Vancouver's millionaire policeman Aristotelis Millas will appear in court in September to face drunk-driving charges.
Constable Millas, known to his colleagues as Mel, made news around the world six years ago when he found nearly $1-million in a duffel bag.
It was actually his dog, Gus, that sniffed out the bag that was left in a dumpster.
Burnaby RCMP arrested Constable Millas, who has remained a Vancouver police officer, in January. He was off duty at the time and charged with driving while impaired after the RCMP pulled him over near the intersection of Boundary Road and Hastings Street.
The officer was scheduled to make a brief court appearance at 222 Main Street yesterday, but the matter was adjourned until Sept. 2.
It is unclear whether Constable Millas is legally able to spend the money he discovered in April of 1999.
He found the money while off duty and walking his dog in east Vancouver. When the dog started barking and sniffing a garbage can in Clinton Park, the officer assumed Gus had smelled food, but then noticed the duffel bag, which was filled with a backpack full of money.
Although a number of people claimed the money belonged to them, Constable Millas was able to claim the tax-free windfall in December of 1999.
While police initially suspected the stack of bills, which amounted to $937,000, was drug money or proceeds of other crime, a police investigation failed to find any links to criminal activity.
When that investigation failed to turn up the owner of the money, Constable Millas staked a claim to it, saying he was off duty when he found it and should be treated like any other citizen who finds property.
But after a provincial court judge awarded him the money, a government lawyer warned Constable Millas that he should hold off spending the money for six years. Within that period, the lawful owner could still go after Constable Millas for the money if any of it had been spent.
Any other lawful claim to the cash, as explained by the government lawyer who advised Constable Millas, expired in April.