The B-C Court of Appeal has overturned the acquittal of a Vernon man, ruling that a lower court judge wrongly tossed out a search warrant that turned up key evidence in the case.
The appeal court has ordered a new trial for Christopher Loewen on charges of possession of cocaine, heroin and marijuana for the purpose of trafficking.
It says a provincial court judge wrongly threw out the warrant due to what he considered a lack of “independently verifiable information,” in part because the Crown refused to submit an unedited version that could have identified confidential informants.
The appeal court says justification for a search warrant rests on reasonable grounds, not proof beyond a reasonable doubt, and the trial judge’s finding does not reflect the detailed and compelling evidence in the case.