Michael Edward Ellis is alleged to have used a stolen truck like a battering ram when he drove it at an RCMP vehicle in Rock Creek back in March of 2009 – he had been pulled over for a road stop near Midway.
In addition to that, he was also said to be in possession of methamphetamines when police searched him after the crash.
Ellis had been in custody ever since being arrested that March and was arraigned in August 2009 but a preliminary inquiry kept getting pushed back due to busy courts and scheduling issues and Ellis sat in jail for 31 months.
He was scheduled to have a four-week trial a few weeks ago but was released on Sept. 29 after provincial Supreme Court Justice Mark McEwan ruled that Ellis’ rights were violated based on the inability for him to get a trial in a reasonable amount of time.
McEwan said that the time Ellis spent in jail was similar to a sentence for a person, facing the types of charges Ellis was facing – six charges were stayed.
McEwan even described the delays as “scandalous” in his decision and blamed government cuts to the judicial system and lack of provincial court resources. Justice McEwan’s decision has merit as Ellis was in jail for close to three years and that is a long time to be awaiting a trial and according to reports, the number of full-time judges in the region has decreased from five to three.
Ellis was accused of some serious crimes – he allegedly uttered threats as well relating to the incident – and the incident was definitely something that should’ve gone through the legal system.
Ellis case isn’t the only one that has been stayed either as numerous reports say that a number of similar cases have been stayed by the provincial court due to lack of resources.
The provincial government is hoping to remedy the situation by coaxing some judges out of retirement but that won’t really address the problem in the long term.
Like so many other areas of the province, there needs to be more funding.