Two charges dropped in vigilante grocer case

David Chen outside the grocery store he owns on Dundas Street in Toronto's Chinatown.

With two charges dropped and no option of a jury trial, Toronto’s vigilante grocer now faces his real legal battle: Convincing a judge that he is innocent of assault and unlawful confinement because Canada’s citizen’s arrest law violates his rights.

Experts say it won’t be easy for David Chen to win a constitutional challenge.

His lawyer will have to convince a judge that the current citizen’s arrest law affects Mr. Chen’s liberty or security of the person and violates a principle of fundamental justice.

“I find it hard to see how that argument could succeed," said Hamish Stewart, a University of Toronto law professor. “It would be very easy for the prosecution to show this is not an arbitrary law."

In the meantime, the grocer is receiving plenty of help with his legal bills.

The story of how police charged Mr. Chen after he chased a shoplifter, tying him up and holding him in the back of a delivery truck until police arrived, has inspired people across the country, prompting well-wishers from as far away as Prince George to send him cheques.

Crown attorney Colleen Hepburn announced Tuesday she is withdrawing kidnapping and concealed-weapon charges against Mr. Chen and two employees who helped catch the shoplifter.

Now the three men are charged with assault and unlawful confinement, charges that could put them in jail for as long as two years.

On the morning of May 23, surveillance cameras outside Mr. Chen’s Lucky Moose market caught a man stealing $60 worth of plants and absconding with them on a bike. He returned an hour later and fled on foot after Mr. Chen confronted him. Mr. Chen and his employees chased the man, caught him, bound him with twine and shut him in a delivery truck until police arrived four minutes later, Mr. Chen’s lawyer Peter Lindsay says.

Mr. Chen’s lawyer said discussions surrounding dropping the charges have been in the works since June, and he says Ms. Hepburn offered to drop the kidnapping and assault charges last month if Mr. Chen pleaded guilty to the other two.

Kidnapping was the most serious of the original four charges, and the only one that would have allowed Mr. Chen and his co-accused the right to a jury trial.

“I can’t speculate as to her [the Crown’s] motives, but I don’t see a jury convicting Mr. Chen of anything," Mr. Lindsay said, adding that he hopes for a positive outcome.

“I’m hopeful of persuading a judge [the charges] makes no sense at all."

The scene at the Old City Hall courthouse yesterday was frenzied as dozens of supporters crowded into courtroom seats and reporters jostled on courthouse steps outside.

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