Vintage Vinyl owner sentenced
The terminally ill owner of Vintage Vinyl and Hemp Emporium has already paid a hefty price after police raided his properties and found he was growing more pot than allowed by his existing medical marijuana licence.
On Wednesday, Pat Baumet received a further sanction, a six-month conditional sentence — a jail term he can serve in the community.
After the frail-looking 53-year-old man pleaded guilty to two charges — production and possession of marijuana — federal Crown agent Hal Wellsch stayed 14 other charges. The Crown also stayed all charges pertaining to Baumet’s 24-yearold son Dylan and 53-yearold Jocelyne Lucy Fafard that had also been before the court on Wednesday.
The sentence imposed by Judge Barbara Tomkins is the product of a joint recommendation from Wellsch and defence lawyer David Halvorsen.
Baumet had no previous criminal record.
Wellsch told the court police received information in February 2013 that Baumet, who had a permit to produce medical marijuana, was growing more than allowed.
Police executed search warrants at a number of locations the following month, including a warehouse on 11th Avenue where his grow was located. Court heard Baumet was allowed to grow 25 plants and possess 1,125 grams of the dried product under his then-valid permit; Police seized 104 plants and a quantity of dried marijuana.
Another search, this one at a residence, located a significant amount of the dried product in the trunk of a car. In total, Wellsch said police seized the plants and 74.33 pounds of dried marijuana.
Both Wellsch and Halvorsen noted that Baumet previously had several other valid permits to grow marijuana for other people which, had they still been in place, would have made the product in Baumet’s possession legal. Unfortunately, the other permits had expired by late 2012.
Halvorsen said his client — a longtime holder of a medical marijuana licence — went to Thailand several years ago on a shopping trip for Vintage Vinyl and ended up having surgery there that couldn’t be done in Canada. Prior to leaving on the trip, Baumet, who has cancer, had been given three months to live. The surgery bought him about five years but, as of now, Halvorsen said his client is expected to live less than a year.
Halvorsen said Baumet, struggling to deal with his medical issues, got behind in having his other permits renewed with Health Canada.
“Likewise, he had not paid proper attention to the amount of plants he was to have in terms of two other individuals whose licences had expired,” Halvorsen said. “He thought they weren’t expired. He was absolutely amazed when he was arrested because he thought that he was three plants under what he was allowed to have.”
Halvorsen pointed out Baumet had not trafficked or supplied the drug to anyone other than the people he had been permitted to grow for.
Court heard that under the province’s Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods legislation, Baumet forfeited more than $1 million, losing the warehouse from which the plants were seized.
Wellsch told the court the Crown was agreeing to the conditional sentence because of the sizable civil forfeiture order, the guilty pleas and the precarious state of Baumet’s health.
Outside of court, Halvorsen said Baumet still has a medical marijuana licence which he is expected to hold onto despite the convictions.