The trial of a former School District 43 substitute teacher facing multiple sex-related charges against students has been delayed until 2012.
Court proceedings against Aleksandr Plehanov were expected to get underway in Port Coquitlam Provincial Court on Monday, where he is facing five charges of sexual interference and five counts of sexual assault.
But his lawyer, Lisa Helps, argued that the Crown was late in turning over disclosure documents to the defence, with hundreds of pages sent to her office as recently as last week. Helps said she did not have adequate time to prepare for her cross-examination and requested an adjournment from Judge Therese Alexander.
Plehanov's trial will now begin in January 2012 and is expected to take about two weeks.
Crown prosecutor Wendy van Tongeren Harvey said that while the disclosure was late, the material her office turned over was not heavy reading. She added that it would be unfortunate for there to be a delay in the proceedings given that there were several children who were ready to testify.
But the judge agreed with Helps that there was not an adequate amount of time for her to put together her cross-examination.
"It would be unfair to make the defence proceed," Alexander said. "It is with considerable reluctance that I grant the adjournment."
The charges date back to March of last year, when the parents of a Grade 3 student reported that their daughter was touched inappropriately by a teacher. Coquitlam RCMP learned the same day that two other girls from the same class had made similar allegations.
The 36-year-old Plehanov taught at 42 schools throughout the district, including 25 elementary schools, 10 middle schools and seven high schools.
The lengthy delay is attributed to the fact that it is difficult to schedule a large block of court time, given the backlog of cases the court system is currently facing.
Last week, in the conclusion of a Black Press special series on delays in B.C.'s courts, The Tri-City News reported that the increasingly clogged system was allowing offenders to go free because of unacceptable delays. The B.C. Provincial Court has called on the province to step up funding, saying 17 judges must be hired just to get back to 2005 levels and stop the growth in case backlog.
But in February the province's 2011 budget approved more cuts to the court system -1% for the judiciary, 8% for court services and 6% for prosecution services - followed by a funding freeze until 2014.
- with files from Jeff Nagel
