." He referred to 911 calls in which the nervousness and tension could be heard in the campers' voices, who Cockfield said were on the receiving end of a beating.
"The 911 calls contradict entirely what the accused said happened," he said. Cockfield said in his submissions the campers did not attack anybody and no campers were attacking other campers. He noted if it is proven an accused aided and abetted a person who assaulted anybody, the accused could still be found guilty. He referred to evidence of a group of people attacking people together. He noted one of the witnesses had placed all five accuseds at the scene. After evidence of someone being hit in the back of the head with a hockey stick, the accuseds then got in the back of the truck, Cockfield said, rather than the accuseds' testimonies that they were trying to escape the scene.
"They've done their job, it's time to go," he explained.
He recapped one of the witnesses saying the males in the back of the truck were yelling, "We're the regulators."
Cockfield summarized his submission that the group came to a camp, beat up a bunch of longboarders, then drove away.
He clarified that the Crown's theory was not that the accuseds had gone to the campsite as a group or had been planning an attack, but rather that they acted as a group once the fights broke out.
"There doesn't need to be a prior arrangement or prior purpose," he told Judge William Rodgers.
Cockfield argued the accuseds' testimonies were scripted. However, he noted one defence witness had contradicted the Johnsons' testimonies that they were knocked unconscious, when she said they got straight back up after being hit. And, he said, another defence witness destroyed the accuseds' evidence when he said that Costello and Webb jumped in the back of Drew's pick-up truck.
Cockfield suggested the fact that Paul did not go to the hospital or the Sunshine Coast RCMP after the fight shows they did not want to get involved with the police because they were the guilty parties. He concluded his submissions saying the Crown had proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt that each accused had committed or aided and abetted in all the alleged assaults.
In his rebuttal, Mitch Foster, lawyer for Costello, Webb and Wood, said he too had been asking the judge to look at the big picture.
"Nobody can pick my clients out doing anything in just about every case," Foster said. "There is no evidence, in my submission, that you can rely on that attaches my clients to a group other than a social group."
Being part of a social group, where part of the group gets in a fight, does not mean the rest of the group aided and abetted in the fight, he said.
He noted some witnesses had said the atmosphere was tense while others said it was relaxed after the group arrived and before the violence broke out. Foster argued the campers who called 911 sounded excited because they had just been involved in a fight. In response to the Crown suggestion of scripted testimonies, Foster took issue with suggesting people are not believable because they are consistent in their testimonies.
Greg Cranston, lawyer for the Johnsons, argued in his rebuttal there was no evidence that Drew and Paul had assisted each other after a hockey stick came out. Assuming Paul had the stick, Cranston said, it was in self-defence and in a groggy state from being hit over the head with a bottle. He argued if the judge finds Paul had used the stick, it would have been lawful because his head was bleeding and because his brother Drew was underneath the person who was allegedly struck with the stick.
Rodgers told Cranston, "It's the weapon that you have a problem with, with that theory."
In response to Paul not going to the hospital or police, Cranston argued Paul expected to have to wait at the hospital and that young men traditionally keep fights quiet because going to the police is a "sissy" thing to do.
Foster argued his clients were under the impression the police were not on their side because of their encounter with the police off the highway after the alleged assaults. Foster noted for his clients to have aided and abetted with the use of a hockey stick as a weapon, they would have had to have seen the stick, known someone was using it and participated in using it. A lawyer can appear as agent for the accuseds April 21 at 9:30 a.m. in Sechelt provincial court when a date will be set for Rodger's decision.
