Former mayor of Norman Wells found guilty of possessing cocaine

A former mayor of Norman Wells, N.W.T.,has been convicted of possessing cocaine.

Nathan Watson, 49, was not in a Yellowknife courtroom on Friday when a judge found him guilty of possessing two packets of the drug with a total weight of 3.2 grams.

Leading up to his verdict, Judge Garth Malakoe went over the circumstances of the arrest.

Watson was charged on Oct. 6, 2017. Police in Norman Wells were wrapping up a checkstop late on a Friday night when they saw Watson fail to stop at a stop sign. When they stopped him, they smelled alcohol on his breath. He failed a roadside breathalyzer test and was arrested for impaired driving.

The two RCMP officers took him to the detachment, where two more breath samples were taken. Before putting him in a jail cell, one of the officers took an inventory of Watson's personal effects, a routine procedure before jailing someone while filling out paperwork associated with charges that have been laid.

The RCMP say they found the packets of cocaine in his jacket pocket.

'I do not find his denials credible'

Watson denied they were his. He said he had been at a party earlier that evening and suggested they may have been put in his jacket while he left it unattended.

"I do not find his denials credible," said Malakoe.

The judge pointed out that Watson's estimate of his alcohol consumption that evening fell vastly short of what would be required to register the blood alcohol reading of 120 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood that he had that evening. (The legal limit for driving is 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood.)

Malakoe said Watson's suggestion that someone may have planted the drugs in his coatin retaliation for legal action he was taking against the town didn't make sense either, because the legal action was initiated after his arrested.

Watson served two years as mayor of the town, ending in late 2017, when the territorial government dissolved town council and appointed a bureaucrat to administer the town. A government official said Watson's arrest had nothing to do with the decision.

Last March, the prosecutor stayed two impaired driving charges Watson was facing in connection with the traffic stop.

A date will be set for Watson's sentencing for drug possession on March 12.