DELTA POT BUST DUBIOUS: JUDGE

A B.C. Supreme Court judge has ruled against the Delta Police
Department for raiding a marijuana grow operation without a search
warrant in May of 2001.

The reasons the officers gave the court for entering a North Delta
house in the 11700 block of 84A Ave. were "of dubious validity,"
Justice Harvey Groberman ruled in his written reasons for judgment.

While Canadian law allows police to enter a house without a warrant if
they believe a crime is in progress, the judge said that was not the
case when officers arrived at the house to investigate a reported home
invasion.

Two men, one fleeing the house and the other sitting in a van outside,
were arrested for the break-in. A woman abducted by the pair told
police was a grow op rip-off.

The officers said they decided to conduct a search of the house
without waiting for a warrant because they believed injured people or
armed grow op suspects might be inside.

The police could have simply surrounded the house until they obtained
a proper warrant, Groberman stated, adding "I find myself,
unfortunately, in the position of doubting the police witnesses'
account of their reasons for entering the premises..."

The judge has excluded the evidence gathered during the warrantless
entry, ruling that allowing police to use it would violate the Charter
of Rights.