MISSION COUPLE ACQUITTED OF DRUG CHARGES

A Mission couple was acquitted of drug charges after a Supreme Court
Justice ruled RCMP officers entered a Hillcrest Avenue home without a
reasonable basis for entering the house without a warrant.

On Nov. 8, 2002, Mission RCMP were contacted by a child protection
worker, who had been told there was a lack of food in the home,
domestic violence and a crystal methamphetamine lab located in the
basement.

RCMP advised the worker there was insufficient evidence to obtain a
search warrant, but offered to accompany the woman to the house after
she said she was going there to investigate the child safety issues.

Justice Brian Joyce, in a decision published online on Friday,
disagreed with defence counsel's submission that the police used the
child protection worker as a "trojan horse" to investigate a suspected
methamphetamine lab when they were aware they didn't have any
authority to gain entry into the house.

He also had no issue with the RCMP officers and the child protection
worker being granted entry to the upstairs portion of the house.

"The situation is quite different in my view with respect to the
initial entry of the basement that was undertaken without a search
warrant," said Joyce. "While the police did not break down the door,
they gained entry to the premises under the threat of doing so unless
it was opened."

"While I do not think it can be said that the police acted with mala
fides, neither can it be said they acted in good faith," said Joyce.

"Without any reasonable basis for believing he had authority to enter
the residence without a warrant, Const. Louie deliberately chose to do
so."

Const. Louie later applied for a search warrant, and obtained it on
his second attempt.

While Joyce said the manufacture and trafficking of methamphetamine is
"a very serious concern in our society," he said the administration of
justice would suffer more by admission of the evidence found at the
home than by its exclusion because of the "very serious nature of the
breach and the absence of good faith."

As a result, Joyce ruled evidence discovered as a result of the entry
to Doris Westrageer and Donald Wisser's was inadmissible.

That decision led to there being "no evidence to sustain the charges"
of production of methamphetamine and possession of methamphetamine and
the duo were acquitted.