POT GROWERS QUESTION VALIDITY OF WARRANTS

A lawyer for a marijuana-legalization advocate known as Daweedking is
one step closer to what may become a legal first in Canada --
requiring police to provide proof that informants they use to obtain
search warrants are reliable.

Defence lawyer Frank Miller launched a constitutional challenge
Monday against the search warrant police used to raid the home of his
clients, Fred Pritchard, 40, and his wife Renee Pritchard, 44, in
order to seize marijuana plants and drug paraphernalia.

The Pritchards are charged with cultivating marijuana and possession
for the purpose of trafficking marijuana. Fred Pritchard has in the
past acted as a marijuana activist, using the moniker Daweedking as
he provided cannabis to members of his Marijuana Compassion Club of Windsor.

The pot club has been closed since May 6, 2005, when police raided
the couple's Albert Street home and seized 26 plants, as well as
lights and other equipment from the basement.

Miller is challenging the claims made by police to get a search
warrant. He said the search warrant for the Pritchards' home was
based on information provided by two informants, who allege that the
accused had 50 to 80 three-foot-high marijuana plants in their basement.

He noted the warrant was strikingly similar to one issued against
another client of his -- though police in that case ended up finding
180 three-foot-high plants and 261 one-inch-high seedlings.

"It could be anybody in the city of Windsor making up this song and
dance," Miller said in court. "Our position is that nobody was down there."

Miller said it would be "grossly unfair" if the accused could not
question police about how they came up with search warrant information.

"The issue of reliability is something that is typically accepted on
the face of it," Miller said outside court. He is arguing that search
warrants containing similar information to one another are
suspicious. "It would suggest very strongly that these people aren't
going in (to the locations they claim they are) at all.

"This isn't just one constable. I've found it with other Windsor drug
officers."

Superior Court Justice Steve Rogin asked Windsor police Const. Mauro
Hernandez to gather information he has obtained over the years from
the two informants who provided the information that police cited to
get the Pritchards' search warrant.

Rogin has yet to rule whether the prosecution must provide proof --
without identifying any sources -- that the informants they use are reliable.

Assistant Crown attorney Nicole Lamphier argued that informants
merely estimate what they see, and that police use standard wording
"templates" in applying for search warrants.

She said the defence should not be allowed to question police about
their past dealings with an informant on two grounds: that it's not
relevant, and that it might disclose the identity of the source.