All charges stemming from the arrest of an Okanagan man with a criminal record spanning more than two decades have been stayed, as the RCMP's excessive use of force following an unlawful traffic stop resulted in key physical evidence being tossed.
On May 12, Justice Eric Gottardi ruled that the RCMP officers involved in the April 2024 arrest of Andrew Robert Hardenstine had gone over the line. Notably, Justice Gottardi said the officers used their Tazers on Hardenstine ten times in fewer than three minutes.
In Justice Gottardi's decision to the Charter Rights application filed by Hardenstine, he found the pretense for the arrest was unlawful and arbitrary. The vehicle Hardenstine was a passenger in was pulled over, by police, purely to determine if he was inside, said Gottardi.
"The encounter between the police and Mr. Hardenstine demonstrates layers of Charter non-compliance and an overall reckless disregard for Charter rights," Gottardi said. "I have found that the initial stop was a pretext to identify Mr. Hardenstine and that the police knew they had no grounds for investigative detention after that point. It cannot be said that they honestly believed they had not committed this initial breach."
The B.C. Prosecution Service confirmed in an email that the charges against Hardenstine had been stayed on May 14, just two days after the Justice's verdict.
Those charges included illegally possessing a weapon or ammunition to transfer, possessing a prohibited or restricted firearm, possessing a firearm without a licence or registration, occupying a vehicle knowing a firearm is present, possessing a firearm while prohibited, wilfully resisting or obstructing a peace officer, disarming a peace officer and assaulting a peace officer, all stemming from his arrest on April 5, 2024.
A lawyer representing Hardenstine appeared in Penticton Supreme Court on June 9 to set a date for a bail hearing.
Hardenstine was in custody ahead of the trial and following the arrest on separate charges. On April 23, 2024, he was sentenced to spend an additional year in jail on top of time already served for charges of driving while prohibited, driving while disqualified, flight from police and driving with a suspended license.
Hardenstine's criminal record dates back to 1999, with it being largely uninterrupted except for periods when he was serving jail sentences.
By 2013, Hardenstine already had 57 previous criminal convictions. He received a three-year jail sentence in that case after the trial suffered delays when his initial defence lawyer asked to be taken off the case following Hardenstine’s interruptions of the judge.
In 2018, he was arrested with a small arsenal of firearms, including multiple pistols, a homemade-style shotgun, a crossbow and numerous rounds of ammunition in addition to drugs.
