Sentencing delay irritates judge
The delays in sentencing a Kamloops RCMP constable facing one count of obstructing justice are “irritating,” according to a judge.
Ryan Sheremetta appeared in B.C. Supreme Court on Friday, Jan. 27, to have his sentencing hearing adjourned.
Sheremetta was charged with assault and obstructing justice after an incident outside a downtown Kamloops nightclub nearly two years ago.
The assault charge was later dropped.
Sheremetta was originally scheduled to plead guilty and receive his sentence last week, but that hearing was cancelled due to bad weather in the Lower Mainland.
In court last week, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Richard Blair was told both Sheremetta’s defence lawyer and the out-of-town Crown prosecutor handling the case will be unable to attend any time soon.
Blair was asked to put the case over to late February to set a new date for a guilty plea and sentencing.
The judge was hesitant.
“It just seems like a really long time down the road,” Blair said.
“It irritates me a little bit to set it off. This is an offence from March 2010.”
Sheremetta, 32, was charged following an incident on March 7, 2010, in which he is alleged to have punched another man in the face outside a Kamloops bar.
Details of the obstruction charge have not yet been made public.
In November 2010, Sheremetta pleaded not guilty to the charges and elected trial by a B.C. Supreme Court judge.
The matter went to preliminary inquiry in Kamloops provincial court last year.
By the time the prelim finished and the file moved to B.C. Supreme Court, the assault charge had been stayed.
There had been no indication Sheremetta planned on pleading guilty until his name appeared on the docket at the Kamloops Law Courts last week.
The criminal charges are not Sheremetta’s first time in the public eye.
In 2004, he shot and killed a robbery suspect while stationed at the Vanderhoof RCMP detachment.
Following a high-profile investigation, he was cleared of any wrongdoing.
Obstructing justice is defined in the Criminal Code of Canada as an attempt to “obstruct, pervert or defeat the course of justice” and is punishable by a maximum of 10 years in jail.
Sheremetta is still stationed in Kamloops.
He was assigned to desk duty following the incident in 2010, but has since returned to active duty.
Blair put Sheremetta’s file over to Feb. 27, but said he hopes lawyers can have a sentencing date fixed before then.
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