DRUG DEAL

Band chief forced to resign for trafficking drugs

REGINA — By pleading guilty to morphine trafficking on Thursday, Clarence Papequash, 61, spared the Regina Court of Queen’s Bench a trial.

But the guilty plea to an indictable offence also means he will have to resign as chief of the Key First Nation.

Along with 15 other people, Papequash was arrested in January 2011 after a sixmonth RCMP investigation in Kamsack and Yorkton.

On Nov. 9, 2010, in Kamsack, an undercover officer and a man working for the police wearing a recording device visited Papequash’s home looking for morphine.

Reading from a transcript of the recording, prosecutor Shane Wagner noted that Papequash was suspicious of the undercover officer and repeatedly objected to him being in the home.

Nevertheless, Papequash set up a deal for half a pill of morphine for $30. He left before the exchange was made by his wife, Donelda Brass. She was also arrested and charged in January 2011. Brass later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three months in jail.

Although Papequash and Brass had prescriptions for morphine, the pill they sold was a different type, Wagner said.

Wagner asked Justice Jennifer Pritchard to impose a one-year conditional sentence — including four months under house arrest and eight months with a nightly curfew. Wagner also requested a 10-year firearms ban and an order to provide a sample of his DNA.

This was not the first time someone tried to buy prescription drugs at the home, noted Papequash’s lawyer, Doug Andrews. On other occasions, he told the undercover officer and the police agent to “get lost,” but this time, “he took the bait,” Andrews said.

He recommended a fine or suspended sentence without probation, or a suspended sentence with probation. If Pritchard deems a conditional sentence is appropriate, Andrews suggested three or six months and no house arrest or curfew. He argued that a DNA order is not necessary.

Since 1969, Papequash has been convicted of nearly 45 offences, including assault, break and enter, theft, robbery, drug possession, impaired driving and uttering forged documents. Since 1996, he has only had two convictions — assault and theft under $5,000, Wagner said.

This prompted the judge to ask how Papequash could have been elected chief with a criminal record. Andrews explained that he was able to serve as chief so long as he wasn’t convicted of an indictable offence while in office. First elected chief in 2008, Papequash was reelected in 2010 and 2012.

A conviction for an indictable offence does not prevent Papequash from seeking re-election in the future, Andrews noted.

Pritchard adjourned sentencing to July 4.