Decision on guilty pleas for man facing drug charges to be March 12

By Peggy Revell on March 1, 2018.

prevell@medicinehatnews.com @MHNprevell

The decision on whether guilty pleas entered by a 53-year-old man to serious drug trafficking charges can be revoked has been pushed back to March 12.

Judge Eric Brooks was originally slated to give his decision on Wednesday, but refused to do so — stating some information included in written submissions by defence counsel were “wholly … inappropriate” and amounted to “trial by ambush.”

The information — a photocopy of a letter from the Remand Centre — was included in defence counsel’s written submissions after both Crown and defence counsel had finished calling evidence.

Brooks said this information could affect the credibility of either the accused or his former defence counsel over the testimony they gave at a Jan. 30 hearing.

The accused, Aaron Grant Hotchen, testified that his former counsel only spent five minutes with him at the Remand Centre on the evening before guilty pleas were entered, and had him sign written direction for pleading guilty, and initial paragraphs in an agreed statement of facts. Hotchen testified to initialing the first paragraphs without even reading them, then the others after having them read to him. This agreed statement of facts was not officially entered alongside guilty pleas the next day.

This was one of multiple complaints Hotchen testified to on how his former counsel handled the case, and how he had entered the pleas while under distress, as at the time his sister had been extremely ill, his dogs were in the pound and his trailer had been heavily damaged by a fire and needed to be moved.

Hotchen said he was willing to plead guilty to trafficking meth, heroin and possessing a prohibited firearm because the Crown would then agree to his release from custody so he could put his affairs in order.

Testimony from Hotchen’s former lawyer contradicted these claims —including that the aforementioned meeting where the statement of facts were signed lasted for 60-90 minutes and were gone over in depth.

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