Pubdate: Sun, 15 Feb 2009
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Copyright: 2009 The Ottawa Citizen
Contact: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326
Author: Kelly Egan
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/af.htm (Asset Forfeiture)

HOMEOWNER VOWS TO FIGHT SEIZURE BY THE CROWN

155 Spadina belongs to Kathleen McConkey but she does not live there.
Police attention is focused on her daughter, Lori.

The main occupant of 155 Spadina Ave. had a Rottweiler named Cuddles.
The cuteness ends there.

There was nothing cuddly about the mayhem that sometimes enveloped
this end of Hintonburg.

Who is to blame? Ultimately, says the province, the buck stops with
the owner, regardless of whether she lived there or had direct
knowledge of the improper activity.

If the house is an "instrument" of unlawful activity, it is a
candidate for seizure by the Crown. Such is the reach of the Civil
Remedies Act.

The house is owned by Kathleen (Kay) Nora McConkey, 75, a long-time
resident of Cornwall. "Devastated," is how she describes her reaction
to the court action and media coverage.

According to court files, she purchased the house with her daughter,
Lori, in 1994. However, in 1997, Mrs. McConkey bought her daughter's
share of the property for $49,000 and became the sole owner.

She was reluctant to speak to the Citizen but did say she intends to
contest the effort to seize her property, which is apparently
mortgage-free.

"Ah, that's not fair," she responded, when told the newspaper was
looking into the history of 155.

"I thought I was innocent until I was proven guilty. I'm 75 years old.
I've lived a good life, all of my life and now this is spoiling my
reputation. I don't want to go out of the house."

Mrs. McConkey's lawyer, Ross Stewart, described his client as a pillar
of the community, a church-going volunteer who was educated in a
convent school and once worked as a physician's aide.

"She's the kind of person you want as your neighbour. This has been
overwhelming for her."

Even though Mrs. McConkey is the owner of 155 Spadina, there is no
doubt the bulk of the police attention is focused on her daughter,
Lori, who is 45.

She is described in police affidavits -- which are sworn statements,
not facts proven in a court of law -- as a known drug user and,
through her lawyer, has admitted to drug use in open court. She does
have a criminal record, which begins in 2007. There were eight
convictions that year, most for breaching recognizance or bail
conditions, and four more in January 2008, including for assault with
a weapon. There is also a conviction in August 2007 for cocaine possession.

Until last fall, she had not spent an extended period behind
bars.

At a guilty plea in November, court was told that a combination of
drug use and a bipolar condition contributed to her lack of judgment.

She is described as very bright, particularly when it comes to
computers. It was a computer business, in fact, that led Lori to move
to Ottawa and purchase the Spadina house with her mother in the 1990s.

By 1999, Lori was operating an Internet cafe business, AE Micro, at
288 Bank St., near the corner of Somerset Street. It had, to be
charitable, a patchy reputation. There is even a current website, with
25 entries, devoted to former staffers relating workplace complaints.

But poor labour relations was the least of it. Just after midnight in
January 2007, a man emerged from the business bleeding from the face
and neck from stab wounds.

Police surrounded the business, trapping a suspect inside the locked
cafe. They broke down the door, arresting a man with a previous
manslaughter conviction.

Police say Lori McConkey was also inside and eventually locked herself
inside a walk-in safe until 4:30 a.m. Charges against Ms. McConkey
were eventually withdrawn.

In 2007, police conducted an undercover drug operation in which a
street person was sent into 288 Bank to attempt to buy crack. A deal
was made in the basement. The affidavit says 0.1 grams of crack were
sold for $40.

"There was a wide array of calls to the daughter's Internet cafe
business at 288 Bank and many instances of theft and break and enter,"
reads the affidavit.

The police say the business was closed in 2007 after the landlord
discovered the electrical wiring had been monkeyed with, causing a
serious hazard. At this point, say police, the drug activity shifted
more heavily to 155 Spadina.

Lori McConkey, according to her lawyer, is now serving an 19-month
jail term -- seven months in custody, 12 months of house arrest -- for
something connected to neither address.

In February 2005, she appeared in a Brampton court after a bomb threat
was called in for a flight from Toronto to Mexico. The plane had to
return to the airport, be evacuated and searched. Lori McConkey faced
a number of charges, pleading guilty to public mischief in November.

She is also facing charges of aggravated assault and assault with a
weapon from an incident on Aug. 30 in Cornwall in which a woman was
struck over the head with a metal pipe. Police found the victim
bleeding. Mr. Stewart said the accused denies the allegations and
intends to contest them at trial.

There is also a prohibition on Lori McConkey visiting Ottawa, which
Mr. Stewart may attempt to have modified as he tries to get his client
into a treatment centre in the capital.

(He has not seen the 17 binders of material the Crown has filed. He
also says Lori McConkey certainly does not admit to the wrongdoing
spelled out in the police affidavit, much of which never resulted in
charges against her.)

He is curious why the Ministry of the Attorney General is acting now,
months after the problem may have disappeared and after Kathleen
McConkey has invested considerable money to repair the house.

"Does that translate into depriving a 75-year-old woman of an
investment she's worked on for most of her adult life? I think that's
just fundamentally wrong."

The house, in fact, appears to be in decent repair. When the Citizen
stopped by, a middle-aged man answered and said he had just relocated
from Montreal and knew nothing about allegations of a crackhouse.

"She will absolutely fight (the seizure)," said Mr. Stewart. "She's
offended by the unfairness."
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin