B.C. Mountie who bought cocaine is handed conditional discharge

By The Canadian Press

KAMLOOPS, B.C. – A former Mountie from the Kamloops, B.C., detachment will not be serving any jail time after pleading guilty to buying cocaine on three separate occasions.

Randi Love, 41, was handed a conditional discharge after she was initially charged with three counts of trafficking.

Love was placed on 12 months probation and will have to serve 50 hours of community service within the first five months.

The conditional discharge means Love will not have a criminal record if she complies with the judge’s order.

She became emotional in a Kamloops provincial court on Friday as the judge read through her history, including the death of her father and injuries she suffered on the job.

The Crown asked for a suspended sentence, but her lawyer Brad Smith said Love wants to become a counsellor and having a criminal record would not allow her to do that.

“Randi Love is a survivor,” Smith said outside court. “She’s had very many adverse chapters to go through. This is one of them. I have no doubt that going forward she will continue to pick up the pieces and make a success of herself.”

Love was scheduled to stand trial but pleaded guilty last week to a single count of possession.

She apologized then and told a judge she knows she made a mistake but that she’d faced significant hurdles over the last five years.

“I don’t want to make any excuses for what I’ve done. I’m very remorseful for what I’ve done,” she told the court.

“I’ve been through a lot in this process,” she said. “My name was smeared through the media. I’ve created a lot of stress and embarrassment for myself, my family, and my fiance.”

Love, who was once the media spokeswoman for the Kamloops RCMP, told court last week that she is taking steps to obtain a certificate allowing her to work as a counsellor to help people in similar situations.

The court heard she resigned from the RCMP in January 2016. (CFJC, Kamloops This week)

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