COCAINE IN CAR, CLIENTS CALLING... JUDGE ACQUITS

An admitted drug dealer is caught inside a car following a brief police
chase. In the car is a quantity of cocaine and a cellphone that won't stop
ringing from people looking to buy their next fix from him. An
open-and-shut case?

Hardly.

Rodney Daignault was found not guilty Tuesday of possessing drugs for the
purpose of trafficking after a judge ruled there is insufficient evidence
that the cocaine police seized from him was actually for sale at the time
of his arrest.

"You are very lucky," Queen's Bench Justice Morris Kaufman told Daignault,
31, in acquitting him of a charge that likely would have meant a trip to
the federal penitentiary. Instead, he found Daignault guilty of simple
possession and imposed a $500 fine.

The only issue to resolve during the one-day trial was what Daignault
planned to do with the two grams of cocaine found on him -- sell it or
smoke it.

The Crown argued Daignault's intentions were obvious, considering he
admits he is a dealer and police intercepted numerous calls after his
arrest from anxious customers wanting to get high.

"There's no question he's a dealer, there's no question they are his
drugs. (From the repeated cellphone calls) the common sense inference is
the accused was open for business at that time," prosecutor Stephen
Christie said in his closing arguments.

"He had all the tools of the trade. The only logical inference the court
can draw is that the accused was involved in a dial-a-deal operation at
that time and the drugs he had were for that purpose"

Kaufman wasn't buying it. Although he conceded the Crown's theory is "very
probable," he said Daignault's claim to police that he was also a drug
addict leaves open the possibility the Winnipeg man simply had the drugs
on him that night for his personal consumption.

He said even if Daignault had been selling drugs earlier that night and
was nearing the end of his "shift" -- and his supply -- that's not enough
to find him guilty as charged.

"He may very well have been working earlier that evening as a dealer. But
you must prove the drugs he had in his possession are for the purpose of
trafficking," Kaufman told the Crown.

"It would be very tempting to convict the accused... the hop, skip and a
jump the Crown wants me to make is very tempting."

The Crown argued that Daignault's defence of claiming the drugs were for
personal use is a popular one used by dealers and should be rejected by
the court. The Crown has 30 days to decide whether to appeal Kaufman's
ruling.

Defence lawyer Mike Cook admitted the trafficking case against his client
was "suspicious" and likely would have succeeded in a civil proceeding,
where the test is whether guilt has been proven "on a balance of
probabilities." But he said that's not enough to put him away in a
criminal court, where the test is much stricter.

Daignault is currently in custody after being sentenced last month to the
equivalent of 15 months jail for possessing a firearm and fleeing police.
The sentence included double-time credit for some pre-trial custody, and
Cook said his client is scheduled to be released next month.