Pubdate: Fri, 23 Feb 2001
Source: Edmonton Sun (CN AB)
Copyright: 2001, Canoe Limited Partnership.
Contact:  #250, 4990-92 Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta, T6B 3A1 Canada
Fax: (780) 468-0139
Website: http://www.canoe.ca/EdmontonSun/
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Author: Tony Blais

POT GROWER TOO HONEST

Sometimes honesty isn't the best policy.

Just ask convicted pot farmer Robert William Trudeau, who was in Edmonton's 
Court of Queen's Bench yesterday to be sentenced on charges of producing a 
controlled substance and possession for the purpose of trafficking.

The defence lawyer for the 32-year-old city man had been asking for a 
conditional sentence to be served in the community and the judge had agreed 
the case fit the criteria.

However, there was just one slight problem.

When Trudeau was being interviewed for a pre-sentence report while on bail 
under several conditions, including the usual one saying you're not 
supposed to break the law, he confessed to the probation officer that he 
was smoking pot joints on a daily basis.

Whoops!

Justice Mary Moreau said she was worried he would keep breaking the law if 
allowed to serve his sentence at home.

"If not prepared to do so now with a court order, I have grave concerns of 
whether he would give it up," said Moreau, who then sentenced Trudeau to 
one year in jail to be followed by one year of probation.

Defence lawyer Felicity Hunter must have known she was facing an uphill 
battle although she said Trudeau was willing to abstain from drugs and take 
counselling.

"He had a favourable pre-sentence report although he was a bit too candid 
when he told his probation officer that he uses marijuana," said Hunter.

"My heart sank when I saw that."

Court heard Trudeau was busted on May 12, 1999, after city drug cops 
followed him to a rural residence near Chipman, about 75 km east of 
Edmonton, where they seized 1,287 mature pot plants with an estimated 
street value of $1.28 million.

Moreau described the hydroponic pot farm as a sophisticated commercial 
operation, but said Trudeau was a crop tender rather than the mastermind 
behind it.

Meanwhile, a city judge will rule Monday on the validity of a search 
warrant which led to retired firefighter captain John Klaver and his wife 
Wendy being charged with growing marijuana at their acreage home near Stony 
Plain.

The charges stem from a Sept. 17, 1998, police raid on their residence that 
turned up a hydroponic grow operation containing 40 mature pot plants with 
an estimated street value of about $30,000.

Defence lawyers argued the evidence should be thrown out because the search 
warrant was improperly obtained.
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