VANCOUVER WOMAN GETS HER MONEY BACK

A Trip To Alberta And Buying A Friend A Guitar Makes For An
Expensive Mess

A Vancouver-area woman who sued Edmonton city police after claiming
cops illegally seized nearly $90,000 in cash from her will get most
of the money back.

A provincial court judge approved Friday a deal in which Justice
Canada will return $81,510 of the $89,010 seized and Nicole Gill will
forfeit $7,500 to the federal Crown.

Defence lawyer Lynn Rideout told court Gill maintains the money was
lawfully hers, but said she had agreed to the forfeiture as a
compromise to end the court battle.

According to court documents, Gill claimed the money belonged to her
and Larry Rust, of Coquitlam, and she had been in Alberta to buy
collector musical instruments.

The police maintained the confiscated money was proceeds of crime and
the result of alleged drug trafficking.

After the May 6, 2005, seizure, Gill and Rust filed a $143,000
lawsuit against Const. Rick Manasterski, Const. Jonathan Morrison,
Justice Canada, and the Edmonton Integrated Proceeds of Crime (EIPOC)
section.

According to a statement of claim, Manasterski and Morrison pulled
over a rented SUV for speeding and seized the cash from Gill, who was
a passenger in a vehicle, following a search of the SUV and its three
occupants.

The lawsuit alleged the cash was the lawful property of Gill and Rust
and police had no authority to seize the money, had not provided any
reasonable explanation for keeping it and wrongfully refused to return it.

In a sworn affidavit, Gill claimed she had been working as a
bookkeeper as well as a letter carrier and courier for Canada Post at
the time and had no criminal record.

In Rust's affidavit, he said he was an aircraft maintenance engineer
and had been buying and selling musical instruments for 20 years. He
said he gave $55,000 to Gill to buy guitars for him while she was in
Alberta.

Det. David Schrader, a city police officer attached to the EIPOC
unit, said in an affidavit that police smelled marijuana after
pulling over the rental SUV Gill was in.

Schrader said the officers found a duffel bag "full of money" while
searching for drugs and came to the conclusion the three occupants
were trafficking in narcotics.

Schrader said he was also told a police dog on scene had alerted its
handler that a controlled substance had been present in a hockey bag
found in the rear of the SUV.

The trio was arrested, but were never charged.