A case against a Forest Grove man charged with uttering threats against the Ministry of Children and Families Development was stayed in 100 Mile provincial court Friday.
Crown Counsel Paola Konge stayed the proceedings against Cameron McSorley, 38, who had been charged with uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm against the MCFD and possession of a firearm without a license or registration. The stay came after Judge Michelle Stanford agreed to issue an order that McSorley forfeit his seized firearms, including a 12-gauge shotgun, .22 rifle, a handgun and ammunition.
“They’re not calling it an exoneration but that’s what it is,” McSorley said outside the court. “The Crown has no evidence.”
McSorley told the court in February that he had been heading to the 100 Mile RCMP detachment on June 4 at the request of Sgt. Brad McKinnon when he was pulled over by three or four police cars near his home. He alleges the officers made him lie on the ground, handcuffed him and put a rifle to his head.
He said the following eight months had been difficult because of strict conditions that included a prohibition from going within 10 kilometres of 100 Mile House except between noon and 4 p.m. on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays. This left him with only a “narrow window” to go to doctor’s appointments, get groceries or fill prescriptions. He said the curfew left him feeling isolated and “trapped.”
Stanford agreed in February to vary two of McSorley’s eight conditions to allow him to go into 100 Mile House, noting “I appreciate the hardship these conditions have caused you.”
McSorley said Friday the arrest and subsequent conditions have had a negative effect on his reputation and destroyed his drafting and design business.
“My life has been ruined,” he said, adding he was also “discredited in the community … a toll that could last a while.”
McSorley said he intends to start rebuilding his life, but he’s not sure where to start “as the world has changed so much. I wasn’t the bad guy I was told that I was, which was hard.”
kelly.sinoski@100milefreepress.net
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