EDMONTON – The lawyer for an Alberta MP accused of not providing a breathalyzer sample is trying to find out more about what police were saying to each other the night his client was stopped.
“There may be communications relevant to the file that the defence has not received,” said Dino Bottos, who represented Edmonton East MP Peter Goldring in a disclosure hearing Friday.
Goldring was arrested last Dec. 4 at 12:23 a.m. and charged with refusing to give a breath sample after being pulled over on his way home from a riding Christmas party. He has said he’d only drunk one beer at the party and was not impaired.
Elected as a Conservative, Goldring was ejected from caucus after his arrest and now sits as an Independent.
The Crown has provided some police communications from that night, but Bottos wants more.
He wants all north division police communications from 11:19 p.m. Dec. 3 through to 1:45 a.m. the following morning, when Goldring was released. Court heard that there could be as many as 300 radio calls in that time from that part of the city.
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Bottos is also asking for cellphone records of conversations between two officers on duty that night, one of them the supervising officer. He’s also looking for written records and reports from one officer, as well as records of any tips that may have come in from the public that night.
Crown prosecutor Laura Marr told court that all relevant communications have already been disclosed. Some records sought by Bottos don’t exist, she said.
“For the investigating officer, there was no information passed to him with respect to any civilian call or tip,” Marr said.
Const. David Green, one of the officers on duty the night in question, is being asked for his written notes or reports on what happened.
Green testified his role was limited to passing a message to supervising officer Sgt. Conrad Moschansky. The message was that Const. Trevor Shelrud – who stopped Goldring’s car – was trying to get in touch with him.
“I have absolutely no notes or reports associated with this investigation,” he said.
Green said he didn’t know why Shelrud was trying to reach his supervisor – or who Goldring was.
“I didn’t even know who he was before this.”
Edmonton’s police chief has hired a separate lawyer, who was awarded standing in the case. Katrina Haymond argued that passing along all the radio records Goldring is looking for would include information on separate investigations.
Goldring has long argued roadside breath-screening devices breach individual rights to be presumed innocent and to not self-incriminate. He has indicated he will use his defence to advance that cause.
He’s also said the circumstances of how police came to pull him over and how he was treated will form part of his defence.
Goldring has been the riding’s MP since he was elected under the Reform banner in 1997.
If found guilty, he faces a minimum $1,000 fine, up to five years in jail and a driving prohibition.
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