COURT OKAYS COP'S ILLEGAL CONDUCT

Hells Angel Loses B.C. Supreme Court Constitutional Challenge Of
Conviction After Police Agent Trafficked Drugs

VANCOUVER - A law allowing a police agent to use some illegal conduct
while infiltrating a criminal organization is constitutional, a B.C.
Supreme Court judge has ruled.

Justice Victor Curtis threw out a Charter challenge of the law
launched by Hells Angel Ronaldo Lising, who was convicted in April on
a trafficking charge after a major police undercover operation using
agent Michael Plante.

The decision paves the way for Lising's sentencing July 3.

RCMP Insp. Gary Shinkaruk, who heads the Outlaw Motorcycle Gang unit,
said the ruling is a big victory for law enforcement. "It is really
significant that the law was held as constitutional," he said.

Plante, who agreed to infiltrate the biker gang for $1 million, is
the key witness in several cases involving the $10-million Project
E-Pandora that resulted in charges against 18 Hells Angels and their
associates.

Defence lawyers had first argued that Plante's conduct was illegal
because he admitted he assaulted someone and trafficked
methamphetamine while working undercover for the RCMP. When that
motion was thrown out in March, Lising's lawyer Greg DelBigio
launched the constitutional challenge.

Curtis earlier found that Lising did order a kilogram of
methamphetamine from Plante in August 2004 and made sure it was
delivered to his brother's Champlain Mall deli. But the judge did not
enter the conviction pending the outcome of the constitutional challenge.

DelBigio wouldn't comment Monday on whether his client would appeal.
But he acknowledged an earlier comment by Curtis that the massive
case may well end up before the Supreme Court of Canada. "There are
important points of law," DelBigio said.

Meanwhile, Lising was denied full parole last week after a review by
the National Parole Board, documents obtained by The Vancouver Sun show.

He is serving a four-year, six-month sentence for trafficking and
possession of stolen property in an unrelated case.

The board said Lising is an "unrepentant, unremorseful and
indifferent person who cares little for the harm you have caused others."

And it said his involvement in a criminal organization and thirst for
easy money make him unsuitable for early release, given that he is a
"managing partner in a large cocaine distribution network."

"Having carefully reviewed your criminal history cataloguing numerous
incidents of instrumental violence, possession of instruments of
violence and your institutional behaviour involving intimidation,
threats and drug subculture, the board is satisfied that there are
reasonable grounds to believe that, if released, you are likely to
commit an offence involving violence before the expiration of your
sentence," the ruling states.