Crown prosecutors have dropped the case against three Alberta sheriffs charged after a man died in custody at the Edmonton courthouse.
Trevor Jason Freeman, 43, died June 16, 2023, after a medical emergency in a detainee holding area following his sentencing for manslaughter.
After an Edmonton police investigation that ended last April, sheriffs Adam Zasada, Brent Roy and Karin Simmons were charged with failing to provide the necessaries of life.
On Friday, however, those charges were withdrawn in Edmonton an Court of King’s Bench courtroom.
Alberta Crown Prosecution Service spokesperson Michelle Davio said the decision was made after a review of the case determined it no longer met the standard for prosecution.
“Multiple senior Crown prosecutors reviewed the available evidence and gave thorough and careful consideration to all possible paths forward,” she said in an email. “That review resulted in the determination that the available admissible evidence did not meet the standard for prosecution.”
Without specifying who, Alberta’s public safety ministry said two of the former accused no longer work for the Government of Alberta, while a third remains on administrative leave.
Treyna Bernas, Freeman’s wife, told Postmedia last year that she was given few details about what happened.
Convicted of lesser charge
Freeman died shortly after being sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison for manslaughter with a firearm. He had been initially charged with second-degree murder in the death of Ryan Dustin Moffat but was convicted of the lesser charge.
The charges stemmed from a March 11, 2021, shooting at a home in Sturgeon County. RCMP began an investigation after Moffat and another man showed up at the Redwater hospital with gunshot wounds. Moffat, a 37-year-old Gibbons resident, died in hospital, while the other man survived.
Freeman and another man, Kalum Christian Auger, were arrested weeks later and charged with second-degree murder. Auger was also convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 6 1/2 years.
Bernas told Postmedia she was disappointed the charges were withdrawn and frustrated with the justice system.
“It’s been a year of disappointing court dates,” she said in a text. “It’s been hard for my children, my mother-in-law and me. Healing is hard in a circumstance like this.”
Bernas said she hopes her family’s story draws attention to deaths in custody in Alberta.
Lawyers for Zasada, Roy and Simmons declined comment.
Related
Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know — add EdmontonJournal.com and EdmontonSun.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters.
You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun