JAIL GUARD IN PLOT TO SMUGGLE POT INTO BARTON: POLICE

A jail guard has been charged with accepting a bribe and conspiring to
smuggle nearly $7,000 worth of marijuana into Barton jail.

Derek Brown, 25, a corrections officer at Hamilton-Wentworth Detention
Centre, was arrested Feb. 24 while on duty and charged with selling
marijuana in an east-end parking lot on his lunch break.

Brown has now been charged with accepting a bribe and breach of trust,
along with conspiring to traffic drugs.

"He is charged with accepting a bribe in an attempt to smuggle
cannabis marijuana into Barton jail," major crimes Detective Sergeant
Peter Abi-Rashad said yesterday.

Police allege Brown, a part-time guard from Burlington, had accepted a
bribe to smuggle 4 oz. (113.3 g) of marijuana into the jail. According
to police, a gram of pot sells for between $10 and $20 on the street,
but in jail costs up to $60.

Roxanne Montour, 19, of Hamilton has been charged with bribing a
public officer and conspiracy to traffic drugs.

Vanessa Delbarba, 21, of Hamilton has also been charged with
conspiracy to traffic.

Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services spokesperson
Julia Noonan said the ministry launched an internal investigation when
Brown was first arrested and suspended him without pay.

"Any time staff are charged with anything, we treat the matter very
seriously," she said.

"There is no question that we do find drugs in searches at our
institutions, and it's something we have to monitor and stop as much
as we can."

Two years ago, a coroner's inquest into the death of a female inmate
revealed rampant drug use in the jail.

Kimberly McLean, a 29-year-old St. Catharines heroin addict, was found
dead in her cell in 2000.

Fellow inmates testified at the inquest that heroin, crack and
powerful painkillers were all available inside the detention centre,
usually brought in by prisoners coming into the jail on weekends.

The inquest heard heroin, cocaine and the painkiller Percocet were
smuggled in wrapped in condoms and hidden in body cavities. Inmates
were also able to move illegal drugs between locked cells by sliding
them along the floor inside glossy magazines.

Brown and the two women were arrested as a result of a widening
investigation into the murder of Michael Parmer on Sept. 9, 2005,
police revealed yesterday.

The three accused appeared in court yesterday for a bail
hearing.

Abi-Rashad said these arrests are the result of "offshoot
investigations" and not directly linked to Parmer's murder.

Parmer, 22, of Niagara Falls, N.Y., was gunned down in a parking lot
at Roxborough Avenue and Ottawa Street North, near the CD Bar Club.

Sarah Guitard, 20, of Hamilton was charged with counselling to commit
assault in March.

Thirteen people have now been arrested as a result of the Parmer
murder investigation, said Abi-Rashad yesterday.

They face a total of 75 charges "from weapons to conspiracy to traffic
in ... crack cocaine, magic mushrooms, marijuana and
methamphetamines," he said.

"We have identified individuals we believe have vital information that
would assist in this investigation."

Abi-Rashad said investigators believe the people involved in Parmer's
murder are from the Hamilton area.