Crown appealing acquittal of ex-lovers accused of plotting to kill their spouses
Saskatchewan's Attorney General is appealing the acquittal of a couple found not guilty of conspiring to kill their respective spouses.
Ex-lovers Angela Nicholson and Curtis Vey were found not guilty during a retrial of their case in May 2019. Justice Catherine Dawson found the pair not guilty at the Court of Queen's Bench in Prince Albert.
The verdict came shortly after the judge announced that an iPod recording of Nicholson and Vey reportedly plotting to kill their spouses — which served as a critical piece of evidence in the first trial — could not be used as evidence in the retrial process.
The two were found guilty at a 2016 jury trial, but in 2018 a new trial was ordered by Saskatchewan's Court of Appeal, which found the original trial judge had made errors in his charge to the jury.
Saskatchewan's attorney general has appealed the couple's recent acquittal on behalf of the provincial Crown prosecutors office, in an application filed with Saskatchewan's Court of Appeal on June 13.
The appeal application argues Dawson erred in her judgment when she ruled Vey and Nicholson had their charter rights violated around Section 8 of Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which states, "Everyone has the right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure."
The appeal also argues Dawson erred when she ruled the iPod evidence could not be submitted at the retrial. Brigitte Vey, Curtis's wife, turned the iPod over to RCMP after she secretly recorded the two at Vey's house discussing the alleged plot to kill both of their spouses.
Const. Dereck Wierzbicki of the RCMP's major crimes unit, testifying during a hearing on the admissibility of evidence, admitted he had ordered an officer to "seize" the iPod from Brigitte.
Wierzbicki said he felt it was an urgent situation requiring the RCMP's immediate intervention. He didn't think he needed a warrant to seize the iPod because "the device had been handed over by Brigitte Vey to the police officers on her volition."
Dawson ruled Wierzbicki was wrong, as the seizure of the iPod without a warrant violated the couple's charter rights, as the two were recorded illegally without their knowledge and had good reason to expect they were talking privately.
