The lawyer for Gerry Lougheed Jr. was critical of the Crown's handling of the case on Wednesday, as the criminal case against his client was stayed in Sudbury court.
The stay means if the Crown doesn't move to re-instate the charges within a year, the case will be dropped entirely, and in legal terms it will be like they were never laid.
Lougheed's lawyer, Michael Lacy of Toronto firm Greenspan Partners, told reporters the Crown appears to be admitting it was a mistake to lay charges in the first place.
"It seems pretty clear today that ... the decision to proceed with criminal charges was done prematurely,” Lacy said. “It was done in circumstance where they had not either fully investigated the matter or fully considered whether or not this could meet the threshold for a criminal charge.
"I'm not going to say it's Keystone Kops or this is a function of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing, but you can draw your own conclusions."
Lougheed was charged in September 2015 with one count of counselling an offence not committed and one count of unlawfully influencing or negotiating appointments, both Criminal Code offences.
The charges were laid following an investigation by the Ontario Provincial Police's Anti-Rackets Branch that began in January 2015. That's when former Liberal candidate Andrew Olivier released recordings of a conversation with Lougheed in which Olivier's future as a candidate was discussed.
In the conversation, which took place in December 2014, Lougheed tells Olivier that Premier Kathleen Wynne was supporting Glenn Thibeault as the party's candidate in the February byelection.
“So I come to you, on behalf of the premier, and on behalf of, yes, Thibeault, more indirectly, to ask you if you would consider stepping down, even more than that Andrew, nominating him. In the course of that deliberation, the Premier wants to talk to you," Lougheed can be heard saying on the tape. "They would like to present to you options in terms of appointments, jobs, whatever, that you and her and Pat Sorbara could talk about it."
Lougheed was not in court Wednesday, nor did he have to appear for any of the court dates. Lacy said the case has taken its toll on his client, and said it was unfortunate the Crown can request a stay without having to offer any explanation.
"In terms of transparency, in terms of accountability to the public, in terms of accountability to my client, at least at this stage the Crown has chosen not to give any explanation at all as to why they've stayed those charges," Lacy said. "My client is obviously pleased that the criminal charges are at an end. We've always maintained there was no basis to charge him in the first place.
"From that perspective, today is a good day for him.”
But Lacy said it was obvious to him from the start there was no chance of getting a conviction in the case, something he said the Crown seemed to realize.
"Any objective review of (the Lougheed/Olivier) recording made it clear he was simply trying to assist someone in understanding a process,” he said. “We all know that, at the end of the day, Mr. Olivier was not going to get the opportunity to run in the bylection, because the premier had the absolute right to decide who would run."
Lacy said Lougheed is confident that people who know him, and of the work he has done in Sudbury, will move past the case quickly.
"My client has done tremendous things for this community, as you all know,” he said. “And certainly when you get charged criminally it can't help but have some effect on your reputation.
"Sure, it has an effect on his reputation, but he's done so much for this community, hopefully the people of Sudbury can look beyond the fact police chose to charge him."
In addition to Lougheed's case, there's a parallel, non-criminal investigation ongoing into possible violations of Ontario's Elections Act. Lacy said the Crown has indicated that investigation is almost complete, but he's unaware of how they plan to proceed.
