Details revealed in Jaffer plea deal

[daleo]

The Crown felt it had no choice but to drop charges of cocaine possession and drunk driving against former Conservative MP Rahim Jaffer in favour of a guilty plea on a lesser charge, due to how police handled the case, CBC News has learned.

According to sources close to the case, police made two fateful decisions: repeatedly denying Jaffer access to his own lawyers and a strip search after he was pulled over on a rural road on Sept. 11 in the southern Ontario community of Palgrave, northwest of Toronto.
...
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/04/13/rahim-jaffer-plea-mansbridge.html#ixzz0l2mLljEM
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This is based on "sources close to the case", with no attribution. This version is very different from what the Toronto Star reported a few days back. It sounds like some "unnamed source" decided to go into full attack mode and blame the OPP. This will get hot.

[ZeitgeistObserver]

1. Well it's easy to blame the cops, but an

experienced officer nailed him, so this sounds stretched.

The crown attorney's boss is a born-again type who preaches on weekends. Anything sound fishy here?

[daleo]

2. The OPP leaked their version to the Star a few days back

The main difference was that report says the cocaine was in Jaffer's pants pocket, not jacket. Supposedly, that makes the strip search ok.

As for the call the lawyer thing, the cops can't wait forever, as the BAC will go down with time. He was given ample time, in my opinion. There is Supreme Court precedence for that, as far as I know.

This story has a lot of holes, not the least of which is the lack of attribution. I think it feeds the fire, rather than helps put it out.

[ZeitgeistObserver]

3. I don't mind it feeding the fire.

Maybe it'll shed light on more of it.

[chollybocker]

4. The trifecta of incompetence.

Police, Politician, Judge.

This PMO cover-up is stretching all credibility.

[CHIMO]

5. Thanks

For the piece.

Ref: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 | 11:05 PM ET

From the article, 19 times out of 20 a deal is made in these cases.

This is how the system works.

[CHIMO]

6. Wheels are Spinning

Guergis says allegations based on 'innuendo'
CBC News has learned the Crown felt it had no choice but to drop charges of cocaine possession and drunk driving against Jaffer in favour of a guilty plea on a lesser charge, due to how police handled the case.

http://www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2010/04/14/helena-guergis-responds.html

This, to me, seems like a complete red herring. Watched the video from the CBC that was posted earlier and don't recall anyone from the crown making that statement on this case.

This was said right after Jaffer was in court. Seems to me that the CBC is trying to link yesterdays re-enactment with some new information from the crown.

Just more evidence to me how Harper is taking direct control of our crown agencies.

[Spazito]

7. I watched Peter Mansbridge's report on this, and...

while interesting, there was NO ONE associated with the 'case' talking to CBC about it. The interview with a defense lawyer and a former Crown counsel, neither with any inside info on the case were merely speculating as to what could have happened.

The one good tidbit, imo, was that Crown Counsel went to the OPP to get them to agree with the deal, the OPP refused and wanted a trial because they felt they had the necessary evidence.

CBC didn't shed any light on this at all, imo, and it still smells like hell.

[daleo]

8. Yeah, the inside source was probably from within the PMO

It could have been Jaffer himself.

The source could have been the prosecutor's office in Ontario, but someone local if that's the case. After all, why would McGuinty go out of his way for Jaffer and Harper?

Without names, this means nothing. But it keeps the issue alive.