Photo: Facebook
Leslie McCulloch, left
Despite being described as “deceptive,” “arrogant” and “slippery” by the Parole Board of Canada, a former West Kelowna drug trafficker was once again released on day parole last month.
Leslie John McCulloch was given a 10-year sentence in 2019 for production of a controlled substance and possession for the purpose of trafficking, following a raid of his West Kelowna business in March 2016.
Following months of investigation, police raided his automotive shop on Auburn Road and found a fake prescription pill manufacturing operation. The pills being produced contained acetylfentanyl, an analogue of the more widely known fentanyl.
McCulloch claims he had allowed others to use his business for the drug production to clear a significant debt he had amassed. He was on parole when the police raid occurred, stemming from a prior cocaine trafficking conviction.
Despite his lengthy sentence, McCulloch was released to a halfway home in the Lower Mainland on day parole in October 2021. But just two months later, his parole was suspended, after the Correctional Service of Canada “received confidential information” that indicated he had “ returned to behaviors consistent with [his] crime cycle.”
But while McCulloch successfully appealed that suspension this spring, he has remained behind bars pending the conclusion of a new review.
That new review was held on June 8. In the recently released Parole Board of Canada decision, the board noted McCulloch appears to only be honest with the Parole Board when he has already been caught in a lie.
“You presented as having an answer or benign explanation for everything. The Board found your answers to be convenient and not reliable and persuasive,” the Parole Board wrote in its decision.
“The Board got the impression that you are in fact quite deceptive and certainly arrogant in that you seem to think directions and conditions do not apply to you if they are inconvenient. To use a metaphor, the board sees you as ‘slippery.’ You tell the truth if it is convenient or if you are caught in a lie, otherwise you seem to have no concern about being dishonest.”
McCulloch admitted to meeting his former partner and co-accused while he was released on day parole, despite being in direct violation of his release conditions. He said they had met in a park, and the meeting became “heated.” The day prior to the June review hearing, she sent a letter to the parole board, calling McCulloch “manipulative.”
“The Board also finds that you breached the direction not to meet with RW and that you lied about the meeting until you were backed into a corner and decided to come clean,” the Board said.
Despite the Parole Board’s concerns about McCulloch’s honesty, his parole suspension was revoked, and he’s been released once again on day parole to a halfway house in Calgary.
“You are a minimum security offender and since your return to custody your institutional behavior has been appropriate and you currently participating in a maintenance program. You have also maintained your sobriety and, as already stated, you have a strong revised release plan,” the Parole Board said.
“While your unwillingness to work openly and transparently with you [Case Management Team] is clearly a concern, the Board will place some limited and admittedly skeptical weight on your claim that you have reconsidered your attitude during the seven months you have been back in prison. Strictly on a cost-benefit analysis, perhaps you are intelligent enough to realize that being more transparent with your CMT is in your best interest.”
The release was not supported by McCulloch’s Case Management Team, who emphasized McCulloch’s “deception, manipulation and outright lies” and said he is “not manageable on day parole because of [his] lack of transparency.” His community slogan officer also submitted that McCulloch “cannot be managed in the community because [he is] clearly not transparent and [he] continues to lie.”
McCulloch has had a long, winding path through the justice system since his 2016 arrest. While he initially pleaded guilty in February 2017, he later tried to take back his plea. When that proved unsuccessful, he jumped bail prior to his sentencing, and avoided arrest for three months in 2019, all while “taunting” the Crown prosecutor through emails.
“If I don’t want to be found, I won’t be found,” McCulloch stated in one of the emails. He was found by police the following month.
When he was arrested in 2016, McCulloch was already on parole for a prior cocaine trafficking conviction in 2013. A prior Parole Board decision labeled McCulloch as a “middleman who transported drugs for the Hells Angels” in 2013.
