A video recording of a verbal confrontation between now-United Conservative Party MLA Jason Nixon and a Sundre-based Fish and Wildlife officer nine years ago will not be released to the media, a provincial court judge ruled last week.
The recording was made outside the Mountain Aire Lodge in January 2010 and was subsequently played at Nixon’s trial on charges of threatening an officer and obstruction of justice.
Nixon was found not guilty of both charges in 2011.
Freelance journalist Britton Ledingham had filed an application under Section 605 (1) of the Criminal Code to have the recording released.
Judge Marlene Graham issued her ruling on the application in Didsbury provincial court on April 17. Nixon was not in court, but was represented by legal counsel.
The judge cited sections of the Youth Criminal Justice Act in her ruling, saying that the recording could not be released because a youth was involved in the incident that led to the original trial.
The videotape was from a dashcam on officer Adam Mirus’s patrol vehicle. It was played in court during the original March 2011 trial, which was covered by this reporter.
On the tape the accused can be heard saying, “I’m going to manhandle this guy in about a minute.”
Officer Mirus testified that he took that comment to be a threat and charged Nixon.
Nixon testified that he was speaking to another man standing nearby when he made the ‘manhandle’ comment and did not mean it as a threat to the officer.
Judge Graham oversaw the trial and ruled in June 2011 that Nixon was not guilty.
During the April 17 court hearing, Judge Graham said, “Jason Nixon is an acquitted person who was found not guilty” and releasing the recording “would amount to being re-tried in the court of public opinion.”
Judge Graham said she would be releasing her written decision in the case next month.
Nixon, a Sundre-area resident, was elected MLA for Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre in 2015 and re-elected on April 16.
