anabolic frolic

Plea deal brings rave case to a close
Owner of party site calls case 'ridiculous'

Jake Rupert
The Ottawa Citizen


Thursday, January 24, 2002

Normally, when people have charges against them withdrawn by prosecutors in court, they walk away happy. That wasn't the case with Christoforo Ferrante yesterday.

Mr. Ferrante, along with his wife Romana, Serge Theriault and Sacha Leclair were being prosecuted for infractions stemming from a noisy rave party 14 months ago in a Stittsville-area industrial park.

It has been estimated the case will cost Ottawa taxpayers $30,000. Final numbers are expected in about a month.

The Ferrantes, who own a building at 125 Willowlea Rd., and the young men, who organized the party under tents in the parking lot, were each facing a noise bylaw infraction, a zoning infraction and a building code violation -- the last of which carried a maximum $25,000 fine.

The case has taken several twists and turns. The most dramatic came yesterday when, under a plea bargain agreement, Mr. Theriault and Mr. Leclair pleaded guilty to noise bylaw infractions and received $500 fines. Ten other charges were withdrawn.

Mr. Ferrante didn't have to be in court yesterday, but was there anyway to see the end of what he called a "ridiculous" situation.

"How it got this out of hand, I just don't know," he said throwing up his arms. "I've had days missed at work. Lawyer's fees. I just don't understand this stupidity. I knew these charges were ridiculous from the start."

The plea bargain is exactly what Mr. Theriault and Mr. Leclair's lawyer, Rick Morris, said he offered prosecutors early last fall when the case was originally set to go to trial.

"It was a reasonable offer in September, and it's a reasonable offer now," he said. "It's just a shame it took this long to get to this point."

Until last week, lawyers prosecuting on behalf of the city -- Alan Riddell and Alan Cohen from the firm Soloway Wright -- maintained a plea arrangement was inappropriate. Yesterday, Mr. Cohen said all cases are constantly reviewed to see what is appropriate, and that a settlement recently became the appropriate course of action. He would not say what happened to prompt the change.

The rave took place on Nov. 4-5, 2000. Two people complained about the noise, and the men were handed noise bylaw tickets with a maximum $2,000 fine.

Days later, all four were cited for breaking zoning bylaws and the building code. The defendants hired criminal defence lawyers. The matter was set for trial on Sept. 5, 2001.

The violations were for using the building for something it was not designated.

In Canada, prosecutors must disclose their case to the defence to allow defence lawyers to properly represent their clients.

Defence lawyers Richard Morris and Carey MacLellan, acting for the Ferrantes, were confident of victory at trial because they felt nothing in the disclosure package proved that people were in the building that night.

This changed minutes before the trial began, when Mr. Riddell told them the bylaw officer who issued the tickets and provided a written statement had recalled, the night before the trial -- 10 months after the incident -- he had seen people going in and out of the building.

The defence lawyers asked Justice of the Peace Ray Switzer for an adjournment to deal with the new evidence and asked for their costs to be paid because the prosecution had failed to disclose the evidence to them in a timely manner.

Mr. Riddell opposed the adjournment because the new evidence wasn't crucial, but Mr. Switzer granted it, saying the whole case really "hinged" on the new information.

The prosecution filed an appeal of the adjournment to Justice James Fontana of the Ontario Court of Justice on Jan. 9, but before the hearing began, defence lawyers argued the prosecution had brought the appeal to the wrong level of court. The prosecution argued that Judge Fontana could hear it.

Soloway Wright lawyers say putting the appeal in front of Judge Fontana was not a mistake because the appeal route was unclear. There was no precedent directly on point, and the closest precedents suggested the Ontario Court of Justice was the proper place for the case to be heard.

At the end of submissions, Judge Fontana said he needed time to reflect on the complex matter and ruled in favour of the defence later that day.

Throughout the fall and into this year, defence lawyers contemplated trying to force the prosecution to pay all their costs because of the way the case was handled. The dropping of any such court procedure was part of the plea bargain arrangement.

Jerry Bellomo, head of legal services for the city, said he was satisfied with the outcome.

Sitting outside court yesterday morning, Mr. Ferrante wasn't so satisfied.

"If they had come to me at the beginning and said $500 fine, I probably would have said, 'OK, OK,' but $50,000? What is that for?" he said while thumbing through pictures taken the night of the rave showing the tents, the portable bathrooms, and the lights off in his building.

"Why did things get this far? The only thing they used the building for was electricity for the music. They even had security. What happened here? I don't know."

© Copyright 2002 The Ottawa Citizen