Two men plead not guilty on judge’s orders

By Peggy Revell on January 19, 2018.

A judge ordered Thursday that not-guilty pleas be entered and a preliminary inquiry held for two men facing cocaine trafficking charges.

With the assistance of duty counsel, Kunyak Bichiok, 32, and David Pach, 41, separately appeared by closed-circuit TV from the Medicine Hat Remand Centre with the judge ordering their cases be heard before a Queen’s bench judge and jury, with preliminary hearing — while also expressing concern at how the pair have both been in custody for almost a year now, with little to no movement forward in their case moving forward.

The two were arrested Feb. 4, 2017 after a two-week investigation by Medicine Hat police, that culminated in a search warrant executed at a Carswell Road apartment suite, and 46 grams of cocaine with an estimated street value of $4,600, along with $1,600 in cash being seized.

Two other co-accused entered guilty pleas and were sentenced in July, with Angol Koro receiving a 22-month sentence for trafficking crack cocaine, and Kalab Wolde sentenced to 23 months jail time.

Delays first came in securing lawyers through legal aid for Bichiok and Pach. Once defence counsel was found, preliminary hearings were set in July for Dec. 19. But a week before this hearing, defence counsel came off the record.

Bichiok has never sought bail, while Pach was denied bail. Both accused have yet to secure new counsel, and will be going through legal aid.

At Thursday’s court appearance, the judge expressed concerns that the lengthy delays could put the cases at risk for surpassing the time frames set out by the Supreme Court Jordan’s Decision on the right to a timely trial — although the Crown noted that some of the delays are attributable to defence.

The preliminary hearing will be set down Jan. 22, after the computer system used to select trial dates was temporarily not working Thursday.