From helping addicts to trafficking drugs

Woman who worked in drug treatment court convicted of heroin, methamphetamine charges

KITCHENER — A Kitchener woman who kicked drugs and went on to help other addicts has been convicted of possession of heroin for the purpose of trafficking and possession of methamphetamine.

A judge ruled Monday that Tara McTeer was in possession of about $15,000 in heroin found in her hotel room in Kitchener two years ago.

McTeer, 32, was honoured in 2012 with a Kindred Spirit Award, created by the Downtown Kitchener Community Health Centre and several local agencies to recognize people who had previously been homeless and were working to support others.

When she won the award, McTeer was on a work placement as a peer health worker at Mary’s Place, an emergency shelter for women in Kitchener. She was also an outreach worker in the needle exchange program at Sanguen Health Centre, which has offices in Waterloo and Guelph.

McTeer also previously worked in Kitchener’s drug treatment court, said federal prosecutor Scott Wheildon. The innovative court gives drug offenders help and support to kick the habit instead of going to jail.

Court was not told where McTeer worked when she was charged. She is currently on long-term disability.

On July 7, 2015, McTeer rented a room at the Radisson Hotel on King Street East. She was kicked out after a manager smelled smoke coming from the non-smoking room. Later, an employee saw used syringes in the garbage and a powdery substance in the bathroom. The employee called police.

Without getting a warrant, police entered the room and found 45 grams of heroin, a small amount of meth, a drug price list, digital scale, syringes and sterile wipes.

McTeer claimed the drugs did not belong to her. And she alleged her charter rights were violated by the warrantless search. She sought to have the evidence excluded from her trial.

“A person who rents a hotel room has a reasonable expectation of privacy in that room for the period of their occupancy,” Justice Gerry Taylor said.

But he ruled that by the time police entered the room, her occupancy had been terminated. She had been kicked out and an employee had changed key access to the room.

Taylor ruled the evidence in the hotel room would not be excluded.

“The officers did not intentionally set out to breach Tara McTeer’s right to be secure from unreasonable search and seizure,” Taylor said. “The failure to obtain a warrant, if one was required, was an honest mistake on the part of the officers.”

He noted that even without a police search, the drugs would have been found by housekeeping at checkout time.

Excluding the drugs from the trial would be a “fatal blow” to the Crown’s case, Taylor said.

“To exclude the evidence of a serious criminal offence as the result of a good-faith mistake on the part of the police officers, which resulted in a breach that cannot be described as egregious, would bring the administration of justice into disrepute.”

A heroin addict who had been in the hotel room was also charged. The charges were dropped when he agreed to testify against McTeer. He testified the drugs were not his.

Taylor ruled McTeer possessed the drugs. She rented the room and signed the guest register. Her pill bottle containing a small amount of heroin and meth was found in the room.

When McTeer was arrested on July 12, 2015, in her pocket was a note she wrote expressing worry that police would extract her text messages. She apparently planned to give the note to someone to delete her texts. Taylor concluded the note shows “consciousness of guilt.” McTeer will be sentenced on Aug. 30. In 2012, while working at the Sanguen Health Centre, McTeer told a reporter she had been addicted to drugs and alcohol, but with the help of a 12-step program, she was two years into her recovery.

She also said many former OxyContin addicts were turning to heroin because it was cheap and easy to get.

“For a long time, heroin went away,” she said. “It’s boomed up again out of nowhere.”