DETAINED WOMAN'S RELATIVE HAD CUSTOMS RUN-IN

Daughter's Vehicle 'Torn Apart' At Border

Not long before Janet Goodin endured 12 days in jail because of a
faulty drug test, her daughter's vehicle was "torn apart" by officers
at a different border crossing, another daughter says.

Janet's daughter Tina Goodin, who lives in Buffalo Point, Man., said
her sister Angela was interrogated for five hours at the Roseau border
crossing "not too long" before April 20, the date Goodin was stopped
at the Sprague crossing.

"They just tore apart the whole vehicle," Tina said. As an
explanation, border officers told Angela they were simply carrying out
a random search, Tina said.

Janet was imprisoned and charged with heroin trafficking because field
tests of a jar of motor oil in her van came back positive for heroin.
Twelve days later, a more thorough Health Canada test cleared her completely.

During Janet's detainment, her son Alan Goodin called a Canadian
customs official.

According to Crown attorney Kathleen Tokaruk at Goodin's bail hearing,
Alan told the official "whatever drugs that were found in the vehicle
belonged to him and not his mother."

Reached by phone Thursday in Oregon, where he lives, Alan said that's
not what he said.

"The statement that I made was certainly distorted and taken way out
of context.

"What I said was not what was in that (court) transcript."

In fact, Alan said, there is "so much more to the story," but he wants
to consult with his attorney before elaborating further.

But he did say: "There is a lot of information and there's very, very,
very good reasoning that's going to shed a lot of light on what
happened at the border that night and the reason that I did call the
border.

"I know I can say this much: We know the RCMP up there.

"I know some of the border patrol personally up there. Some of the
border patrol that were working that night, I do know."

Asked about Alan's comments, his sister Tina would only say, "We have
friends that are RCMPs."

Alan also defended his mother and talked about the effect her
detainment had on his family. "We're a tight-knit family," he said.
"She's a very good person and when this happened, that night, the
whole family was absolutely devastated."

Meanwhile, Janet Goodin recently retained a lawyer, Kerry UnRuh to
seek compensation for her ordeal.

UnRuh said he is still gathering information and didn't know yet
whether a lawsuit would be necessary.

"At this point her primary concern really remains wanting an apology
from the requisite government agencies that were involved but also
wanting to ensure that this type of incident doesn't happen to anyone
else."

He added that Janet wants to recoup her legal fees. She had to borrow
money from family members in order to pay the fees when she was arrested.

UnRuh also said it's likely the RCMP or the Canadian Border Services
Agency leaked information about Janet's detainment shortly after it
occurred. That's the only explanation for why one of her family
members was harassed in their community the day after Janet's arrest,
he said.

As for Alan Goodin's call to customs officials during his mother's
detainment, UnRuh said Alan was just saying whatever he could to help
his mother, and the van in question has never been in Alan's
possession.