Charges have been dropped against a Vancouver man who spent Christmas in jail for allegedly repeatedly hosting parties in violation of COVID-19 public health orders.
Shawn Adrian Lloyd, 24, had been accused of two offences under the Public Health Act for allegedly having a gathering on Dec. 18, 2020: contravening the provisions of the act, and failing to comply with a health officer’s order.
Court records show both charges were stayed on Apr. 20, at the direction of the Crown.
BC Prosecution Service spokesperson Daniel McLaughlin with told Global News the decision to stay the charges was made after further information was received by the prosecutor with conduct of the file.
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After a review of this new information and the rest of the file materials, McLaughlin said the prosecutor concluded the charge approval standard could no longer be met.
Under charge assessment guidelines applied by the BC Prosecution Service, charges will only be approved or continued where Crown Counsel is satisfied that the evidence gathered by the investigative agency provides a substantial likelihood of conviction and, if so, that a prosecution is required in the public interest.
In this case, McLaughlin said the prosecutor “concluded the evidentiary test was no longer met and directed the stay of proceedings.”
Read more:
Vancouver man jailed on Christmas Day for allegedly hosting parties had ignored warnings: police
Lloyd was arrested on Christmas Day and spent a night in jail.
At the time, he was living on the 48th floor of Trump Tower on Vancouver’s Georgia Street.
Vancouver police said they had received 12 complaints about noise and parties at the downtown apartment since September 2020, and when a neighbour complained about another loud party on Dec. 18, they decided to up the ante.
“Our officers issued multiple warnings and issued tickets to this man over several weeks, asking him to stop hosting parties during the pandemic,” Sgt. Steve Addison said in a Dec. 30 statement.
“He made clear that he has no plans to stop, so our officers obtained an arrest warrant.”
Lloyd was released on Boxing Day on $500 bail and several conditions — including that he must answer the door if police knock, comply with all provincial health orders, and only have two people in his home.
He is still facing a violation ticket under the COVID-19 Related Measures Act for an alleged incident on Dec. 13 where he is accused of failing to comply with the public health order banning gatherings and events.
