Charges Stayed In Kidnap, Assault Case
Prince George, B.C. – Charges against four people, including two brothers, in connection with an alleged kidnapping and assault in a rural area east of Prince George have been dropped.
Francois Meerholz and Dillan Meerholz had been named by police as suspects in connection with an April 15th, 2012 report of a kidnapping and assault. Several officers attended a residence in the Ferndale area and located a man who was suffering from serious, but non-life threatening injuries. He was taken to University Hospital for treatment.
Investigating officers believed the victim had been held for a number of days in a residence on Upper Fraser Road and that the incident was targeted and drug related. Michael Andrew Joseph Fitzgerald and Craig Anthony Niedermayer were arrested by police, who said two other male suspects remained at large. Francois (Frankie) and Dillan Meerholz later turned themselves in to Prince George RCMP.
In total 49 charges, including multiple counts of kidnapping, forcible confinement, assault causing bodily harm, were laid in connection with the file. However, in Prince George Provincial Court on Wednesday all charges against all of the accused were stayed because authorities cannot locate the primary witness to give testimony in court.
Comments
Likely was threatened with being killed if he gave testimony……. Gives you an idea of what levels crime is up to in our city…
Prince George is a great city to live in and its a shame that we have to read about stories like this.
That is a real shame but I’ve seen it before, where primary witnesses are too afraid to appear. Very guilty, dangerous people walk because of it.
It seems that there should be some mechanism in place where statements and evidence given should be able to be presented and charges gone ahead with. It seems that there are far too many “technicalities” in our law.
What a bunch of bull***t! MEERHOLZ and his brother were supposed to be deported back to South Africa years ago ! What a joke !!!!!
They must be passing on a lot of info to the cops because I can’t see how none of the charges have that made it to court over the years with these guys haven’t stuck. With all the stuff that they have been charged with there has got to be a lot of stuff that never resulted in charges. The cops can’t be this incompetent.
The RCMP should (accidentally) shoot some of these people in the back,, instead of our Heroes..
Gitterdun, the charges moved forward likely because it was waiting for trial. If the Crown and Police can’t locate the main witness (probably the victim) then the Crown won’t have a trial. They will issue witness warrants, but still have to find the guy.
Sadly, in my mind, if you don’t plan on showing up in Court, maybe don’t call police in the first place. Save us all a ton of money. The only good thing is that a stay of proceedings does not mean not guilty, it still shows on a criminal record, just not as a conviction.
Hopefully karma visits the guy that wouldn’t testify. He cried like a baby for help after he escaped and people stepped up to help him. Now he is turning his back on everyone. Coward!
Hopefully the guy just changed his mind, probably to save his life, and isn’t dead already.
It says charges have been dropped. If they still show on a criminal record then they should be able to deport them on that basis. But considering they didn’t deport them when they had a DUI with a weapon in the vehicle and then got caught with B&E tools……
Or he owed a drug debt. Got what he deserved and then went running to the cops. Why do all these criminals break the law, then when they need help hide behind the police. If you owe pay!!
Just speculating thou
Though
At what point does a group of us “common folk” say enough is enough and start hunting these kinda of dirtbags ourselves?
I’m sure there are many thinking the same thing interceptor.
Interceptor: That is not a bad idea, and common folk should be safe and free from these dirt bags (all) but, in my experience, I do know of a dirt bag, that literly bought$ his way out of charges that were made against him. Then he laid charges against a person who stood up and said thats enough, the person that stood up to this pc o sh*t was the one who got probation…so the point was…you are not allowed to take the law in your own hands, even if the courts, lawyers and etc can be paid off, and as long as that happens we all have to live with pcs o sh*ts.
A possible positive outcome is that if Francois Meerholz is no longer facing charges, he now can be deported.
“He was scheduled to be deported to South Africa last year, following an order issued in 2008, but the deportation was delayed due to scheduled court appearances â unrelated to the recent alleged kidnapping â that have yet to take place.
The Canada Border Services Agency has said that criminal matters take precedence over immigration matters and Meerholz will remain in B.C. until the charges he is facing are resolved in court.”
Maybe time to revisit this policy. Why should Canadian taxpayers be on the hook, for people that don’t belong here?
Interceptor, careful they just might send the war wagon after you.
The Meerholz brothers are complete thugs. No doubt about their guilt. They get away with ridiculous things, even though they are supposed to be deported long ago back to South Africa. Good show PG!
One of these dirt bags threatened to kill me once. He was making sexual advances on an underage cousin of mine, threatening to ‘shank’ her and such on her facebook account. I stepped up to tell him I was watching, it wasn’t appropriate, and to move on… his response was to stalk me online threatening to kill me. These guys IMO are very dangerous and will commit more crimes the longer they are allowed to walk our streets. If he disappeared someday I don’t think anyone would much care, most all would feel safer.
One would think when they were caught red handed with a hostage torturing him, then the victim testimony wouldn’t be needed. It seems rather obvious they were used as song birds by the RCMP and some other smuck is now in jail while they continue to walk our streets… its all about priorities I guess?
What gets me is that the RCMP will use testimony from thugs like these to convict other people and the testimony no doubt is considered valid otherwise they wouldn’t be continuing to walk for their crimes. The irony of it all shows how messed up our ‘justice system’ really is.
And “don’t know” you’re kidding right? You’re suggesting the RCMP officers should unilaterally decide to randomly “shoot” individuals?
That worked so well with Ian Bush etc….
These kinds of stories make me want to pack up my bags and move… to the Civic Centre where it is “warm, clean and safe” 24 hours a day 7 days a week!
LOL…Your true colors are showing again People#1, I’m sure there are better ways to take out your frustration with this situation other than trolling/bullying using comments I made regarding the Civic Centre, moving into the Civic Centre will not manifest an appearance in court by the witness.
“To scared to testify”; “Hopefully this guy changes his mind”; etc.
What if this guy cannot be found permanently? It would be just as likely, that this guy is dead, because dead men don’t talk!
People#1, gitterdun, Eagleone, Me thinks you should at least broaden your reading horizons…. [url]http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/article/20140213/PRINCEGEORGE0101/302139998/-1/princegeorge0101/four-walk-after-witness-won-39-t-appear
Guess it doesn’t apply in this particular case, not that witnesses disappearing before trails has never happened before.
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2013/10/31/Charges-dropped-against-murder-suspect-after-witnesses-disappear/UPI-42201383252261/
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