POT SEARCH RULED ILLEGAL

Evidence from a police search used to turn up some pot plants at a
Trethewey Avenue house was tossed out by a Supreme Court justice last
week.

A hearing was held to determine the admissibility of evidence against
Michael Ryan Maton in early March. Last week, Justice Selwyn R.
Romilly released the results of his voir dire ruling, finding the
police erred when they applied for the warrant at the property in the
45800 block of Trethewey.

At issue was the information used by police to get a search warrant
for the premises in late November, 2003.

According to Romilly's decision, the police received the information
from a confidential source that there were 300 to 400 marijuana plants
inside the residence in question, including the upstairs and the
basement. The house is actually a small, one-storey bungalow with no
basement.

"No mention was made of that fact in the information in support of the
search warrant," Romilly writes. "I find that there is no way that the
crawl space to that bungalow could be considered to be 'a basement.'"

The search of the premises that was conducted turned up far fewer
plants that had been expected, only 16 rather than 300 to 400.

In the end, Romilly decided justice would suffer more from from
allowing the evidence into court-in effect, deeming it to be the
proverbial 'fruit from the poisonous tree'.

"I find that in the present circumstances, the admission of the
evidence would, in the eyes of a reasonable person, dispassionate and
fully apprised of the circumstances of the case, bring the
administration of justice into disrepute."

Defence counsel Suzanne Paterson said it is important for people to
realize the key question concerning the admissibility of the evidence
in this case is to what the rules are for the police to follow in
order to ensure every citizens' rights are protected.

"It showed that the police do have to account for their actions," she
said. "The courts are there to ensure that our rights-yours and
mine-are not ignored."