Court rejects ex-Mountie's bid to drop impaired charges

A New Brunswickprovincial court judge ruled Tuesday that an ex-Mountie's impaired drivingcase had not taken unreasonably long to get to trialand rejected Ronald Cleveland's request to have charges against him withdrawn.

• Ronald Cleveland waits to see if impaired driving charges will be dropped

A trial against the former Codiac RCMP officer will be held on Nov. 2 and Nov. 3in Moncton.

Cleveland, who hasn't been with the RCMP since April due tomedical reasons,is charged with operating a vehicle with a blood-alcohol level over the legal limit and operating a motor vehicle while impaired.

The charges relate to an incident in Dieppe on March 21, 2014.

Defence lawyer James Matheson had previously argued his client's Charter right to a trial in a reasonable time had been violated.

In a move to try to change a "complacent"courtroom culture, theSupreme Court of Canada ruledearlier this summer provincial trials had to be completed within18 months.

• Supreme Court sets new deadlines for completing trials

In Cleveland's case, charges were laid in May 201428 months ago.But Tuesday Judge Paul Duffie ruled that none other than the defence was to blame for much of thedelay in the case getting to trial.

Duffiesided with Crown prosecutorCory Roberts, who had arguedthe defence made"lengthy and sometimes novel requests" for information, in addition to delaying the trial by five months for being unavailable.

"The defence did not take meaningful steps to expedite the proceedings," said Duffie, as hedismissed the application to have the charges dropped."The case could have been heard on April 28."

Cleveland has pleaded not guilty to the impaired drivingcharges.

If convicted, he could face a sentence ranging from a $1,000 fine to a maximum of five years in prison.