Law360 Canada ( April 4, 2023, 1:30 PM EDT) -- Appeal by Knauff from his conviction on three counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking. He argued that the judge erred in his negative credibility assessment by repeatedly faulting him for failing to account adequately for the conduct of his co-accused and a stranger. Police officers conducted surveillance of a Walmart parking lot in Penticton and noticed two known drug-users behaving suspiciously. The two men, Rai and Laforme, paced around the parking lot, watched vehicles as they arrived, and sat for a considerable period at picnic tables by a corner of the building. Eventually, they walked briskly toward a secluded area of the parking lot where Rai approached the driver's side door of a parked Ford Explorer and Laforme approached the passenger side. Believing that a drug transaction was unfolding, the officers pulled their police car forward, got out, and approached the truck, apparently startling Rai and Laforme who walked away until they were told to stop. Aeichele was the driver of the Explorer. Knauff was her passenger. Knauff and his co-accused, Aeichele, were arrested. At their joint trial on charges of possession of methamphetamine, cocaine and fentanyl for the purpose of trafficking, both accused testified and denied any knowledge of or control over the drugs found by the police in the parked truck they occupied. Knauff also testified that moments before their arrest, a stranger approached the open window on the passenger side of the truck and dropped a bag of cocaine in his lap that he put in his pants pocket, where police found it. The judge did not believe him. He concluded the accused were jointly engaged in selling drugs and convicted them both of three counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking....