An inmate caught with drugs at the Drumheller Institution was able to argue successfully he believed the package that he was carrying contained tobacco.
Justin Adam Neuman appeared in provincial court in Drumheller charged with possession of drugs.
On December 14, 2010, the court learned that Neuman entered a cell and retrieved a package from under another inmates pillow with the aim of delivering it to another cell. Upon leaving the cell he was intercepted by corrections officers and taken to a supervisor’s office. He was strip searched, and in his underwear a Lypsyl cap containing cannabis resin was discovered. This event came not long after a lockdown and inmate Neuman indicated he had been at the institution for less than a month. The cap and the drugs therein weighed less than a half a gram.
In institution sanctions he was fined $35 and put in segregation for two months.
In Neuman’s testimony he said he believed the package contained tobacco. He said he was involved in packaging tobacco after inmates had received a shipment. While possession of tobacco is against the rules at the institution, it is not a criminal matter.
Defense lawyer Allan Fay argued that for Neuman to be found guilty, he would had to have the knowledge that what he was doing was illegal.
Federal prosecutor Colin Kloot argued that Neuman ought to have known, or could have taken steps to find out what was in the package. And by not doing so constituted contrived ignorance or willful blindness.
In the end Judge Shriar agreed that it was reasonable for Neuman to conclude that the package contained tobacco and this raised reasonable doubt. He was found not guilty.
