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/ Forum: http://www.canoe.ca/Chat/home.html 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. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth