Russell guilty as charged

B.C.’s highest court last week upheld convictions on five drug charges against a man who argued Mounties broke the law to obtain evidence against him.

Dennis Russel, 47, was sentenced to three years in prison following his March 2017 convictions in provincial court in Penticton on two counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking and three counts of simple possession. The drugs involved were heroin, GHB and ketamine.

The lower court heard how Russell was pulled over just after midnight on Aug. 5, 2015, in Summerland by a Mountie who knew Russell was banned from the community by the terms of an undertaking he signed following an earlier run-in with police.

After arresting Russell for breaching that undertaking, the officer decided Russell’s vehicle had to be towed, because it was parked straddling the white line on the road shoulder.

While waiting for the tow truck to arrive, the Mountie removed from Russell’s vehicle a wallet and computer bag in order to safeguard the items, as required by Section 188 of the Motor Vehicle Act.

Later, while conducting an inventory of the items as required by RCMP policy, the officer found cash, bear spray, and various types of individually packaged drugs in the computer bag.

At trial, Russel argued the officer was simply fishing for evidence and the seizure resulted from a warrantless search that breached his Charter right to security against unreasonable search or seizure. However, provincial court Judge Greg Koturbash found the officer did everything by the book.

Russel took the same argument to the B.C. Court of Appeal and was rejected again.

“The arresting officer in this case testified at least three times that he had taken custody of the vehicle pursuant to Section 188 of the MVA, and that his purpose in retrieving the wallet and laptop bag from the vehicle had been to secure and safeguard its contents until the vehicle could be returned to Mr. Russell. The judge accepted his evidence. The inventory search was therefore authorized by law,” Justice Daphne Smith wrote on behalf of the three-person panel.

“That the officer also acted in accordance with RCMP policy . . . does not negate or undermine the validity of the search of the items lawfully seized from the vehicle pursuant to Section 188 of the MVA.”

Russell was also charged with five counts of drug trafficking in Summerland in June 2015, and handed a 20-month jail term in April 2016.