Pubdate: Wed, 21 Jun 2006
Source: Barrie Advance, The (CN ON)
Copyright: 2006 Metroland Printing, Publishing and Distributing
Contact:  http://www.simcoe.com/sc/barrie/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2192
Author: Roberta Avery
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)

FORMER UNDERCOVER COP JAILED AT HOME

A former undercover police officer who fed information about the 
location of marijuana fields to two men so they could harvest the 
crop before police raids was sentenced to 12 months in jail Wednesday.

Justice Joseph Wilson, accepting a joint submission of the Crown and 
defence lawyer Harry Black in the Ontario Court of Justice, gave 
former Ontario Provincial Police Det. Const. Scott Duguid, 35, a 
conditional sentence, meaning that he can serve his sentence at home.

Duguid, who pleaded guilty last August to breach of trust, told 
Wilson prior to sentencing that his life as an undercover officer had 
led to an addiction to cocaine, marijuana and alcohol that had 
"clouded my thinking and eroded my values.

"I had lost it. Under a cloud of drugs and alcohol I began to 
associate and socialize with the criminals I was targeting," said 
Duguid, whose telephone conversations with the two men who harvested 
the marijuana were intercepted by police.

"I did ask my supervisors for help, but help was not forthcoming," said Duguid.

But in his closing submissions on sentencing, Crown Prosecutor 
Stephane Marinier pointed out that at the time of his arrest in 
September 2003, Duguid had stated that he hadn't used cocaine for two months.

Duguid was "an integral part of the greed" of the drug trade, said Marinier.

"He gave the information to the bad guys so that the bad guys could 
put drugs on the street," said Marinier.

Wilson noted that it's difficult for all those involved when someone 
who has "sworn to uphold the law, in fact contravenes it."

Duguid, whose grandfather was an assistant commissioner of the OPP, 
apologized to the public and his family for breaking the vow to 
uphold the law that he "swore on my grandfather's casket."

Wilson also sentenced Duguid to 18 months probation to commence at 
the end of his conditional sentence.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman