Truro pot case up in smoke

The case against a Truro man accused of having 133 pounds of pot delivered here from British Columbia has gone up in circumstantial smoke.

Police charged Jonathan Edgar Piatt with possession for the purpose of trafficking after they seized three boxes of cannabis from Purolator at 42 Parkway Dr. in Truro Heights on Oct. 10, 2018.

“Constructive possession has not been proved by the Crown beyond a reasonable doubt,” Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Hunt said in a written decision released Wednesday that found Piatt not guilty.

Piatt’s lawyer had argued the search of the boxes — which contained a total of 60.53 kilos of ganga — violated “his right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure,” said the judge.

Hunt concluded Piatt “had a diminished but reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents of the package,” but that didn’t sink the case.

The judge agreed that seizing the boxes of pot violated Piatt’s rights, but he allowed the drugs to be used as evidence anyway “as its admission would not bring the administration of justice into disrepute in all the circumstances.”

PUROLATOR FLAGGED B.C. OUTFIT

The pot was discovered in Truro after Darren Leslie, a loss prevention manager with Purolator, learned the boxes were coming from the B.C. company Bio-script, “which had previously been flagged in the Purolator system for shipping suspected unauthorized cannabis. This led to the creation of an alert on the shipper within the Purolator system.”

Leslie opened one of the boxes and found it contained “what appeared to him to be vacuum sealed marijuana,” said the judge.

That’s when he called police.

The packages, marked “hold for pickup,” were addressed to Piatt.

TERMS OF SERVICE

Leslie testified that Purolator’s terms and conditions of service on the back of waybills allow him to open and inspect any package the courier company is shipping.

Leslie was in the room when Const. Joshua Burcham, a 17-year RCMP officer currently with the Bible Hill Detachment, seized and inspected the boxes. Police later took them to an RCMP detachment.

The next day, Oct. 11, 2018, Piatt arrived at the Purolator depot to claim the packages.

“He presented himself to the counter of the depot and produced identification confirming him as the intended receiver on the waybill,” said the judge.

A Purolator staffer told Piatt “to go around to the side bay door of the facility purportedly to receive and load the boxes,” Hunt said.

“Of course, the boxes had actually been removed to the RCMP depot the day prior. (Piatt) did move his vehicle around to the bay doors as instructed. He was subsequently arrested.”

LIFTING THE LID

Leslie was present when police inspected the box of pot he had opened.

“He agreed the lid and liner had to be lifted and held up out of the way in order to be able to look inside,” said the judge.

Burcham testified that “to see inside you had to physically lift the box flap and MDF board which formed a liner in the box.”

But police never got a warrant to seize the pot.

‘PLAIN VIEW’

Two weeks after taking the boxes of marijuana back to the RCMP detachment, Burcham filed a report that “refers to a ‘plain view’ seizure of cannabis from boxes obtained from a private company,” Hunt said.

The Mountie testified there was no bill of lading signed by Piatt.

“Burcham agreed that on October 11, 2018, Mr. Piatt did not ever come into physical possession of the boxes,” said the judge. “In fact, the boxes were, at that point, back at the detachment.”

RCMP Const. Terry Brown, who has been on the force 11 years, was in on Piatt’s arrest.

He interviewed Piatt back at the detachment, telling him he viewed him as a “low-end” drug runner.

Even though his lawyer had told him not to talk to police, Piatt “eventually began to engage with the officer. In response to questions, he began to discuss what had led him to be at the Purolator depot. He indicated he was paid to pick up packages from the depot and deliver them to a building attached to a marijuana dispensary in Newfoundland. He was offered $7,000 to do this. He was given $2,000 up front and was to get $5,000 on completion of the delivery.”

But the Crown wasn’t able to prove that statement was given voluntarily, said the judge.

‘A CRIME WAS OCCURRING’

It argued that the right of inspection contained in Purolator’s “shipping terms extinguished any possible expectation of privacy,” Hunt said.

The Crown said “a crime was occurring which the police had a lawful duty to prevent,” Hunt said.

Piatt’s lawyer countered that “there was undoubtedly a search and seizure and it was not authorized by law. The actions of the security staff at Purolator does not immunize the police from stringent and well-settled Charter requirements.”

Police actions in this case amount to a search, said the judge.

“Burcham had to have the box lid and liner lifted or moved aside in order to gain a view of the contents. The boxes were seized and removed to the detachment where they were later fully opened and explored, photographed, weighed and sampled,” Hunt said. “These actions took place without judicial authorization.”

Mounties “adopted the view that this seizure was based on some aspect of the ‘plain view’ doctrine,” said the judge.

“The Crown also contends that the seizure was justified under the ‘plain view’ doctrine, because the actions of the security guards put the contraband in plain view of the police. This argument must fail.”

The contents of the boxes “could not be viewed without lifting and holding out of the way the box top and MDF liner,” Hunt said.

‘FELL INTO ERROR’

Police “fell into error in the manner in which they proceeded after the removal from the depot. At that point there was no urgency. They needed to consider their position and set aside the notion that the plain view doctrine authorized them to proceed in the manner they did,” said the judge. “Only one of the boxes had been opened at all. They had ample grounds. The failure to seek authorization to proceed further was not reasonable in all the circumstances.”

Convicting Piatt would require “proof beyond a reasonable doubt” that he possessed the cannabis, knew it was a controlled substance and that he possessed it for the purpose of trafficking, Hunt said.

“Mr. Piatt was never in actual physical possession of the cannabis contained in the three boxes as these had been seized by the police and removed to the RCMP detachment,” said the judge.

The Crown wasn’t able to prove Piatt’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, Hunt said.

“There is no direct evidence that Mr. Piatt knew of the illegal contents of the packages.”