Court report just in from farmer Michael Schmidt:
Ken McPherson, formerly a detective with the West Grey Police, addresses the crowd at the standoff October 2, 2015, from which the obstruction charges, now being tried in Walkerton, are related.
Six weeks after the standoff at Glencolton Farms on October 2.2015 five arrest warrants were issued. As a result Michael Schmidt, John Schnurr and Robert Pinnell turned themselves in at the West Grey Police Station. They got arrested, fingerprinted, mug-shots were taken and then they were released.
Enos Martin a local farmer never got notified. They violently arrested him three times on the same charge, twice on the same day and a third time weeks later in front of his crying wife and young children. He ended up in hospital filed a complained to charge the officers for assault. His charges got dropped.
The arrest warrant for George Hugh Bothwell was made public by West Grey Police in the Owen Sound Sun Times. No success.
A facebook page FIND GEORGE achieved only humorous postings and George Hugh Bothwell was not to be “found”, despite Geo happily living and farming at home.
Ken McPherson is the West Grey Detective in charge of investigating the failed spy camera affair, was in attendance as a peace officer at the raid October 2. 2015. He laid the charges and issued the arrest warrants for the 5 accused.
He suddenly resigned from West Grey Police and deleted all his e mails on the police computer according to a response from the Police department after a Freedom of Information request had been filed.
Former MPP Bill Murdoch was on hand during the October 2nd raid on Glencolton Farms. Here he is talking to Michael Schmidt.
This Friday might be the highlight of the Walkerton Trial. Ken McPherson will be on the stand. He will be exposed to the scrutiny of cross-examination by the defence. He has to answer a lot of open questions. He, after all requested the arrest warrants, he decided who to charge, he did not find George, he suddenly retired from West Grey Police and his e-mails disappeared from the police computer.
We had 4 witnesses so far.
It will be more than interesting to see how the prosecution wraps up their case. So far we have not seen a lot…… except highly entertaining video evidence from the raid itself.
It must be fun working for the Government: you get paid and it doesn’t matter if you doing something wrong or not.
How long will this trial go on?
Who knows.
This Friday and Monday are the only scheduled days, which does not leave anytime for the defendants to lay out their evidence.
This trial, believe it or not, will be longer than our main Milk Trial in Newmarket 8 years ago.
It saves money instead of going to law school, because for us this is training on the job. Every day we are in court, we are getting better to play the game of cat and mouse or hide and seek.
May be after all, this is just theater to distract us from the reality of life…..
So come to Walkerton instead of going to Stratford. Shakespeare is dead, Shakespeare is history.
The Walkerton trial is real life with real people playing themselves, real police protecting us from ourselves and real drama in s l o w m o t i o n.
Come to Walkerton ta ta ta taaaa( fanfare)
and its free to attend
Unloading the van after an agreement had been reached following the standoff, allowing the police to remove their empty trucks from the farmyard and go home.
The Bovine 