Police who raided a city home found the remnants of a marijuana grow
operation - and a potentially dangerous human trap, a court heard yesterday.

Staff Sgt. Paul Laventure testified he was one step away from tumbling into
the home's basement after discovering a set of stairs had been removed.

"I would've landed probably on my chest area on the (next) landing,"
Laventure told Justice Peter McIntrye.

"I would've hurt myself," he said.

Matthew John Walsh, 39, is charged with the rarely prosecuted offence of
setting a trap likely to cause bodily harm.

Laventure said he and other officer's executed a search warrant on May 8,
1997 as part of a series of raids on suspected drug-cultivating operations.

He said the search occurred several hours after raids on two other homes in
the northeast.

When police forced their way in, they found the house unoccupied and a door
to the basement deadbolted shut.

Laventure's partner, RCMP Cpl.Ross Shapka, removed the lock with a sledge
hammer before the veteran city officer moved to enter the darkened basement.

"I made a step to go down what I believed to be stairs," Laventure told
Crown prosecutor Shirley Jackson. "I had my gun in my hand, I looked down
at that point and realized there were no stairs between the (door) jamb I
was on and the next landing."

When police eventually made their way into the basement they found traces
of what appeared to be marijuana and other paraphernalia used in growing
the weed.