One accused was found guilty this week of assault causing bodily harm, assault with a hockey stick and possessing a hockey stick for a dangerous purpose from the 2004 Pender Harbour May Day assaults on longboarders, while his four co-accused were acquitted of all charges.
A packed Sechelt provincial courtroom heard Judge William Rodgers' verdict Wednesday morning. Paul Johnson will be sentenced Aug. 31. He and his brother Drew, along with Daryl Costello, Michael Webb and Daniel Wood, all in their early to mid 20s and originally from Gibsons, had initially faced 14 charges each including numerous counts of assault, assault causing bodily harm, assault with a weapon and possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose. The charges stemmed from a reported attack on longboarders camping at a private property in Kleindale during the 2004 May Day long weekend festivities.
Throughout his 34-page decision, which he very briefly summed up in court, Rodgers noted Crown witnesses' inability to identify people committing assaults, along with a failure to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
However, he did find witnesses had positively identified Paul hitting two men - now 20 and 41 years old - with a hockey stick, one of them on the arm and one on the back of the head.
"I find that when Paul Johnson jumped from the back of the pickup truck with the hockey stick, his intention was to use that hockey stick against people who were nearby," Rodgers wrote. "The evidence of Johnson is sufficient to convict him of the offence and when coupled with the evidence of the Crown witnesses, there can be no other conclusion except that Johnson intended to use the hockey stick as a weapon. There is no evidence from the Crown witnesses that any of the other three accused were in possession of hockey sticks."
During the trial, which began in 2005 and continued in March, Rodgers had dismissed Wood's count of possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose.
Rodgers rejected Greg Cranston's (the lawyer for the Johnson brothers) self-defence argument, noting Paul used more force than was necessary for protection. He also rejected the defence that Paul was in a state of automatism after being struck over the head.
"There was no medical evidence whatsoever concerning this supposed skull injury and nothing to connect it to the fighting at the Y intersection," Rodgers wrote.
Rodgers rejected the Crown argument that each of the accused should be convicted for being a party to the offences as a group, noting a lack of evidence proving the other accused had aided and abetted Paul using the stick.
On the day of the decision, additional sheriffs were brought in to the court and a metal detector was set up at the entrance as people filed in. Outside court, emotions were high as the long-awaited verdict sunk in. "We've gone through two years of this," said Cheryl Jensen, mother of the 20-year-old victim. "Enough is enough. I don't know how the system has allowed them to walk and I don't know how this system has allowed Paul Johnson to not go to jail today when he has been convicted. It's absolutely wrong and our system is a mess."
She said she is concerned for the community's safety. "The way I feel is that I'm not safe. My son's life and my family's life has changed drastically and I don't know how to make it better for him. I'm just glad it's done for now. I just want to move on. I want my family to move on, and I want Pender Harbour to be comfortable and it's not."
Crown prosecutor Trevor Cockfield suggested that if people are feeling unsafe or "if somebody is doing something, committing some behaviour or an act that makes them feel unsafe, they should phone the police."
Defence lawyer Mitch Foster spoke on behalf of his clients - Costello and Wood who were in court and Webb who was away at a work camp on the decision day.
"I thought it was the right result," Foster said outside court. "My clients are obviously happy." He noted the main issue at trial was identification, which had not been proven against his clients. He said it appeared there had been somewhat of a misunderstanding on the night in question.
"It just shows how alcohol mixed with a misunderstanding can turn bad," Foster said.
On the Aug. 31 sentencing date, Cranston will be making a Charter argument on Paul's behalf for the delay between the end of trial and the decision date. He told the court Paul had made a "significant shift in his lifestyle" and the institutional delay had inconvenienced Paul.
Court Watch's Sharon Charboneau said the verdict was a "disappointment it's also a disappointment it's taken so long to get through the justice system, then we've got another delay with sentencing."
The Coast longboarding community was well represented in the courtroom.
Patricia Sawyer, girlfriend of Bricin Lyons who is now on a cross-country longboarding trip raising money for breast cancer research, was there to hear the verdict.
"At least there were the two charges that were held up, but for the rest to go like that it's unbelievable," Sawyer said. "Coast longboarding is all about bringing people together for community and to have had this happen, it's completely changed how events are run."
