Leo Crockwell’s silent standoff ends

For the first time in a few years, Leo Crockwell’s name was on the docket at provincial court in St. John’s Thursday.
He wasn’t present when his name was called, and he wasn’t there when the Crown announced it was withdrawing a charge he had long maintained was laid unlawfully. He didn’t have the satisfaction of being in the courtroom when his case was closed and a warrant for his arrest was cancelled, but he was willing to comment on it later to The Telegram.
“I’m very relieved, but this was a planned wrongful conviction,” Crockwell said.
Crockwell said he had no idea the matter was going to be called in court, and The Telegram was the first to inform him of the news. He said he had tried to make headway in the matter last week by calling the court and leaving a message for the assistant director of public prosecutions, but didn’t get a return call.
Crockwell, 62, made national headlines in December 2010 when he slipped past the RCMP during an eight-day standoff at his mother’s Bay Bulls home.
He faced a number of firearms charges following his arrest, and in June 2012 was convicted and subsequently sentenced to four years in prison minus time spent in remand.
The arrest warrant that was withdrawn by the Crown this week had originally been issued by provincial court on March 28, 2016, after Crockwell failed to show up in court on a charge of breach of probation.
Crockwell has said he didn’t attend provincial court at the time because, in his opinion, he wasn’t on probation. He has long argued that the probation order — issued by the Newfoundland Supreme Court on Feb. 15, 2013 — wasn’t valid, saying the Criminal Code of Canada states a judge cannot impose a probation order where the sentence is in excess of two years.
“The arrest warrant for the probation order doesn’t exist, so they can’t commence proceedings,” Crockwell said at the time. “They can’t put out an arrest warrant. ... It’s a farce.”
According to documents outlining the charge of breaching probation, between June 16 and 26, 2014, Crockwell “did without reasonable excuse, fail to comply with the set order.” However, the documents do not indicate what the order was.
Crockwell told The Telegram Friday he is pleased with the news, but is still angry about the issue.
“Yes, I’m relieved. I suppose I can come and go from my house again, but that warrant should never have been issued in the first place,” he said. “It was a farce. All I’ve been trying to do is walk away from this whole thing.”
The withdrawal of the arrest warrant assures Crockwell’s freedom, but comes after a number of long and trying years for him since the standoff. He has had multiple lawyers involved in legal battles at various levels of court over what the original sentence was actually supposed to be, and his life has been on hold as he has rarely left his Bay Bulls property.

Twitter: @tara_bradbury

glen.whiffen@thetelegram.com