The GODFATHER of The Hat On Trial
Closing arguments offered in Hotchen drug trial
BY JEREMY APPEL ON APRIL 10, 2019.
NEWS FILE PHOTOThe Medicine Hat Provincial Court is seen in this file photo. Closing arguments were made on Tuesday, April 9, 2019 in the drug trial of Aaron Hotchen. A verdict is scheduled for July 17.
Court heard oral closing arguments Tuesday in the trial of Aaron Hotchen, who was arrested after police conducted a raid on a Seven Persons acreage he was living on in October 2016.
They found methamphetamine, cocaine, a fentanyl-heroin mixture, sawed-off shotgun, ammunition and cash.
The three-week trial in late 2018 heard more than 30 hours of Hotchen’s phone conversations from the Medicine Hat Remand Centre from shortly after his arrest.
In them, he refers to himself as the “godfather of Medicine Hat,” boasts he has remand “guards in his back pocket” and refers to “sideways” — a slang term for meth.
Defence counsel Marc Crarer called these statements “outlandish,” but pointed to the expert testimony of Lethbridge Police Service Const. Chris Running that “bravado” and “grandiose statements” are part of drug culture.
In his testimony, Hotchen had admitted to struggles with meth addiction, but maintained at the time of his arrest he was only dealing marijuana.
“What is real and what is not real with respect to the remand calls cannot be relied upon,” said Crarer.
Crown prosecutor Jeremy Newton said it’s crucial to distinguish between what Hotchen said on the stand and what he said on the phone when he thought nobody was listening.
“You’ve gotten to know two versions of Aaron Hotchen in this trial,” he said.
Newton said Hotchen repeatedly changed his story throughout the trial. He provided the example of the seized gun, which he said Hotchen testified belonged to different people at different points throughout his testimony.
Newton borrowed from George Orwell to illustrate his point.
“It’s like 1984. Oceania was always at war with Eurasia, (then) Oceania was always at war with Eastasia,” said Newton.
“He concocts his story to what suits him best.”
Hotchen’s testimony “defies common sense,” Newton added, calling it “evasive,” “self-serving” and “minimizing.”
Hotchen testified none of the items seized by police belonged to him, except for hundreds of dollars in cash.
Newton said surveillance footage from two days before the raid shows him entering the first vehicle, which is where police found the drugs in a small black case.
Judge Paul Pharo said the police were far enough from the property to have had to use binoculars for their surveillance.
“I don’t think you can discount that surveillance,” replied Newton. “It wasn’t challenged.”
In addition to the drugs, the Crown says police found other items consistent with drug trafficking – “score sheets” to keep track of debt, digital scales and multiple cellphones.
Pharo’s verdict is scheduled for July 17.
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