Defence lawyer in polygamy trial to launch charter challenge over evidence
CRANBROOK, B.C. — A lawyer for a Mormon fundamentalist leader says he will be seeking a stay of a polygamy charge because the evidence being used in the B.C. Supreme Court trial was already presented in a previous constitutional reference case.
Blair Suffredine, the defence counsel for Winston Blackmore, said he intends to file an application for abuse of process next week based on the Crown’s reliance on evidence that was collected before a constitutional reference test in 2011 that deemed polygamy a criminal offence.
Blackmore, the head of a religious group in the southeastern B.C. community of Bountiful, is accused of marrying 24 women.
Suffredine’s argument is based on a previous polygamy charge against Blackmore which was thrown out of court over allegations of “special prosecutor-shopping.”