 |
 The two remaining members of the Outlaws Motorcycle gang, Mario Parente, left, and Luis Ferreira walked out of a London, Ontario court, Thursday, March 12, 2009. The star witness for the crown refused to testify. (Sun Media/Susan Bradnam) |
LONDON -- A six-and-a-half year prosecution of Outlaw bikers abruptly and unexpectedly ended yesterday in London when the Crown said a key witness was "no longer prepared to testify."
It was a dramatic end to one of the longest cases ever at the Middlesex County courthouse, and perhaps the longest criminal case without an appeal or a mistrial in Canadian history.
The Crown withdrew 17 charges against Mario Parente, 60, who was the national president of the Outlaws motorcycle club, and nine charges against Luis Ferreira, 33.
Both men are from Hamilton and were charged with dozens of others on Sept. 25, 2002 when a joint police task force, Project Retire, swooped in on Outlaws across Ontario.
Among the counts against both men were controversial criminal organization charges.
Both men fought the charges from the outset.
|
It was the Outlaws case that led to the construction of a high-tech courtroom in London, capable of handling large prosecutions, and ushered in a new era of security right at the court's front door.
Parente and Ferreira -- "the last two standing," they called themselves -- had attended the courthouse for so long, they'd become fixtures in its hallways.
"I'm just glad everything is over after all this time," said Parente, after the brief hearing.
"It's been a long, long road and I never had any doubts that the matters were going to turn out the way they did."
The case had moved at less than a snail's pace since the prosecution began. In recent months, it became bogged down in pre-trial motions. A trial was to begin in April and would have lasted months.
Crown prosecutor Alex Smith told Superior Court Justice Lynda Templeton the "principal witness" in the case "has advised us that he is no longer prepared to testify at the trial."
Smith said the witness's evidence was essential for the Crown's case and that without it there was no reasonable prospect of convictions.
Smith didn't identify the witness, but in other guilty pleas connected with the case over the years there was described a police agent who infiltrated the biker club and became a member in the Woodstock and Windsor chapters. He held an office in one of them.
Parente's lawyer, Jack Pinkofsky, assured the judge that the witness's decision was not made because of any threats from the accused "or anyone else."
Smith agreed.
Smith told Templeton the long and "sophisticated" investigation led to the conviction of 48 people, with 15 pleading guilty to criminal organization charges.
Ferreira's lawyer, Scott Cowan, said outside the court the 15 criminal organization convictions came from people who spent long periods behind bars, waiting for trial, and wanted out.
"No one pleaded to criminal organization without their freedom being dangled in front of them. No one."
One of them was his client, Kevin Legere, of Woodstock, who was considered the "No. 2" target on the Project Retire list. Legere pleaded guilty in 2005 after spending 2 1/2 years in the Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre in London.
"This case shows the folly of charging people on the basis of guilt by association, the folly of prosecuting criminal organization offences rather than substantive offences," Cowan said.
Parente, who appeared to be the prime target of the police investigation, spent a total of about 30 months in jail awaiting trial.
He was released on bail after a preliminary hearing in 2004, after which the criminal organization charges were ditched. But he was sent back to custody after the Crown won a preferred indictment -- a charge backed by the province's attorney general -- to carry on.
Parente was released on $400,000 bail, coupled with a strict curfew, in January 2005 and an order to report to police three times a week.
"I was prepared to sit in there (jail) forever if I had to," he said. "As far as we're concerned, we fought this to the bitter end. I was prepared to go on as long as I had to to prove otherwise."
Before Christmas, Parente decided not to shave until the case was over. His white beard has grown very long.
He said he had to sell everything he owned to keep the case going and had little support other than from close family and friends.
He's not involved with the Outlaws anymore.
"I washed my hands because of the fact they didn't seem to care," he said.
"The club has never donated a nickel (to his defence), so that's how much of a criminal organization this club in Canada is."
He said the police "use the biker thing to make big cases for things said over years," and that they should "at least have the decency and respect to have the evidence and no concocting charges."
Pinkofsky said he had "a hunch" the case wouldn't proceed.
"Sometimes true justice takes that kind of course. Sometimes it takes a long time for justice to be done."
Ferreira had only been in the club for a few months when he was arrested. He spent nine days in jail and has been on bail since.
"This is a huge weight off my shoulders. I can't take it all in yet. It's going to take a day or two to suck it all in."
Jane Sims is a Free Press justice reporter.
JANE.SIMS@SUNMEDIA.CA