Pubdate: Wed, 25 Apr 2012
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Copyright: 2012 The Ottawa Citizen
Contact: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326
Page: C3
Author: Andrew Seymour

TEXTS LED TO ENTRAPMENT, LAWYER ARGUES

Undercover Officer Flirted To Buy Drugs

An admitted drug dealer is seeking to have cocaine trafficking 
charges against him stayed, arguing he was entrapped because he never 
would have sold a female undercover officer drugs if he didn't 
believe he was going to have sex with her.

Andrew Abboud, 29, had twice hung up the phone on Ottawa police Det. 
Joanne Pilotte when she called him out of the blue in March 2009 
looking for drugs, even going so far as to tell her never to dial his 
number again.

But his tune quickly changed when the undeterred detective sent him a 
text message.

"To bad u didnt wanna meet u missed out on great tits," Pilotte 
wrote. (The texts quoted appear as originally written, including 
emoticons.) "Tits??," Abboud responded. "Yeah nice but u werent all 
that friendly with me :(," she wrote back. "Too bad u think that way 
bout meeting new girls."

Abboud then asked about Pilotte's age, whether she had a Facebook 
page and if she was "hot."

"I have been told and i dont disagree," replied Pilotte, who 
eventually told Abboud her friend had already got "party favours" and 
she wouldn't need his help.

However, the two agreed to talk again. Abboud seemed intrigued, 
despite his reservations about not knowing Pilotte, who he called 
"Miss Mystery Tits."

Pilotte testified there were more text conversations before Abboud 
eventually agreed to meet her in the parking lot of a beer store. He 
sold her 1.5 grams of powdered cocaine for $160.

The two would meet two more times, and both times Abboud sold her 
similarly small amounts. Police later searched Abboud's residence and 
found more than a kilogram of marijuana, 18 grams of cocaine and 23 
grams of crack.

While Abboud was shy and awkward in person, Pilotte testified his 
texts were a lot more racy.

At one point Abboud said he didn't get a good look at her breasts and 
later talked about how they should go to his place. He also asked for 
naked pictures.

Abboud's lawyer, Mark Ertel, suggested to Pilotte that her comments 
deliberately led Abboud to believe that he would have sex with her if 
he sold her drugs. Ertel alleges that's entrapment, because Pilotte's 
texts convinced Abboud to commit a crime he wouldn't normally have committed.

The veteran undercover officer - who has in the past portrayed crack 
addicted prostitutes, escorts and massage parlour employees - 
explained that her comments were in keeping with her character as a 
young party girl who likes cocaine.

"It's just pleasant flirting," she said. "I didn't cross any line 
that was inappropriate as a police officer."
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