The lawyer for a former Vancouver police officer caught dealing marijuana on the job plans to argue that the one-time constable shouldn't serve any jail time for his crimes.
Peter Hodson pleaded guilty last year to two counts of breach of trust by a public officer and one charge of trafficking in a controlled substance for dealing drugs on and off duty.
Sentencing hearings are now underway at Vancouver provincial court, and defence lawyer Vincent Michaels says he will argue that Hodson should serve just a conditional sentence.
"What you'll hear of his background, when I make my submissions to the court, will show you how much he's given to the community before all of this happened," Michaels told CTV News outside the court.
Crown prosecutors are pushing for a jail sentence of three-and-a-half years.
"The case law, in the Crown's view, does not support a conditional sentence," Crown counsel Joe Bellows said.
Family and friends attended the sentencing hearing to support Hodson, a father of four and former basketball star who founded an African literacy charity after a trip to Uganda.
Outside the court, Hodson declined to say whether he plans to apologize for his crimes, but told reporters, "I take full responsibility and I look forward to moving forward."
Hodson's offences date back to December, 2009, when he employed Tyson Pappas as a street-level drug dealer to push marijuana in the Downtown Eastside. Some of the deals were done while Hodson was driving a police vehicle.
Pappas worked as a police informant in the investigation, and officers secretly recorded Hodson selling marijuana and collecting the proceeds.
One of his customers was an undercover cop, and the drug money Hodson collected was marked -- some of the marked bills were later discovered in Hodson's White Rock home.
The court heard Hodson hinted to a fellow officer that producing pot was a lucrative business, and admitted to cheating on his wife with two other women.
Hodson was arrested and promptly fired from the force in April 2010 after a two-month investigation into his activities. When Chief Jim Chu announced the charges at a press conference, he described the officer's crimes as "shocking and disturbing."
Chu also submitted a victim impact statement to the court, describing the effect Hodson's actions have had on his fellow cops.
Investigators don't believe that any other officers were involved in Hodson's scheme. However, a civilian co-defendant, Oscar Lapitan, will be sentenced later this month on one count of drug trafficking.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Lisa Rossington
