HOLY SMOKE, PASTOR!

Reverend among 37 charged in $115Gs drug sweep by the OPP

Oh to be a fly on the pulpit of the Kelvin-Teeterville-Vanessa United Church
today to see if its pastor, the Rev. Judith Brown, will finally address her
congregation about the Judith Brown who was busted in a major undercover
drug probe.

For they are one and the same.

The press release from the Ontario Provincial Police's detachment in
Haldimand-Norfolk -- its headline reading, "Major drug bust in Simcoe
results in 37 Arrests" -- went out on Jan. 17 and, three days later, the
local Delhi News Record published the names of those arrested.

Third person on the list was "Judith Brown, 48, of Vittoria," but there was
no mention in the story that she was indeed the same Judith Brown as the
preacher who tends the flock of the combined hamlets in the southwestern
Ontario tobacco belt for which the church is named.

Uncovered

That connection was not made until last week when The Simcoe Reformer hit
the streets and reporter Monte Sonnenberg -- writing from the dateline
Teeterville -- told of the takedown, which the OPP had been working on for
nearly a year.

He also noted that Rev. Brown's address in Vittoria, a few kilometres from
the Lake Erie town of Port Dover, was the same address as another accused, a
42-year-old man named Michael Gustin.

As OPP Senior Const. Hal Brown told Sonneberg, the drug squad officers who
made the arrests "have them in the same residence in Vittoria, but what
their relationship is, we don't know."

The Simcoe Reformer reported correctly that Rev. Brown had been charged with
possession of a narcotic for the purposes of trafficking, plus two counts of
possession -- three of the 190 charges laid in the sweep which, in the end,
rang up 37 arrests and garnered $115,000 in marijuana, hashish, cocaine,
prescription drugs and the rave-fave, Ecstasy.

Police also seized motor vehicles, counter-surveillance equipment and an
unstated quantity of cash.

Unfortunately, when it came to the arrest of Rev. Brown, the local press
failed to name the drugs allegedly seized, or the alleged amount.

As it turns out, Rev. Brown was charged with allegedly possessing, for the
purposes of trafficking, nearly a kilo of hashish -- almost 2 pounds of the
resinous marijuana product.

"It falls into the category of under 3 kilograms," said Const. Brown,
indicating that Rev. Brown -- no relation to the constable -- was also
charged with the alleged possession of upwards of 40 pills deemed to be a
controlled substance.

Busted in the early afternoon of that Wednesday in January, Rev. Brown,
along with many of the 36 others arrested in the sweep, spent an overnight
as guests of the Simcoe County Jail before being released on bail the next
morning.

Not surprisingly, she begged off conducting church services that coming
Sunday and made arrangements for another minister to fill in.

Her next court appearance is slated for Feb. 18.

That's the bad news.

The good news, however, is that the 75-member congregation at KTV United
Church is standing by its preacher, as is the United Church of Canada.

According to Rev. Fred Monteith, executive-secretary of the Hamilton
Conference of the United Church, it is policy that the local Presbytery
decide if the minister should continue his or her duties after criminal
charges are laid and, in this case, it decided to let Rev. Brown carry on --
the congregation having been reportedly told she was simply "in the wrong
place at the wrong time."

One parishioner, however, was upset that Rev. Brown has yet to speak
directly to churchgoers on the matter now before the courts.

"It's been church as usual," the parishioner said, claiming all were warned
not to talk to the press. "Not even Rev. Brown has bothered to address us as
a group to explain (what happened.)

"Maybe she will say something on Sunday."

And Sunday, of course, is today.

Reached at her home in Vittoria, Rev. Brown would not discuss her situation
or what she might say to her congregation today -- if anything.

No comment

In fact, she spoke only one word, and that word was, "No!" And then she hung
up the phone.

Kudos, however, to The Simcoe Reformer's Monte Sonneberg who managed to get
a few quotes out of Rev. Brown before she decided that the best comment to
make was no comment at all.

"To me, it's a personal issue that I have to resolve with my congregation,"
she told him. "A person is innocent until a court says otherwise.

"This can be very destructive," she added. "I don't want to see anything in
the newspaper about this.

"There is no story at this point."