Former Olympian vilified by drug bust, lawyer says after charges stayed

A former Olympic paddler who was accused of being part of a marijuana growoperation was vilified and lost work, his lawyer said a day after the charges were stayed.

Mihai Apostol had been charged with production and possession of marijuana for the purposes of trafficking, but those charges were stayed Wednesday after a judge ruled it had taken an "unreasonable" amount of time nearly four years to bring his case to trial.

Thomas Singleton, Apostol's lawyer, said Thursday that his client denies every allegation the police made against him.

"From my review of all of the evidence and listening to Mr. Apostol tell me this over the past four years, Mr. Apostol was an innocent man who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time," Singleton said.

'He was devastated by this'

Apostol was one of 28 people arrested and charged during a series of RCMP raids in the Halifax area in late 2012.

"Mr. Apostol has been kind of vilified," said Singleton. "He's had a severe impact on his ability to earn his income."

Apostol works in sales and had a number of high-profile accounts removed from his care as his employer was uncomfortable trusting them to a person facing charges. The former Olympian also had to stop working as a motivational speaker.

Singleton said Apostol had to consult his doctor for mental health help, as his family life was also severely affected.

"He was telling me stories of his kids coming home crying from school after another kid said something to him about his father being arrested by the police and charged with trafficking in drugs," Singleton said.

"Psychologically, he was devastated by this."

Blueberry picking wiretap

Singleton said the evidence police gathered on his client mostly consisted of transcripts from wiretapped telephone conversations.

• Nova Scotia marijuana bust nets doctor, principal, 27 others

"The police had approximately 134,000 pages of information, which they ultimately disclosed to defence lawyers for the various people involved in this case," he said.

"Of that, there were about 12 pages that related to intercepted communications involving Mr. Apostol. And none of it involved any discussion of drugs, or grow-ops, or anything else.

"He's talking about himself, his wife and this guy's wife, and they were going to go picking blueberries in September down around Lunenburg. And the police took that to mean they were talking about picking a marijuana crop. Mr. Apostol had photographs which were taken in September when he was picking blueberries in a field outside of Lunenburg."

Concerns about a fair trial

In handing down his decision, Justice Joshua Arnold said 46.5 months had passed between the day Apostol was charged and the date of his scheduled trial. That's far longer than the 30-month maximum set out by a recent Supreme Court of Canada decision.

Arnold wrote that the defence caused two months of the delay the rest was caused by the police and the Crown.

Singleton said he "pushed as hard as possible" to get a trial date.

"It simply got dragged out because of the actions of the Crown and the police," he said.

Implications for other trials

Singleton said Apostol requested a stay because he feared he wouldn't be able to get a fair trial after nearly four years due to faults in people's memories.

The decision has implications for other trials in the same marijuana drug bust operation, said Singleton.

"When you get delays that are approaching the four-year level, these cases are going to have to be stayed," he said.

Kenneth Greer, who was charged together with Mihai Apostol, also had his charges stayed. Last month, two other men caught in the same drug bust also had their charges stayed on the grounds that justice had been unreasonably delayed.

• Top court cites need to change courtroom culture and create 'more efficient justice system'