A Halifax-area man has had a slew of charges against him stayed after a judge concluded he was the subject of an illegal strip search by Halifax Regional Police.

Judge Alonzo Wright issued the stay in a ruling he delivered Wednesday in Halifax provincial court.

Dante Warnell Cromwell, 26, was facing more than 20 charges, including assault, drug trafficking and various firearms offences, stemming from an April 16, 2023, incident that Wright described as a case of “extreme road rage.”

“I remind myself that the burden here is on the Crown to show that there was reasonable and probable grounds to conduct the most intrusive and degrading search available to the police,” Wright said.

He raised a number of issues with the search, including the fact there were few notes kept by any of the officers, there were four officers present and the door to the room was left open.