COURT OVERTURNS COKE CASE

The B.C. Court of Appeal has ordered the acquittal of a man convicted
of possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking after a small
quantity of the drug was found on a dirt bike he was driving.

Joshua Joseph Strilec was pulled over by an RCMP officer on Sept. 24,
2003, as he was driving the dirt bike motorcycle along Hwy. 7 near Abbotsford.

The officer had noticed that the bike had no lights. Strilec, who
claimed the bike was not his, had no insurance either, and the
officer later learned he had no driver's licence.

Strilec was patted down, handcuffed and put in the back seat of a
police car. While waiting for a tow truck to impound the bike, the
officer searched a pouch on the bike's handlebar and found a small
quantity of cocaine.

Strilec was convicted in Provincial Court in February 2006.

But his lawyer argued that his rights had been violated, and appealed.

A three-member panel of the Court of Appeal has now found that while
the search of the pouch was not unreasonable, Strilec should have
been read his rights when he was handcuffed and placed in the car.

Strilec's detention was unreasonable and therefore his statements to
police -- basically confessing to the crime -- should not have been
admissible, said the court.