Thao Cha was having trouble unmuting her device linked to the virtual Sarnia courtroom, so the judge asked her to use a physical response to ensure she understood the verdict after her trial.
Thao Cha was having trouble unmuting the device linking her to the virtual Sarnia courtroom, so the judge asked her to use a physical response to ensure she understood the verdict after her trial.
“Ms. Cha, you’re found not guilty on all counts. Just put your thumb up if you understand that,” Superior Court Justice John Desotti said.
Cha’s defense lawyer, Terry Brandon, started to chuckle.
“Thumbs up, your honour,” Brandon confirmed. “Thank you.”
The lighthearted exchange took place on the heels of a serious trial.
Cha, a 55-year-old Kitchener woman, was facing multiple charges, including two counts of drug trafficking, after Sarnia police said they arrested a pair of suspects on Wellington Street on April 10, 2021. An officer found a recently reported stolen vehicle around 1:30 am that Saturday and, following the arrests, discovered about 29 grams of suspected red fentanyl, approximately 25 grams of methamphetamine, 1.2 grams of cocaine, and a 30 -centimeter sword in the car.
Cha and her husband, Je Vang, 49, also from Kitchener, were facing about a dozen combined charges linked to the incident and were scheduled to have a trial in Sarnia’s Superior Court of Justice on Nov. 21 and Nov. 22. Cha showed up last week and pleaded not guilty to all of the charges she was facing, but Vang was a no-show.
“The co-accused did not appear for his trial and a warrant was issued for his arrest,” Desotti said Monday while delivering his decision on Cha’s charges.
Vang has previously been convicted of trafficking in Sarnia, including while he was banned from coming to Lambton County. Cha, a mother of six who works in a Kitchener factory, had no prior criminal record or history of drug use, one of multiple reasons Desotti acquitted her after the two-day trial.
“In this case, there are a number of concerns and difficulties with respect to the issue of constructive knowledge and/or joint possession as it relates to the accused, Thao Cha,” he said.
The Crown had argued there was strong evidence to support joint possession due, in part, to some of the suspected drugs being stashed in a headrest just a few centimeters away from Cha’s head. Cha, though, denied knowing there were drugs in the car while testing, and her DNA and fingerprints weren’t on any of the drug packages.
She also wasn’t aware the because they were in that night had been reported stolen. Cha, who had finished a shift at the factory at 10 pm that Friday night, slept during the drive to Sarnia and was planning to sleep on the drive home before police intervened.
She had to be with her husband, who said he wanted to meet a friend in Sarnia, since she was his surety at the time on another outstanding charges and he wasn’t allowed to leave their house without her. Brandon said her client may have been a bad surety, but it doesn’t prove she had constructive knowledge of the suspected drugs in the car.
The judge said the issue following the trial was if he was satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt Cha had constructive knowledge of the drugs and/or was in joint possession of them.
“I am not so satisfied,” he said. “In the result, there is a finding of not guilty on all charges.”
Cha was charged by Sarnia police with possession of meth for the purpose of trafficking, possession of fentanyl for the purpose of trafficking, possession of cocaine, possession of a dangerous weapon, and possession of property obtained by crime worth more than $5,000.
Vang was charged with the same five charges, along with two counts of failing to attend court. Despite his wife’s acquittal, the charges against Vang haven’t been tested in court.