a decision released on May 15<\/a>, Ontario Court Justice Sean Gaudet found that prosecutor Marnie Goldenberg breached her duty to disclose when she failed to turn over video evidence pertaining to an accused\u2019s Drug Recognition Evaluation (DRE).<\/p>\nThe judge said the accused was found slumped over in the driver\u2019s seat of his vehicle on Queen Street West on Dec. 6, 2023 with the ignition running.<\/p>\n
When he was taken to a police station and given a DRE, the officer in charge of administering the test determined that he was in fact impaired by drugs. A urine sample was then requested, revealing the presence of controlled drugs, including methamphetamine.<\/p>\n
Prior to the start of the trial, Gaudet said the defence requested \u201call available disclosure\u201d in the case, including a specific request for the DRE video recording.<\/p>\n
In response to the request, Gaudet said Goldenberg responded, \u201cThere is no video of the DRE.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAccording to defence counsel, the issue of the failure to record the DRE testing procedure was also raised during a judicial pre-trial conducted in August 2024,\u201d the judge wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Crown\u2019s explanation for the lack of a DRE video recording at that time was that video recording capacity had not been set up at Traffic Services on the date of the applicant\u2019s arrest on December 6, 2023.\u201d<\/p>\n
But during cross-examination of the officer who conducted the exam during the trial in May of 2025, he testified that the room where the DREs are conducted did have video recording capabilities on that date.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe further testified that the video recording in the DRE room was engaged automatically and did not have to be activated manually, and that it was his belief that the DRE he conducted of the applicant was being video recorded,\u201d the judge wrote.<\/p>\n
When the Crown later learned that the process of recording the exams actually began in April 2023, she advised that there was a one-year retention period so any video that existed of the accused\u2019s DRE would no longer be available.<\/p>\n
The judge noted that at the time the defence requested disclosure of the DRE recording on June 25 and on July 24, the video recording would still have existed in the Genetec system and \u201ccould have been produced.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI find unacceptable negligence on the part of the police and Crown in failing to ensure the preservation and disclosure of the video recording,\u201d Gaudet wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Crown\u2019s failure to preserve and disclose the DRE video recording has prejudiced the applicant\u2019s section 7 right to make full answer and defence. Given the importance of this evidence the only remedy available to removing the prejudice to the applicant is a stay of proceedings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Toronto police, Marnie Goldenberg, and the Ministry of the Attorney General did not respond to emails requesting comment on the judge\u2019s findings.<\/p>\n
In a statement sent to CTV News Toronto, Lesley Pasquino, the president of the Ontario Crown Attorney\u2019s Association, said it would not provide comment about cases still before the courts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis case is currently still within the jurisdiction of the Court, as it is within an active appeal period. The Ontario Crown Attorneys\u2019 Association does not issue public statements about cases still before the courts,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n
Hallway exchange \u2018sends a message,\u2019 judge says<\/p>\n
It is the second stay of proceedings in the last month that has been attributed to Goldenberg\u2019s conduct.<\/p>\n
An Ontario court justice tossed out a case on May 4 when they said Goldenberg lost her objectivity, swore at, and berated a police officer in a courthouse hallway<\/a> over testimony he gave, allegedly telling the cop that \u201cwe protect our own.\u201d<\/p>\nIn previous comments she made in court, Goldenberg denied getting angry and calling the officer\u2019s testimony \u201cdisgusting\u201d and \u201cpathetic\u201d because it didn\u2019t support her case.<\/p>\n
The charges involved a 36-year-old man who was accused of intentionally driving into a Toronto police sergeant on Aug. 7, 2024 during a paid duty assigning on Lakeshore Boulevard.<\/p>\n
Justice Mara Greene said she was skeptical of Goldenberg\u2019s evidence because it was not supported by other eyewitness accounts of the hallway exchange.<\/p>\n
Greene stopped short of saying that she thought Goldenberg, who the justice noted is married to a police officer, lied.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my view, an officer being berated by a Crown attorney in the presence of the officer in charge for testifying for the \u2018wrong side\u2019 and saying \u2018we protect our own\u2019 sends a message to the entire police community: you stay on side or there will be consequences,\u201d Greene said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is that conduct that impacts the integrity of the justice system.\u201d<\/p>\n
With files from CTV News Toronto\u2019s Jon Woodward<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charges have been stayed in another prosecution involving a veteran Crown attorney whose heated hallway exchange with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":710026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[712,49,48,3302],"class_list":["post-710025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=710025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/710026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=710025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=710025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=710025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}