Pubdate: Wed, 10 Aug 2005
Source: Stayner Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 1996-2005 Metroland Printing, Publishing and Distributing
Contact: http://www.simcoe.com/sc/stayner/contact/v-scv3/
Website: http://www.simcoe.com/sc/stayner/v-scv3/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3886
Author: Roberta Avery

OFFICER PLEADS GUILTY

Tipped off pot growers to police raids

A police officer, who coordinated a program to wipe out marijuana outdoor
grow operations, fed information about the location of the crops to two men
so that they could harvest the pot before police raids, a court has heard.

Ontario Provincial Police Det. Const. Scott Duguid, 34, pled guilty in the
Ontario Court of Justice yesterday to breach of trust in connection with
incidents in Simcoe County in August and September 2003.

In an agreed statement of facts read into court by Federal Crown Attorney
Stephane Marinier, court heard Duguid, an eight-year member of the OPP, was
transferred to the Huronia Combined Force Drug Enforcement Unit in 2000.
There he took on the role of managing the program to search for and the
destruction of outdoor marijuana often riding along in the OPP helicopter.

Police intercepted calls between Duguid, Jody Proctor, 27 and his brother
Jamie Proctor, 27, who at the time was a prisoner at the Warkworth
Institution. In conversations caught on tape Jody Proctor told his brother
Duguid had given the longitude and latitude directions to marijuana fields.

The brothers discussed harvesting the crops and estimated they could make
between $250,000 and $500,000 on one of the larger sites.

In another taped conversation, the Proctors talk about Duguid agreeing to
delay the police raid on the larger site to allow time for Jody Proctor to
locate the crop and harvest it. The brothers also make references to paying
Duguid $1,000 for helping them, but state at least twice that he doesn't
seem interested in the money.

An email, sent by Duguid's supervisor, listing the coordinates for three
marijuana sites, was found in Duguid's vehicle when the OPP began
surveillance of Duguid in September 2003.

Police found those coordinates written in Duguid's handwriting on a piece of
paper from Duguid's notebook in Jody Proctor's vehicle along with a Global
Positioning System with the same coordinates programmed into the memory.

The Proctors were arrested Sept. 23, 2003, four days after Jamie Proctor was
released from prison. Jody Proctor pled guilty in November 2003 to
conspiring to traffic marijuana and was sentenced to two years in jail.
Jamie Proctor received an 18-month sentence for the same offence.

Duguid, who had been recommended for promotion and had just written his
sergeant's exams - passing with the third highest marks in the province when
he was arrested - was suspended with pay pending the outcome of the case.

A four-day sentencing hearing for Duguid is scheduled to start June 19,
2006. 
- ---
MAP posted-by: Josh