MINISTER CLEARED OF DRUG CHARGES

TORONTO -- A United Church minister says her life has been "destroyed" by a
drug-trafficking charge that was withdrawn Tuesday, nearly three months
after police smashed down her door, strip-searched her and threw her into a
cell with three other inmates.

Rev. Judith Brown says she has been undergoing counselling and doesn't know
when she will return to her pulpit at the Kelvin-Teeterville-Vanessa United
Church in the countryside near Simcoe.

While some members of her congregation were supportive through her ordeal,
others avoided her or refused to speak with her, she said.

While she has been on sick leave since her arrest, a "splinter group" broke
off and decided to hold church services on its own rather than be
associated with her church, she said.

"It's almost like I was contaminated," Brown, 48, said after a federal
Crown attorney withdrew two charges of possessing nearly two kilos of
hashish and prescription drugs and one charge of possession for the purpose
of trafficking.

The Ontario Court of Justice in Simcoe was told there was no reasonable
prospect of conviction.

Brown has been a minister for 21 years.

She was arrested in January with 37 others in connection with what
provincial police described as a year-long undercover investigation.

Lawyer Adam Boni said the crown conceded Brown "was never a target."