(file photo)

By Susan McNeil

Appeal denied

Homeless P.A. woman who stored meth in bra loses conviction appeal

Nov 15, 2024 | 10:51 AM

A woman who was arrested by Prince Albert Police without a warrant after they received several tips that she was selling meth has lost her case at the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal.

All three Appeal Court justices agreed that it was not unreasonable for a provincial court judge to conclude that Carrie Dawn Bellerose was guilty of trafficking after police found almost 100 grams of meth in her bra in 2022 and they had seen her accept a chainsaw from a man.

“I read the trial judge as having tied his finding in that respect directly to his determination that Ms. Bellerose possessed a significant quantity of methamphetamine for the purpose of trafficking, and to all of the evidence that underpinned that conclusion,” wrote Justice J.A. Kalmakoff.

In July 2022, PAPS investigators received two tips from informants that Bellerose was selling drugs while living at a women’s shelter on Branion Drive in Prince Albert. She would deliver the drugs on a red mountain bike.

Officers began surveillance on the building and saw her meet up with a man in the back seat of a taxi in a nearby parking lot.

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The man gave her the chainsaw which she put in the building through a window and then left on her bike soon after.

Using information from the informant and what they had witnessed themselves, police arrested Bellerose on charges of possession for the purpose of trafficking while she was riding the bike.

As part of the arrest, she was subject to search after reaching the police station.

But, when told she was about to be searched, Bellerose told the officer to not bother, reached in her bra and handed over the 99.7 grams of crystal meth. The cash in her purse totaled $555 in Canadian currency and there was $20 in U.S. currency.

It was not her first drug-related crime.

Bellerose filed a Charter breach application while the case was still in Provincial Court, saying the arrest was not legal.

Her lawyer argued the police were not acting on compelling information, had not seen her selling drugs and should not have arrested her, which would make any evidence they later found inadmissible.

“In her application, Ms. Bellerose alleges that her detention was arbitrary and that the search to which she was subjected was unreasonable based on the limited information available to the officers at the time,” wrote provincial court Judge S.D. Shiefner, after allowing the evidence in Bellerose’s trial.

Shiefner said that in his opinion, one of the witnesses heard in the voir dire was credible and the second witness’ testimony, while less credible, supported the information from the first witness.

All of the appeal judges agreed with Shiefner’s decision and said that while the case was largely circumstantial, the only reasonable inference to be taken from the evidence was that Bellerose had the drugs for the purpose of selling them.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com