MAN WHO SMASHED UP 'DRUG HOUSE' FACES COURT

'I Protected My Child'

VICTORIA - A man hailed as a vigilante hero for trashing an alleged
neighbourhood crack house this summer said yesterday his life has been on a
downhill slide since the incident.

"It's just life," said Rick Boudreau. "Life's not a bed of roses. Life's
never been easy for me." On July 8, Mr. Boudreau and others burst into a
known drug house on Speed Avenue and demolished the interior.

He did it, he says, to make the street safe for his daughter. "It's going
to be hard to punish me because I protected my child." A pre-trial
conference is scheduled for today to ascertain how the case will unfold.

He and a co-accused are charged with breaking and entering and will make
their first appearance in Victoria provincial court on Oct. 10. Mr.
Boudreau expects the trial will take place in about a year.

"It's going to trial," he said. "I pray it turns out fine, but I don't
know." While Mr. Boudreau has been hailed by neighbours and briefly became
a media celebrity, his life has been difficult since the attention he
garnered over the summer.

He has had ongoing problems with the province's Children and Family
Development Ministry concerning custody of his daughter. He broke an ankle
while mountain-biking in mid-August and only returned to work at a
demolition company last week.

Because the accident was not work-related, he did not qualify for workers'
compensation payments. He has fallen $3,500 behind in mortgage payments on
his Fisherman's Wharf houseboat and child support.

Mr. Boudreau said he has also been threatened by junkies and harassed by
Victoria police. He left his Speed Avenue home a month after the incident
and moved to the houseboat, which is within four blocks of where his
seven-year-old daughter, Tawni, lives with his former wife.

Mr. Boudreau, one of 14 children, lived in Halifax during his youth.

In 1985, he moved to Medicine Hat, Alta., and has also lived in Calgary,
Lethbridge and Yellowknife before moving to Victoria.

He was married in 1995, separated the next year and divorced in 1998. Asked
if what he did was worth the financial and legal troubles he now finds
himself in, Mr. Boudreau replied, "No, but the safety of my child is
definitely worth it."

He said people still come up to him to shake his hand and tell him he did
the right thing. "I did it. No big deal. Somebody had to do it." He
suggests the sensible way to resolve the case is to sue him in civil court
because he would be willing to pay for the damage he caused.

"OK, I did break the law, but it's going to be hard to punish me because I
protected my child."

Mr. Boudreau, who shares joint custody of Tawni, had been living on Speed
Avenue for three years. He said neighbours complained to him about
prostitutes, johns and drug-users going into the house at all hours of the
day and night.

He said he approached the owner of the house, Brian Martin, about the
situation.

Mr. Boudreau said he had worked for Mr. Martin on a hotel construction site
and said Mr. Martin was also his landlord. Mr. Boudreau admitted he had
owed "a couple of hundred bucks" for back rent to Mr. Martin, who had
promised he would talk to a Victoria police officer he knew about the
situation. Nothing happened, Mr. Boudreau said, and he and some neighbours
finally got together for a meeting on what to do.

He said the decision to trash the house and move the renters out was made
at that meeting.

"Our goal was not to hurt anybody." A group of neighbours knocked on the
door during the supper hour on July 8 and Mr. Boudreau allegedly told the
tenants, "This is your moving day."

The intruders smashed plumbing, doors and windows, forcing the tenants to
flee and call police. Victoria police arrested Mr. Boudreau and another
neighbour was charged.