Coun. Donnie Snook won’t enter plea Monday, defence says

Saint John Coun. Donnie Snook will not enter any pleas on the eight child exploitation charges against him on Monday, says his defence lawyer.

Dennis Boyle says he is still awaiting disclosure of material from the Crown and will need time to go through the file.

Snook, 40, was charged Thursday with three counts of touching a child for a sexual purpose, one count of making child pornography, two counts of distributing child pornography, and two counts of possession.

The investigation continues and more charges are possible, RCMP Cpl. Chantal Farrah has said.

Snook has been remanded in custody at the Saint John Regional Correctional Centre until Monday after Crown prosecutor Karen Lee Lamrock objected to his release.

'I want the man back out on the street. I don't think he's a danger to anyone.' —Defence lawyer Dennis Boyle

Monday's court appearance will only be a bail hearing, Boyle told CBC News.

He will argue to have Snook, a second-term councillor and now-suspended director of the Saint John Inner City Youth Ministry, released.

"I want the man back out on the street," he said. "I don't think he's a danger to anyone."

"He's got no criminal record whatsoever," he stressed.

Snook has already been ordered by provincial court Judge David Walker not to have any direct or indirect contact with anyone under the age of 16, any witness or any alleged victims.

Boyle said he would be agreeable to additional conditions, such as a curfew, being imposed, in order to see his client released.

He could not speculate how long it might be before Snook enters pleas. It will depend on the amount of material he has to go through and when he gets it, he said.

"It will be a bit of time yet," said Boyle.

"The disclosure package is not even ready yet," he said. "They [police] were still investigating when we were in court [on Thursday]. They were still in the Snook home."

Police executed a search warrant at Snook's east side bungalow on Martha Avenue, starting on Wednesday night, after Snook was arrested in connection with an investigation led by the RCMP's Internet Child Exploitation Unit.

The search, which continued into Thursday, resulted in the seizure of computer equipment and child sexual abuse images, Cpl. Chantal Farrah said.

Media 'spectacle dismaying'

Boyle said it was "dismaying" how RCMP officers marched Snook down Chipman Hill and through the Shoppes of City Hall in handcuffs for his provincial court appearance on Thursday.

He said he would give police the benefit of the doubt that it "wasn't a stunt."

The RCMP officers from Fredericton may not have realized they could go through the Saint John Police Force's underground garage and up the elevator to the courtroom in the City Hall building, said Boyle.

Or the garage may no longer be operational since police have moved to their new headquarters at the Peel Plaza complex, he said.

The "media spectacle" was also "distressing," said Boyle, stressing Snook is innocent until proven guilty.

The charges against Snook include three counts of touching a child for a sexual purpose between December 2006 and January 2013.

Those three counts all involve the same alleged victim, a child under the age of 16 from the Saint John area, say RCMP.

The other charges include:

• One count of making child pornography between March 2011 and January 2013
• Two counts of possession of child pornography during the same period
• Two counts of distribution of child pornography between March 2011 and December 2012

The Crown is proceeding with indictable charges, which are more serious than summary offences.

All of the counts carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and minimum sentence of one year in jail, other than the possession charge, which carries a maximum of five years in prison and minimum of six months in jail.

The investigation, which began in Toronto in 2011, has involved New Brunswick RCMP's Internet Child Exploitation Unit, District 3 RCMP, New Brunswick RCMP Tech Crime Unit, the Saint John Police Force and the Toronto Police Service.