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A judge has thrown out drug evidence seized by Vancouver police after finding that a suspect’s rights were violated during a traffic stop.

Evantee Stoney was taken into custody by police on Sept. 12, 2018 when he was a passenger in a vehicle that had been pulled over by police on East Hastings Street.

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The police had run the plate number of the vehicle and before the results of the search came through, the vehicle turned and failed to signal.

The search indicated that the registered owner of the vehicle and the vehicle were believed to be involved in drug trafficking.

One of the officers, only identified as Const. Quach in a court ruling, approached the vehicle and after directing Stoney to lower his window, she smelled burning marijuana and saw a marijuana roach in the door well.

Provincial Court Judge Ellen Gordon, the trial judge, noted in her ruling that Quach decided that she had grounds to arrest Stoney for possession of marijuana and deliberately elected not to provide him with his right to a lawyer.