POLICE DISPUTE LAWYER'S SUGGESTION OF PLANTED DRUG EVIDENCE

EDMONTON - Police officers disputed drug evidence submitted on
Wednesday to a Law Enforcement Review Board appeal hearing into
alleged police misconduct.

Four police officers involved in a 1999 drug raid at a city residence
were called to help the board decide whether evidence introduced by
lawyer Tom Engel will be admissible in the hearing.

Engel is representing Phillip John Malott, who contends police may
have planted and then discovered a 0.4-gram piece of crack cocaine
inside a house at 10319 93rd St., one of two residences raided on the
evening of Feb. 25, 1999.

The cocaine, wrapped in green tinfoil, was allegedly found on a ledge
above a fortified back door.

Engel constructed representations of the frame and the crack to
demonstrate the site of the evidence and whether it would have been
visible from the height of a video camera that police used to film a
training video during the raid.

The piece of crack was not visible on the ledge in the video. But
police photos taken later that evening showed the piece of crack on
the ledge above the door.

But Det. James Matsune, who seized the cocaine from the ledge, said
the real piece of crack was only 40 to 60 per cent of the size of the
mock exhibit at the hearing. He said half grams of cocaine vary in
shape, even when weights are similar. He compared them to people.

"The same 170-pound person could look drastically different: Tall,
skinny, short, fat, and everything in between."

Det. Dean Boyer seized cocaine from a snowbank in the back yard of
the residence during the same raid. He said the shape of Engel's mock
half gram of crack was different from real pieces of wrapped cocaine
he had seen in the past.

Boyer also said the green wrapping around the mock piece of crack was
thicker than the tin foil normally used.

A detective who does undercover work as a drug buyer told the hearing
he bought two half grams of crack from the house a few hours before
the raid. Those pieces were more spherical than Engel's cylindrical
representation, he said.

Malott, known as Bigham, and two other men were charged with
possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking and the proceeds
of trafficking. The case went to trial on Nov. 27, 2000, but charges
against all three were withdrawn because the video evidence
contradicted the photo evidence.

Malott filed a complaint with police in 2001, but it was dismissed by
then-chief Bob Wasylyshen. Malott appealed.

The Law Enforcement Review Board independently reviews complaints
about police misconduct and police officer appeals on disciplinary
action. If Malott wins, charges could be laid against the officers.
The hearing continues today.