A criminal case involving what officials said was one of the largest illegal firearms seizures in recent memory at a Southwestern Ontario-US border could be going to trial soon.
A criminal case involving what officials said was one of the largest illegal firearms seizures in recent memory at a Southwestern Ontario-US border could be going to trial soon.
Canada Border Services Agency officials said a total of 56 guns and ammunition were seized Nov. 1 at the Blue Water Bridge near Sarnia. Officers discovered the undeclared and prohibited firearms, along with 13 overcapacity magazines, 43 ten-round pistol magazines and 100 rounds of ammunition in boxes in the trunk of a car during a secondary examination, officials said.
“One of the largest single firearm seizures in the Southern Ontario region in recent history,” Canadian border official said in a statement.
Vivian Richards, 48, of Oakland Park, Fla., was arrested and charged with four Customs Act charges and five Criminal Code charges, officials said. Richards, who was mistakenly identified as a woman in multiple reports following the press release from border officials, was held in the Sarnia Jail for more than seven weeks before securing bail.
He was released just prior to Christmas on $18,000 bail but wasn’t permitted to head back home to Florida. Instead, he must stay in Sarnia or Point Edward with GPS tracking and a nightly curve while the case moves through the Ontario court system.
That pace picked up on Monday.
“I’m looking to set a trial date as soon as possible,” defense lawyer Sarah Donohue said to justice of the peace Kelly Jackson in Sarnia case management court.
Donohue added there is still some outstanding disclosure of evidence from the Crown, but she’s already done everything else she can, including participating in pre-trials, to cue the actual trial.
“Because there’s a timeline in terms of my client’s status in the country,” she said.
Donohue did not elaborate, but David Rows, Lambton’s recently departed Crown attorney who is still handling the case, agreed.
“There is an interest in all parties to have the matter proceed very quickly,” he said.
Jackson adjourned the case to next Monday, where both sides hope to set a trial date.
The fact Richards was granted bail, and the details of his release, have not been previously reported. But according to a short document obtained by The Observer, he was released on Dec. 22 after he deposited money or security valued at $18,000.
The money will be forfeited if he doesn’t follow the rules of his release, which includes living in Sarnia or Point Edward with a GPS ankle bracelet and a nightly curfew between 11 pm and 6 am Richards can’t reapply for a passport or any other travel documents and is banned from all weapons.
A different lawyer, Toronto-based S. Navin Sookram, successfully argued in favor of his then-client’s release. A court-ordered publication ban protects all evidence heard at the bail hearing and the reasons a justice of the peace decided to order Richards’ release.
Richards has been charged under the Customs Act with making false or deceptive statements; evading compliance; keeping, acquiring, or disposing of goods illegally imported; and attempting to smuggle. He’s been charged under the Criminal Code with unauthorized possession of a firearm; unauthorized possession of a prohibited weapon or restricted weapon; possession of weapons for the purpose of trafficking; importing or exporting knowing it is unauthorized; and possessing a firearm knowing that the serial number on it has been altered, defaced or removed.