Adam Johnson
Northern News Services
Wednesday, August 8, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - Evidence used to charge a man with sexual assault stayed in an RCMP locker for more than four years while police moved on to "higher priority" cases, according to testimony heard in court last month.

The court also heard that improper storage methods at the detachment might have damaged DNA evidence on the victim's pants, which "may" point to other, additional suspects.

Chief Justice J.E. Richard heard from one investigating police constable that an "overwhelming" caseload prevented him from completing his investigation into a 2001 sexual assault.

John Koyczan was charged with sexual assault in May 2006 after a DNA sample from a sexual assault kit was compared against the national DNA database. It came back with a match for Koyczan.

According to court documents, the evidence was collected after a 17-year-old girl filed a sexual assault complaint in August 2001, following a drinking party at a Yellowknife park with a group of young men.

One of the men propositioned the girl for sex. When she refused, she was punched, and knocked unconscious.

When she awoke, her clothes were in disarray and she had numerous bruises and a missing tooth. She contacted police, who took her to the hospital. There, a sexual assault kit was completed. Police interviewed several witnesses, including Koyczan. All denied involvement.

For the next four years the case and the DNA evidence from the sexual assault kit sat dormant. It wasn't until after the victim, who the RCMP had lost contact with and had since moved to B.C, was re-interviewed by police in September 2005 that the sexual assault kit was sent for forensic screening. The kit was sent away that November.

The length of time it took to lay a charge led to a claim by the accused sex offender of prejudicial arrest.

That claim was rejected by Richard on July 19, who stated that "an extremely high load of criminal cases caused insufficient supervision" on the file.

During proceedings, the RCMP constable who was initially put in charge of the case testified that "he was unable to concentrate on this investigation, due to many other investigations which had a higher priority," Richard said.

Another RCMP officer took on the case in 2004, but again it sat dormant.

Richard stated that since the process was not intentionally delayed, police had not acted maliciously.

"I am satisfied that the main reason why this investigation was dormant for substantial periods of time was the inadequate level of police resources at the Yellowknife detachment of the RCMP to deal with the high caseload," Richard said in his ruling.

RCMP spokesperson Const. Roxanne Dreilich said Yellowknife has a higher caseload per police officer than most detachments of similar size.

"Certainly the members here have full case loads," she said.

Yellowknife detachment has 24 active officers on staff, Const. Dreilich said, though that number can vary with leave and court duties.

"Increased resources would certainly be help, but as it stands now our members are managing," she said.

Dreilich said the case may have been set aside because it demanded "a very intense or very involved investigation. If we had something that had to be dealt with right then and there, that may supersede a long, intense investigation."

No date has yet been set for Koyczan's trial.