Constable Matthew Slipp has been found not guilty of perjury and fabricating evidence. In making his decision, Chief Justice Neil C. Wittman said there was not enough evidence to have him believe beyond a reasonable doubt that the Spirit River mountie knowingly falsified a affidavit of non-service with intent to mislead.
The Crown has argued that he didn’t make an attempt to serve a summons to an accused impaired driver in January 2013, and then created the document saying he had. That document was supposed to be faxed as evidence, and without it, the Crown had to withdraw its charges.
Slipp had said he had signed the affidavit and left it on his colleague’s desk with a fax cover page and a note to sign it and forward it to the Crown. Wittman noted that he didn’t feel the cover page itself proved he intended for it to be used in a judicial hearing.
He also didn’t place much weight on GPS logs that showed Slipp wasn’t at the home of the man he was trying to serve on the day he said he would due to unreliable equipment. The 27 year old was originally suspended with pay in December of 2013.