Pubdate: Sun, 11 Feb 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
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

STRIP SEARCH DIDN'T VIOLATE RIGHTS: JUDGE

But Arresting Woman Said To Be Unjust

A New Westminster woman's rights have been found to have been 
violated after her arrest, but not by her subsequent strip-search, at 
the Vancouver jail that turned up baggies of cocaine and heroin in 
her brassiere.

The evidence against Xia Xia Vixaysongkham was ruled admissible 
Friday and she was found guilty of possession of the drugs -- but not 
guilty of possession for the purpose of trafficking.

The case against Vixaysongkham began in July 2004 when police, 
responding to a report of an argument between her and her boyfriend, 
attended the boyfriend's apartment.

Police allegedly found a marijuana grow-op. She was arrested on 
drug-production and trafficking charges and released on a promise to appear.

Just before the court return date, she got a phone call from police 
telling her she need not attend court on that day and she'd receive a summons.

She gave them the New Westminster address of her parents as her place 
of residence, but the summons requiring her to attend court was 
mailed to her boyfriend. Because the summons was returned and she 
didn't receive it before being pulled over on a traffic stop, she was 
taken to jail on an arrest warrant that had been issued.

As she was strip-searched, a female guard felt something lumpy in her 
bra and found two baggies with rock-like substances underneath a flap 
in the bra. The baggies contained 5.12 grams of cocaine and .81 grams 
of heroin.

In a hearing before B.C. Supreme Court Justice David Tysoe, her 
lawyer argued that her Charter rights had been breached.

The judge found that her rights had been violated when she was 
detained and imprisoned pursuant to the arrest warrant, but added 
that the drugs seized were serious narcotics and the admission of the 
evidence would not bring the administration of justice into 
disrepute. Her rights were not violated by the strip-search itself, 
the judge ruled.

Vixaysongkham is to be sentenced in April. She goes to trial on the 
grow-op charges in July.
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