Pubdate: Wed, 07 Jan 2009
Source: Sun Times, The (Owen Sound, CN ON)
Copyright: 2009 Osprey Media Group Inc.
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/NtnHgLCY
Website: http://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1544
Author: Scott Dunn
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)

STATEMENT TOSSED, POT CASE DISMISSED

A 61-year-old Guelph man's charges of production and possession of 
$2.6 million of marijuana were dismissed Dec. 18 after the accused 
man's statement to police was excluded based on a violation of his 
constitutional rights.

More details of what happened in the case are available since it was 
reported last week that the charges were dismissed.

Walkerton Ontario Court Justice George Brophy ruled the rights to 
counsel of accused Ba Thuan Tran were violated after a raid on a farm 
near Dornoch in September, 2007, supervising federal Crown attorney 
Stephane Marinier said in an interview.

Marinier, who was responding to inquiries from The Sun Times last 
week, said Brophy acquitted the defendant after a two-day trial.

The decision will not be appealed, said Marinier, of the Public 
Prosecution Service of Canada. No one else was charged.

The excluded statement had to do with how long Tran had been at the 
residence, Marinier said. It dealt with "the property and how he 
(Tran) came to be there," said federal Crown Niall Gilks, who 
conducted the trial. He was reluctant to be more specific, since the 
statement was excluded as evidence.

Police took the statement when Tran was arrested, Gilks said in an 
interview Tuesday. Gilks said he couldn't say how significant that 
Charter ruling was. He added "It was a circumstantial case."

Gilks said Justice Brophy considered the entirety of the case and 
concluded "there wasn't sufficient evidence to convict the accused." 
The judge didn't issue a written ruling, court staff said.

Fifty officers from West Grey, the OPP, RCMP, Guelph, Owen Sound and 
Waterloo Regional Police seized 1,990 plants from a property on 
Highway 6 south of Dornoch in the former Glenelg Township, police 
said at the time.

Officials used a helicopter to fly over the area, which led to the 
seizure of an additional 593 plants at six locations. This week, West 
Grey Police Service referred calls about the case to an investigating 
officer, who could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Other high-profile marijuana busts have fallen apart in court locally 
on constitutional grounds, including one from July 2005 near Meaford.

Justice Julia Morneau ruled in that case two Grey County OPP officers 
had no authority to stop two vehicles on a country road one night in 
fall of 2003, even if they did find $400,000 worth of marijuana in 
one of them. She also expressed concern about the officers' 
understanding of the limits of the power to stop drivers.

In April of 2005, federal Crown attorney Doug Grace withdrew charges 
against four men accused of growing more than $1 million worth of 
marijuana northwest of Kemble.

Police received a tip that "asians" had moved to a rural property and 
they might be growing marijuana.

When police arrived, they stopped a Vietnamese man in a cube van who 
didn't roll down his window, but instead used his cellphone. The van 
smelled strongly of marijuana inside. More vehicles quickly left the property.

But police were found to have insufficient grounds to stop the van. 
The tip to police wasn't strong enough, such as it would be from a 
trusted informant who had seen the drugs.

A search of the property found marijuana cut and drying in a barn and 
in a field between Kemble and Big Bay where it had been grown. The 
pot was not visible from the road.
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