DRUG CASE RUINOUS: MINISTER

Trafficking Charge Now Withdrawn

Return To Pulpit Still In Question

A United Church minister says her life has been "destroyed" by a
drug-trafficking charge that was withdrawn yesterday, nearly three months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 professional counselling and
doesn't know when she will return to her pulpit at the
Kelvin-Teeterville-Vanessa United Church in the countryside near Simcoe, Ont.

While some members of her congregation were "supportive" through her
ordeal, others have avoided or refused to speak with her, she said
yesterday. And even though 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 added.

"It's almost like I was contaminated," Brown, 48, said after a federal
crown attorney yesterday 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, a minister for 21 years, was arrested in January with 37 others in
connection with what the Ontario Provincial Police described as a year-long
undercover investigation.Also charged was Michael Gustin, 42, her
boyfriend, with whom she shares a house.

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