The trial for a woman accused of trafficking fentanyl and cocaine out of a home in Kelowna's Lower Mission area will proceed this week, after a judge ruled the search of her home did not infringe on her constitutional rights.

Desiree Kovacs, 34, is facing charges of possessing fentanyl and cocaine for the purpose of trafficking, along with two weapons charges, following a police raid on a home on Tomby Court on the morning of June 18, 2021.

Wednesday morning, Justice Richard Hewson dismissed Kovacs' application, ruling the search warrant that had been issued prior to the raid was in fact constitutional.

Kovacs had attempted to have the evidence that was obtained during the raid – which likely makes up the bulk of the Crown's case – thrown out, arguing the warrant had been issued without reasonable grounds to believe that an offence had been committed.

But Justice Hewson ruled that as a whole, the evidence police presented to the warrant-issuing judge was enough for the judge “to reasonably infer that there was at least a credibly based probability or reasonable grounds to believe that a search of the residence would lead to the discovery of drugs for the purpose of trafficking.”

With that application out of the way, Kovacs' trial will proceed this week, with the Crown calling evidence Thursday and Friday.

Fentanyl, meth, crack cocaine

In delivering his decision Wednesday, Justice Hewson said the investigation that led to the June 2021 raid on the home began three weeks prior, when police began surveilling Jordy Moyan and another man on suspicion of drug trafficking.

During the investigation, officers said they saw multiple “short-duration” stops at the home which were consistent with drug trafficking.

In a civil forfeiture lawsuit filed shortly after the raid, the BC Civil Forfeiture Office alleged police found a variety of drugs in Kovacs' bedroom, including 73 grams of “fentanyl/methamphetamine/crack cocaine,” 16.6 grams of fentanyl, 64.5 grams of hydromorphone, along with a shotgun, ammunition and a flare gun.

Photo: RCMP

Weapons and drugs found during the June 2021 police raid at Tomby Court.

Charges were laid against Kovacs, along with co-accused Jordy Moyan and Kirsten Amundrud, in April 2023. Moyan pleaded guilty to some of the charges earlier this month.

In the civil forfeiture suit, the government alleged police found 125 grams of fentanyl, 112 grams of methamphetamine and a gram of crack cocaine in Moyan's bedroom, along with a Taser and a crossbow.

The suit says Moyan had 5.8 grams of fentanyl on him when he was arrested during the raid. He was also arrested five days before the raid, and police allegedly found fentanyl, crack and meth on him then as well.

While her drug trafficking trial is ongoing this week, Kovacs is in custody after she was arrested and charged again this past February. While the circumstances of this arrest are not clear, she now faces seven additional charges, including motor vehicle theft, flight from police, assaulting an officer with a weapon and breaching a release order.

She's remained in custody since that arrest on Feb. 6 in West Kelowna.

Forfeiture suit ongoing

The month after the the June 2021 police raid, the BC Civil Forfeiture Office filed a lawsuit in BC Supreme Court, naming Kovacs and Moyan, along with homeowner Gregory Ballentine and his former partner Christina McArthur as defendants.

The government sought the seizure of the home, along with $1,790 found during the raid, alleging the house was purchased with proceeds from crime. A judge ruled in January 2022 that the cash could be seized, after neither Kovacs or Moyan filed responses to the suit.

But in a December 2022 decision, Justice Palbinder Shergill ruled the Director of Civil Forfeiture had not provided “a shred of evidence to support the contention that the [property] may be proceeds of unlawful activity or an instrument of unlawful activity.”

Following that decision, the director amended its suit, adding that Ballentine and McArthur “gave tacit or express permission” to Moyan, Kovacs and others to engage in unlawful activity at the home, and that McArthur would sometimes accept drugs as rental payment.

In a response filed in August 2023, Ballentine denied that he ever aided or abetted any illegal activity on the property and took steps to prevent them from occurring. But he says he was away working as a physics professor at various universities most of the time.

He said he has since split up with McArthur and has been fully cooperating with police investigations. He also says the home has since been rented to a new tenant who has lawful income.

In her own filed response back in June 2022, McArthur said she would rent rooms in the house to "people who seemed down on their luck" and that Kovacs and Moyan stayed at the home for 16 and 22 days respectively. She said she was unaware of any illegal activities going on in the house and a had a "no drug policy."

The civil forfeiture suit also alleged that 787 grams of ketamine was found during a previous February 2020 police raid on the Tomby Court home, but in her response, McArthur said this had been given to her by a veterinarian to sedate her four cats when they travelled.

The home was also raided by police in February 2022.

It appears the civil forfeiture matter has yet to be resolved.