Travis Vader's lawyer accuses Crown of strategic ploy to delay trial

The lawyer defending Travis Vader on two counts of first-degree murder says the Crown prosecutor stayed the charges to buy more time for police to bolster their case.

Vader is accused of killing St. Albert, Alta., couple Lyle and Marie McCann in July 2010. Their bodies have never been found.

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The charges against Vader were stayed in March 2014, just one month before the trial was set to begin, then reactivated nine months later. 

The Crown says the only reason for the stay was due to a massive amount of last-minute disclosures made by the RCMP.

However, lawyer Brian Beresh, who is representing Vader, suggests the Crown's actions amount to an abuse of process.

At a hearing in Alberta Court of Queen's Bench before Justice Denny Thomas, Beresh is asking the judge to stay the charges.

Lawyers spar over lack of bodies

During cross-examination Tuesday morning, Beresh grilled chief Crown prosecutor Michelle Doyle about the strength of her case, which he described as "a case where you were alleging murder and you had no bodies."

Doyle confirmed the McCanns have not been located.

Beresh continued: "Number 2: there was no proof of the cause of death because of that, correct?"

Doyle replied: "There was evidence that tended to suggest the cause of death."

Doyle said it was a circumstantial case with forensic evidence that would require the court to "make a reasonable inference."

When Beresh suggested the stay issued in 2014 by the Crown was a strategic ploy to put the trial on hold, Doyle bristled.

"There was nothing positive about having to direct a stay of proceedings in this case," she said. "Secondly, I had in mind no pending investigation, no avenue that the police were anticipating to go down."

Crown blames disclosure issues

Beresh referred to notes from an RCMP meeting held the day after the stay was issued. They outlined 10 new tasks assigned to officers on the McCann investigation.

When Beresh asked Doyle if she had been told police were going to continue the investigation at that time, she responded: "I would have expected the investigation to continue, absolutely."

However, a brief submitted last week by the new Crown prosecutor on the case states: "Subsequent to the stay of proceedings, essentially no further investigation of Travis Vader by the RCMP occurred other than checking out tips that came in."

Another email from March 2014 between two RCMP members entered as an exhibit stated: "The charges on the accused were stayed yesterday due, in part, to disclosure issues. The Crown would like to bring the charges back to court ASAP."

Testifying in court Tuesday, Doyle once again said the only reason the charges were stayed was because of disclosure issues. 

And for that, she blamed the RCMP.

"There's no doubt that all police officers I dealt with took it upon themselves as their mistake," she testified. 

Doyle also suggested RCMP were negligent about disclosure.

"I can tell you it absolutely was not intentional and it ought to have been done, so the only remaining descriptor was it was negligent."

RCMP Sgt. Rick Jané told the hearing the case is the largest investigation he's ever been involved in.

Lyle and Marie McCann investigation by the numbers

• Length of Investigation before charges laid — almost 2 years 
• Number of RCMP officers who worked on case  — 756
• Primary investigators — 100 
• Number of tips — 1,400 (including tips from psychics)
• Number of documents — 5,000 (average document 100 pages)
• Number of police tasks — 1,200
• Number of audio files (wiretaps etc.)  — 78,000
• Mounties assigned to fix disclosure problems — 45
• Salary cost of Mounties assigned to fix disclosure problems - $302,000

(Source: Sgt. Rick Jané)