On the eve of a high-profile assault trial involving three members of Kootenay Boundary Regional Fire and Rescue, the Crown has stayed charges against two of the accused.
Richard Morris and Wesley Parsons were expected to be in court Wednesday along with Greg Ferraby, each accused of assaulting a homeless man while off duty.
But according to online court records, the Crown entered a stay of proceedings on Friday in the matter where Parsons and Morris are concerned. Only Ferraby is now expected to stand trial.
Damienne Darby, communications counsel for the BC Prosecution Service, said the decision to stay the charges was made after the Crown lawyer handling the matter received “further information,” although Darby didn’t disclose what that information was.
“After reviewing this information and the rest of the file materials the prosecutor concluded the charge approval standard was no longer met,” Darby said.
Crown counsel only proceeds with cases where it believes there is a substantial likelihood of conviction and deems the matter in the public interest.
Ferraby is charged with uttering threats on April 13, 2023 and assault causing bodily harm on April 23, 2023. Police said the alleged attack happened in the 900 block of Spokane Street in Trail. They said the trio knew the 49-year-old victim and they believe it stemmed from a previous incident.
They said the man was punched in the head several times, may have passed out, and suffered a serious shoulder injury.
At the time of the incident, RCMP reported finding a man on the ground in an alley who told them he had been beaten by a man and two accomplices while taking his garbage out to the dumpster in the alley. He was taken to hospital.
All three suspects were arrested and released on a promise to have no contact with the victim.
Regional fire chief Dan Derby said at the time that they were “saddened and disturbed by these charges. Public safety is at the heart of everything we do. The RDKB does not condone this type of conduct on or off duty.”
He described the firefighters as “absent” from the workplace. Derby said in an email Monday that that remains the case for all three men, but due to privacy law, he couldn’t comment further on their status.
Ferraby’s trial is scheduled for four days. It will begin Wednesday in Rossland, then take a break until Nov. 3, then take another break and resume Nov. 6-7.
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