POT GROWER TOO HONEST

Sometimes honesty isn't the best policy.

Just ask convicted pot farmer Robert William Trudeau, who was in Edmonton's
Court of Queen's Bench yesterday to be sentenced on charges of producing a
controlled substance and possession for the purpose of trafficking.

The defence lawyer for the 32-year-old city man had been asking for a
conditional sentence to be served in the community and the judge had agreed
the case fit the criteria.

However, there was just one slight problem.

When Trudeau was being interviewed for a pre-sentence report while on bail
under several conditions, including the usual one saying you're not
supposed to break the law, he confessed to the probation officer that he
was smoking pot joints on a daily basis.

Whoops!

Justice Mary Moreau said she was worried he would keep breaking the law if
allowed to serve his sentence at home.

"If not prepared to do so now with a court order, I have grave concerns of
whether he would give it up," said Moreau, who then sentenced Trudeau to
one year in jail to be followed by one year of probation.

Defence lawyer Felicity Hunter must have known she was facing an uphill
battle although she said Trudeau was willing to abstain from drugs and take
counselling.

"He had a favourable pre-sentence report although he was a bit too candid
when he told his probation officer that he uses marijuana," said Hunter.

"My heart sank when I saw that."

Court heard Trudeau was busted on May 12, 1999, after city drug cops
followed him to a rural residence near Chipman, about 75 km east of
Edmonton, where they seized 1,287 mature pot plants with an estimated
street value of $1.28 million.

Moreau described the hydroponic pot farm as a sophisticated commercial
operation, but said Trudeau was a crop tender rather than the mastermind
behind it.

Meanwhile, a city judge will rule Monday on the validity of a search
warrant which led to retired firefighter captain John Klaver and his wife
Wendy being charged with growing marijuana at their acreage home near Stony
Plain.

The charges stem from a Sept. 17, 1998, police raid on their residence that
turned up a hydroponic grow operation containing 40 mature pot plants with
an estimated street value of about $30,000.

Defence lawyers argued the evidence should be thrown out because the search
warrant was improperly obtained.