Pubdate: Thu, 13 Dec 2001
Source: Daily News, The (CN NS)
Copyright: 2001 The Daily News
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/halifax/dailynews/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/179
Author: Andrea MacDonald, The Daily News
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

YEARS OF GOOD BEHAVIOUR CAN'T SAVE CRACK DEALER FROM PRISON

He's kept out of trouble for the two years he has been free on bail, but it 
wasn't enough to keep a crack dealer from getting jail time.

Justice Walter Goodfellow sentenced Thomas Gordon Gray to two years and 
three months yesterday for running "a retail outlet" from his Gerrish 
Street home in Halifax.

The Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge called cocaine trafficking an "evil 
trade" that has far-reaching consequences.

"The trafficker is a retailer of poison," he declared. Cocaine destroys 
lives and breeds crime," the judge said.

Gray is the last of 28 people charged in a fall 1999 police sweep, known as 
Operation Crack-Pot, to be dealt with by the courts.

Two rocks

Undercover officers bought two rocks -- or about .4 grams -- of coke from 
him in September 1999 in two separate transactions worth about $40. In both 
cases, Gray handed over the amount of crack requested and produced a 
plastic bag with at least 10 more pieces of tinfoil inside that appeared to 
contain cocaine.

Gray, 62, pleaded guilty in May to two trafficking charges.

Defence lawyer Robert McCleave had argued his client's drug trade "had more 
to do with need than greed."

Gray couldn't pay his bills after a broken leg left him unable to work, 
McCleave said, so he resorted to trafficking until he got caught up.

He peddled the drug on and off for about a year, but had stopped by the 
time he was arrested.

Gray has since been working several jobs at once to make ends meet, 
McCleave said, often spending more than 30 hours a week taking care of a 
local church's grounds.

He also takes care of an elderly boarder.

The judge said he was influenced by glowing letters from the church and 
some of Gray's employers, but the conditional sentence sought by the 
defence wouldn't have been enough of a deterrent.

Goodfellow noted that Gray's last criminal conviction was in 1985, and said 
his prospects of rehabilitation were good.

He dismissed a proceeds-of-crime charge in return for Gray coughing up half 
of the $640 that police seized from his home.
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