Dennis Oland's charter rights violated by police, judge ruled

The Saint John Police Force violated Dennis Oland's charter right to befree of unreasonable search and seizureby obtainingpersonal information from hiswork computer after a court-issuedsearch warrant hadexpired, a New Brunswick Court of Queen's Bench judge ruled prior tohis murder trial.

"Police, seemingly without pause or concern for the limits of the authority given to them, went ahead and retrieved additional evidence, ostensibly seen at the time as very personal information related to Dennis Oland," Justice JohnWalsh wrote in his pretrial hearingdecision, datedJune 10, 2015.

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It was the secondtime during the murderinvestigationthat police "failed to respect a court order," the newly released court document reveals. Some of the applications used to obtain the warrants also contained "errors and omissions," Walsh found.

Oland, 47, wasconvictedSaturdayof second-degree murder in the 2011 bludgeoning death of his father, prominent New Brunswick businessman RichardOland. The jury delivered its unanimousguiltyverdict after four days of deliberations.

Second-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence, but parole eligibility can vary between 10 and 25 years.Oland, who has three children and a stepson,isscheduled to be sentenced onFeb. 11.

Saint John Police Force Chief John Bates issued a statement following Saturday's proceedings, saying the guilty verdict provided"a degree ofvalidation" for the force, which hadbeen under "some intense scrutiny and assailed with criticism" over the investigation.

Among the allegations are possible contamination of the crime scene and that Deputy Chief Glen McCloskey suggestedanother officer lie to the courtabout his presence there. The New Brunswick Police Commission will be launching an investigation into the allegations "soon," said Bates.

Police obtained a total of17 judicial authorizations to search for evidence in the murder case, including one forOland'shome on July 13, 2011, and oneonAug. 11, 2011,to search his computer atCIBCWoodGundy, where he worked as a financial adviser.

Oland'sdefencelawyersfiled an application with the Court of Queen's Bench,alleging the charter violation,and seeking exclusion of the evidence obtained, including a key piece of evidence in the Crown's case ablood-stained brownsports jacket.

The application was heard by Walsh in May during a pretrialvoirdire a hearingto determine admissibility of evidence.

His June ruling hadbeen under a publication ban untilthe jury was sequesteredto begin deliberations earlier this week.

Jacket tested after warrant expired

Walshdeemedthe seized computerinformation, whichincluded two lettersOlandhad written to his fatheronMay 14, 2003 and Oct. 7, 2003, and two of the accused'spay stubs from 2010 and 2011,inadmissibleat the trial, saying it would otherwise bring the administration of justice into disrepute.

No detailsabout the content of the letters between the father and son arerevealed in the decision.

Several other financial documents, including some pay stubs,were entered into evidence atthe trial. The Crown had suggested Oland's financial problems asa possible motive. Prosecutors described him as being "on the edge financially,"' while his father's investments were worth an estimated $36 million at thetime of his death.

The previous police breach of a court order, Walsh found,involved getting forensic testing on some of the 57 items seized from Oland's homeincluding his brown sports jacketafter the housewarrant had also expired.

Oland, who was the last known person to see his father alive during a meeting at his office on July 6, 2011, told police he was wearing a navy blazer that night, but video surveillance and witness testimony showed he was wearing a brown jacket.

His father's body was discovered in his office the next morning, lying face down in a pool of blood. The 69-year-old multimillionairehad suffered 45 sharp and blunt force injuries to his head, neck and hands. No weapon was ever found.

The brown Hugo Boss jacket seized from Oland's bedroom closet a week laterhad three small bloodstains on it and the DNA extracted from those areas matched his father's profile, the trial heard.

It is upon these front-line documents that judges must rely to assess, weigh and maintain the sensitive balance between the public's right to have crime investigated and citizens' rights to have their privacy protected.- Justice John Walsh

"The police applied for and obtained a general warrant to forensically examine the various items seized under the house warrant [including the brown sports jacket] and then, inexplicably, allowed it to lapse before conducting the examinations contemplated," said Walsh.

Police did not paysufficient attention to the requirements of the judicial orders,"whether one characterizes it as carelessness or negligence," he said.

However, Walsh ultimately ruled there was "lawful authority for the forensic examinations of the things seized under the house warrant."

And while there were errors and omissions intheapplications police had used to get both warrants issued by a provincial court judge, they weren'tenough "in their nature and number" to invalidate either warrant,hesaid.

Still, Walsh took the opportunity to underscore the importance of the search warrant applications, known as informationsto obtain (ITOs), in the administration of justice.

"It is upon these front-line documents that judges must rely to assess, weigh and maintain the sensitive balance between the public's right to have crime investigated and citizens' rights to have their privacy protected," he wrote.