Alexis Anderson was hardly a model prisoner during her last stint at Pine Grove Correctional Centre. According to the Crown, she threatened other inmates, tried to persuade her guards to bring in contraband and successfully smuggled crystal meth into the prison.
But Anderson still got out early, securing a temporary pass about a week before her early release date.
She wasn’t out for long.
Around July 10, days after her release, police got a tip that Anderson was dealing methamphetamine out of a room at the P.A. Inn, in partnership with a male suspect. They started surveillance, and soon moved in to search the hotel room.
Inside, officers allegedly found 7.4 grams of methamphetamine, some marijuana, the depressant drug GHB, a scale and a lone male suspect. But they didn’t immediately find Anderson.
She soon returned, carrying an iPad with messages the Crown claims were “consistent with drug trafficking.”
Anderson appeared by video in a Prince Albert courtroom Wednesday to face a bail hearing on that charge. Under her temporary pass, the Crown noted, she was under conditions to abstain from drugs and alcohol. The prosecutor held that Anderson can’t abide by conditions and will reoffend if released.
Defence lawyer Rebecca Crookshanks countered that the Crown’s case has serious weaknesses, and called on the judge to release Anderson pending trial.
Crookshanks argued that the incriminating messages on Anderson’s iPad weren’t text messages or emails, but a Facebook account with “drug messaging.”
For more on this story see the August 25 edition of the Prince Albert Daily Herald.
