Jarrod Bacon denied Wednesday a suggestion by the Crown that his family trip to the PNE on the day a cocaine deal was expected to go down was a cover for the drug transaction. Bacon told a judge that on Aug. 27, 2009, the day that he and his co-accused Wayne Scott were allegedly expecting to pick up a shipment of cocaine, he went to the PNE with his parents and his now-deceased older brother Jonathan. Federal prosecutor Peter LaPrairie suggested that it was a good cover for him to be at the Vancouver fair prior to the deal going down. “It wasn’t a cover,” said Bacon. “My family comes first. There was nothing going on ... I went there with my family. It wasn’t a sinister thing.” Bacon, 28, and Scott, 55, have each pleaded not guilty to one count of conspiracy to traffic in cocaine. Court has heard that a police agent, who can only be identified as G.L. due to a publication ban, implicated the two men in a conspiracy to smuggle up to 100 kilograms of cocaine from Mexico to Canada. Bacon, an admitted criminal and drug addict, testified Wednesday that neither he nor his brother Jonathan, who was shot to death in a gangland slaying last year, met any criminal contacts at the PNE. After the trip to the fair, Bacon said his parents dropped him off at Scott’s house. The Crown played a video of Bacon’s father later returning to Scott’s house to pick up Bacon, who was on bail conditions that prevented him from driving. Bacon said his dad wanted to speak to Scott, a truck driver, about becoming employed as a truck driver. But LaPrairie suggested that Bacon’s father and mother were in fact involved in the drug deal, a suggestion vehemently denied by the accused. “That is completely false,” said Bacon. “They were shocked and in tears when I got arrested on this. They had no knowledge of my criminal lifestyle whatsoever.” Bacon admitted earlier that his parents, however, were aware that he wore body armour whenever he left his house. “They were aware that my older brother got shot outside the house in 2005. They didn’t mind that I wore it.” Bacon testified about how he got kicked out of school in Grade 12 because he had gotten into too many fights. “I took to being a gangster real well,” he said, adding that he was more of a “professional fighter.” Under questioning from LaPrairie, Bacon admitted to lying to a justice of the peace when he signed his bail release, since he expected to breach some of the conditions of bail, including a condition that he not use drugs. He admitted to lying to G.L. about the fact he wanted to rob him of the drugs and that he had lied to his parents. But Bacon denied a suggestion by LaPrairie that he had been lying on the witness stand to the judge. “When I was addicted to drugs, I’d lie frequently, but here I am clean for 25 months and I have no reason to lie ... I’m being completely truthful here.” Following his cross-examination, Bacon’s lawyer, Jeffrey Ray, said he planned to call no more witnesses. Scott’s lawyer, Jeremy Guild said he did not plan to call a defence for his client. Ray then told the judge that he planned to begin his final submissions on Wednesday afternoon.
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