COUPLE CRIES FOUL AFTER POLICE ISSUE DRUG SEARCH WARRANT

A Penticton woman is adamant police targeted the wrong people after
its Drug Task Force members swarmed her residence Friday night.

About 8:30 Candice Cullum and her boyfriend, Dustin Gee, were relaxing
at their rental home located directly in front of the Mid City Manor
and adjacent to the 24-Seven store on Eckhardt Avenue.

They had their pajamas on and had settled in to watch TV for the
evening when a group of police officers marched through their unlocked
front door, arrested them and held them in a jail cell before
releasing them.

"The door opened and I had guns pointed at me and I was told to get on
the floor," she said Tuesday. "At first I kind of thought it was a
joke until I actually saw a uniform. The third cop in had a uniform."

Cullum and Gee were instructed to lie face down on the floor, held
down by a knee in their back. Whenever Cullum asked what was happening
she claims she was told repeatedly to "shut up" by police.

The couple was perplexed by the search warrant and ensuing
arrest.

"Neither of us has any criminal record whatsoever so I don't even
understand the suspicion of this," said Cullum.

Cpl. Rick Dellebuur of Penticton RCMP defended the actions of the
Penticton Drug Task Force stating a search warrant isn't something
issued on a moment's notice. Before a justice of the peace will issue
a search warrant police must provide reasonable grounds for the
warrant and that it must be based on recent information.

"They may have just moved there but the bottom line is (RCMP) had a
legal search warrant to enter the place and search for drugs," said
Dellebuur.

Once police officers enter a home with a search warrant anyone inside
at the time is arrested (with the exception of young children) and
they are taken into custody while a search is conducted, he said. Once
a search is complete, if no evidence is found to charge those who were
arrested they are let go.

"That's what happened here," he said.

Dellebuur noted police also had an arrest warrant for the couple's
roommate, Gisele Gartner, on a previous drug trafficking charge in
addition to the drug search warrant.

He said it's possible to be in wrong place at the wrong time, and be
arrested on "guilt by association."

"Sometimes you have to be careful what friends you pick," said
Dellebuur.

Cullum added Gartner is an acquaintance she had met through someone
else.

"She's not our roommate," said Gee. "She's slept on our couch twice
since we've lived here."

According to Dellebuur, "It's very tricky if you end up in a spot
that's suspected of illegal activity or you're with somebody that's
(doing) illegal activity."

Cullum - who was also strip searched at the detachment by a female
officer - believes it was about midnight when she was released and
left to walk home in her pajamas and slippers. She waited outside for
Gee who arrived a short time later.

The couple spent the next two to three hours cleaning up the pictures,
clothes, CDs and an overturned bed mattress strewn on the floor by
police during its search.

Dellebuur said the couple can take their concerns to the watch
commander or the head of the detachment's drug task force. If that
isn't satisfactory they can contact the Commission for Public
Complaints Against the RCMP.

The couple wants police to apologize for what happened but Cullum
admitted she's hesitant to discuss the matter with police.

"If they got away with doing this in the first place," she said. "I'm
not sure if it would do any good at all. I'm not sure if I would be
taken seriously."

Dellebuur said after being a part of numerous drug search warrants the
greatest challenge for police is trying to determine who lives there,
who is in charge of the residence and who knows what's going on.

"Nobody tells us the truth," he said. "Usually what happens is you get
back to the detachment and you start to sort things out and if becomes
clear who's responsible."