TWO people accused of running a diala-dope operation out of an apartment in North Vancouver were found not guilty of drug charges against them after a judge ruled police made serious mistakes when applying for the search warrant used to search their home.
Brooke Rosemarie Fagerlund, 23, and Hossein Sharifi-Shakib, 29, were both found not guilty after a provincial court judge ruled none of the evidence police seized in a raid on their home on Jan. 8, 2010 could be admitted as evidence in their trial.
Among the items seized were 5.4 grams of rock cocaine, 1.7 grams of methamphetamine, $1,380 in counterfeit U.S. money, a Dell photo printer and a prohibited .22-calibre pistol.
Following the search last year, Fagerlund and Sharifi-Shakib were both charged with drug trafficking, possession for the purpose of trafficking, and possessing counterfeiting equipment and fake money, among other offences.
But Judge Carol Baird Ellan of the North Vancouver provincial court ruled last month that none of the items seized at their Lytton Street apartment could be used as evidence because of problems with the information police used to get the search warrant.
Among those problems, the judge said in her ruling, was that police hadn't provided enough information about the reliability of four informants whose information made up a large part of the search warrant application.
Very little of the sources' information was corroborated by police surveillance of the apartment. "There were no observations of apparent transactions conducted on the premises or any additional intelligence about the presence of drugs there," wrote Baird Ellan.
The judge said at best the surveillance showed Fagerlund and Sharifi-Shakib knew people who were suspected of being in the drug trade, but there wasn't enough to indicate the apartment was being used as a "stash house."
"I find that the conduct of the police in this case should be characterized as careless at best, arguably negligent and possibly calculated," wrote the judge.
"One must recognize the immediate impact on the administration of justice of reports that alleged drug dealers who possessed drugs and weapons have been acquitted on a technicality," she continued.
"The flip side of that is whether the court chooses to endorse the conduct of the police that falls short of charter standards. . . ."
