SON TRIED TO END MOTHER'S TROUBLES

Told Border Officials Any Drugs Were His

After a 66-year-old Minnesota woman was detained at a Manitoba border
crossing on allegations of heroin trafficking, customs officials
reportedly received a call from her son saying any drugs they found
belonged to him.

An audio tape of Janet Goodin's bail hearing on April 27 records Crown
attorney Kathleen Tokaruk telling provincial court Judge Lee Ann
Martin about the call from Alan Goodin, Janet's son, saying "he was
upset with the fact that his mother was being detained at the point of
entry. He indicated that whatever drugs that were found in the vehicle
belonged to him and not his mother."

Tokaruk concluded Goodin was "at least a party to the
offence."

As first reported by the Winnipeg Free Press, Janet Goodin spent 12
days in jail earlier this year because field tests of a motor oil
container found in the vehicle by border officials indicated the
presence of heroin. A more thorough test performed at a Health Canada
lab in Winnipeg determined there was no heroin in the container.

Alan Goodin, who lives in Oregon, could not be reached Wednesday for
comment on his phone call to border guards who apprehended his mother,
but Scott Newman, Janet Goodin's lawyer at the time, said he was just
doing anything he could to get his mother out of trouble.

"He thought it was ridiculous (that she was being detained) and he was
willing to say whatever was necessary to keep her from being charged
with an offence.

"I didn't take that to be any kind of a serious comment and I don't
think anyone in the court really put much weight on it," Newman said.

The tape of the bail hearing also brings other information to
light.

According to RCMP notes presented at the hearing, border officers
conducted two field tests on the liquid in the container they
suspected contained heroin: a narcotic identification kit (NIK) test
and a Herosol spray test.

The NIK test consists of dipping testing paper in the liquid and then
placing the testing paper into a solution, where a change in colour of
the paper indicates the likely presence of a narcotic.

The Herosol spray test consists of spraying the liquid onto a testing
strip, which also changes colour. But the Heresol test only reveals
the presence of an "alkaloid-based substance," Newman told the judge
- -- not heroin, necessarily.

Alkaloids are organic compounds that contain nitrogen and include
caffeine, nicotine and morphine. Heroin is derived from morphine.

At the bail hearing, Tokaruk said Goodin was issued an order of
detainment from the Canadian Border Services Agency, on top of the
criminal charges laid by the RCMP. If she had been able to satisfy the
bail conditions imposed by the judge, Goodin still wouldn't have been
able to walk free. Asked about the specifics of the detainment order,
Newman said it was on immigration grounds.

Tokaruk said that as a Crown agent, she wasn't allowed to speak with
the media.

At the bail hearing, Martin granted Goodin bail, conditional on a
surety (like a guarantor) able to back her up with $15,000 in assets.
Goodin's daughters were unable to act as her surety because most of
their assets are on a First Nations reserve, thus untouchable by the
province.

Newman asked Martin to name one of Goodin's daughters as her surety,
which would have waived the requirement for them to prove their
assets, but Martin denied that request.