Pubdate: Tue, 30 Jan 2007 Source: Province, The (CN BC) Copyright: 2007 The Province Contact: http://www.canada.com/theprovince/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476 Author: Keith Fraser, The Province RCMP AGENT WAS LOOSE CANNON - LAWYER Police Put 'Community In Danger' By Tolerating Drug Dealings, Violence The public was endangered by a police agent's drug dealings and violence while infiltrating the Hells Angels, a defence lawyer said yesterday. The comment was made by Greg DelBigio in final arguments for an abuse-of-process application seeking to throw out drug charges against his client, Ronaldo Lising, a full-patch member of the club. Lising was arrested along with 17 others in July 2005 during a $7-million RCMP investigation that targeted the club's East End chapter. Police hired Michael Plante, an associate of the club, to infiltrate the Angels, signing him to a contract worth up to $1 million. The application heard several months of testimony last year. The Crown admits it will be forced to stay the charges against all of the accused if it loses. Police have testified that drug deals made by Plante during his dealings with the club were covered by a legal exemption, but DelBigio disputed those claims. He said that, prior to being hired as an agent in July 2004, Plante was a police informant but was not covered by the exemption and was heavily involved in methamphetamine deals and extortions. Even after Plante became an agent, said DelBigio, he committed crimes not under exemption. "The police were under a duty to ensure their policies were being complied with and yet the policies were not," DelBigio told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Victor Curtis. "The police were under a duty to ensure that the community was not endangered through Michael Plante's actions and yet the community was in danger." DelBigio argued that Plante continuously acted outside his role, but police tolerated it and while police had the "contractual power" to cancel their contract with him, they did not do so. "It is not an excuse or a justification to say that Plante was a difficult person in difficult circumstances. That is not a defence to what is otherwise criminal conduct." A lawyer for Lising's co-accused, Nima Ghavami, is expected to make arguments today and the Crown is expected to begin final arguments tomorrow during what is expected to be a weeklong hearing. In a separate development yesterday, Lising lost his bid to quash his transfer from the medium-security prison in Mission to the Kent maximum-security prison. Lising argued that corrections officials failed to provide enough disclosure about the transfer, but B.C. Supreme Court Justice Bill Smart found that sufficient information was provided. Lising was moved to Kent last year following allegations that he and a group of associates were targeting protected-custody inmates. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek