LdyLunatic
i wanna be cool too!
- Joined
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Alberta
05 Oct 2006
by Tony Blais,
Not having a smelly dead body in the basement of his north-side home helped a city man get marijuana-growing charges against him dismissed yesterday.
[Name redacted] , 30, was accused of producing a controlled substance, possession for the purpose of trafficking and theft of utilities, after police hauled 342 pot plants out of an upscale home at [address redacted]. on Dec. 3, 2005.
However, Court of Queen's Bench Justice Denny Thomas ruled the bust was unlawful because the police had no search warrant and should not have been in the house.
"They had no right to enter it at all," said Thomas.
"In my view, the conduct of the police was not justifiable based on the privacy issues of the homeowner who was in the sanctity of his home," the judge added.
Court heard police received an anonymous 911 call from a man with an Oriental accent calling from a pay phone at Kingsway Mall saying there was a "bad smell" at the home and he thought "there was a body in the basement."
Police went to the home, Huynh let them in, and there was a conversation about the supposed body.
[Name redacted] then became "nervous and agitated" and blocked the basement entrance, telling officers they needed a search warrant.
Thomas noted police testified there was "no smell out of the ordinary" at the home and said "there were certainly no screams from the basement or any other noises."
Once there was no smell noted, "that was the end of it," said Thomas, and police should have left.
The judge said he accepted that police felt a need to investigate the information provided in the 911 call.
"However, there was absolutely no confirmation of that."
At the time, members of the police Green Team said they had discovered a thriving marijuana grow operation in the basement being fuelled by stolen electricity and estimated the street value of the pot plants at $340,000.
05 Oct 2006
by Tony Blais,
Not having a smelly dead body in the basement of his north-side home helped a city man get marijuana-growing charges against him dismissed yesterday.
[Name redacted] , 30, was accused of producing a controlled substance, possession for the purpose of trafficking and theft of utilities, after police hauled 342 pot plants out of an upscale home at [address redacted]. on Dec. 3, 2005.
However, Court of Queen's Bench Justice Denny Thomas ruled the bust was unlawful because the police had no search warrant and should not have been in the house.
"They had no right to enter it at all," said Thomas.
"In my view, the conduct of the police was not justifiable based on the privacy issues of the homeowner who was in the sanctity of his home," the judge added.
Court heard police received an anonymous 911 call from a man with an Oriental accent calling from a pay phone at Kingsway Mall saying there was a "bad smell" at the home and he thought "there was a body in the basement."
Police went to the home, Huynh let them in, and there was a conversation about the supposed body.
[Name redacted] then became "nervous and agitated" and blocked the basement entrance, telling officers they needed a search warrant.
Thomas noted police testified there was "no smell out of the ordinary" at the home and said "there were certainly no screams from the basement or any other noises."
Once there was no smell noted, "that was the end of it," said Thomas, and police should have left.
The judge said he accepted that police felt a need to investigate the information provided in the 911 call.
"However, there was absolutely no confirmation of that."
At the time, members of the police Green Team said they had discovered a thriving marijuana grow operation in the basement being fuelled by stolen electricity and estimated the street value of the pot plants at $340,000.
