Pubdate: Thu, 31 Jan 2008
Source: Regina Leader-Post (CN SN)
Copyright: 2008 The Leader-Post Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/regina/leaderpost/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/361
Author: Barb Pacholik, The Leader-Post
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)

TESTIMONY PACKS A REAL BANG

A tranquil Sunday, summer day was interrupted by the bang of a stun
grenade after a frantic Rhoda Asapace found three fugitives in her
home and an RCMP Emergency Response Team (ERT) in hot pursuit.

"To my mind, I thought they shot one of my kids," Asapace testified
Wednesday, explaining her reaction when she heard the stun grenade.

At the time, three young children were hiding in a washroom inside her
Pasqua First Nation home. She had been told by the RCMP the fugitives
might be armed, although she never saw a weapon and no one threatened
her, Asapace said in cross-examination at the Regina drug trial for
six men.

Lawrence Hubert Agecoutay, 52, Chester Fernand Girard, 59, Nelson
Edward Northwood, 58, Jack Allan Northwood, 55, Joseph Clayton
Agecoutay, 47, and Robert Stanley Agecoutay, 48, are charged with
unlawful production of marijuana and possession of marijuana for the
purpose of trafficking between April 1 and Aug. 21, 2005.

All but Nelson Northwood are also facing a weapons possession charge,
while Robert Agecoutay alone is also charged with being in possession
of a prohibited weapon -- a sawed-off shotgun. Girard has an
additional charge of forcible entry of a house.

In earlier testimony, court heard how ERT officers involved in a
pre-dawn raid on two homes and a grow site on the Pasqua First Nation
spotted three men running from a teepee shortly after 4:30 a.m. on
Aug. 21, 2005. Officers seized three rifles from inside the teepee.

Cpl. Michael Kerkewich, his police dog Bandit, and two other ERT
members covered about 15 kilometres on foot through bush, fields and
coulees before tracking the trio to Asapace's home about eight hours
later. Asapace said she turned around to find the men in her house.
"They asked us to hide them . . . I didn't know what to do."

She pushed two young children into the washroom where her grandchild
was having a bath before running outside to find her husband. At that
point she saw RCMP officers approaching and waved them over.

Running back inside, she said a "short guy" -- later identified as
Girard -- asked her to hide his wallet. She refused, then ran back
outside to the officers, who had now arrived. She said the police
wouldn't let her back inside.

"I was panicking," said Asapace.

Kerkewich said he and the two other officers had lost radio contact
with the RCMP because the lengthy chase had drained their batteries.
Believing it was in the best interests of public safety to enter the
house rather than wait, one officer tossed in the stun grenade, and
they all moved in, Kerkewich said.

Inside, the RCMP found three men who gave their names as "Roaming
Buffalo," "Flying Owl", and "Asina Anana." They were later identified
as Luke Zigovits, Brian McConnell -- who is expected to testify as a
Crown witness -- and Girard, whose wallet was discovered a few days
later inside a freezer at Asapace's home.

The RCMP raid uncovered eight greenhouses and four plots -- what the
prosecution contends was the largest marijuana grow-up in Saskatchewan
history -- near the homes of Joseph and Robert Agecoutay.

During cross-examination of several RCMP witnesses, defence lawyers
have asked about the differences between industrial hemp and
marijuana. The officers have maintained they believed the plants were
marijuana.
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