Canadian drug charges and trial of Jimi Hendrix

In 1969, Jimi Hendrix was arrested, tried, and acquitted in Canada for drug possession. After a trial that lasted for three days, the jury deliberated for 8 hours before returning a not guilty verdict, acquitting Hendrix of both charges. The incident proved stressful for Hendrix, and it weighed heavily on his mind during the seven months that he awaited trial. Two weeks after the arrest, he told his friend, journalist Sharon Lawrence, that his fear of needles discouraged him from using heroin.

About Canadian drug charges and trial of Jimi Hendrix in brief

In 1969, Jimi Hendrix was arrested, tried, and acquitted in Canada for drug possession. On May 3, 1969, customs agents at Toronto International Airport detained Hendrix after finding a small amount of what they suspected to be heroin and hashish in his luggage. Four hours later, after a mobile lab confirmed what had been found, he was formally charged with drug possession and released on bail. At a preliminary hearing on June 19, Judge Robert Taylor set a date for December 8, at which Hendrix would stand trial for two counts of illegal possession of narcotics. After a trial that lasted for three days, the jury deliberated for 8 hours before returning a not guilty verdict, acquitting Hendrix of both charges. The incident proved stressful for Hendrix, and it weighed heavily on his mind during the seven months that he awaited trial. Two weeks after the arrest, he told his friend, journalist Sharon Lawrence, that his fear of needles discouraged him from using heroin and that associating with junkies had convinced him it was not a drug he wanted to use. In late 1968, the members of the Jimihendrix Experience were living in a rented house in Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles. One night bassist Noel Redding was warned about a pending visit from law enforcement, so he immediately phoned drummer Mitch Mitchell, who was at the nightclub Whisky a Go Go, and asked him to come over to the house so that they could search for and remove any illegal drugs.

The group’s road crew warned everyone to take precautions against any potential for drugs to be planted on them. The day before flying to Toronto, Hendrix’s Experience bandmates, Mitch Mitchell and Tony Ruffino expressed their concern to Hendrix and asked if he had any drugs on him to which he replied: ‘No.’ After arriving in Toronto, the concert promoter Ron Terry took him into the plane’s bathroom and dumped anything that might be mistaken for illegal drugs into the toilet. At 9:30 a.m. local time, police arrested Harry Midley for being in possession of illegal narcotics, and at 1:30 p.m., police booked him for possession of heroin and Hashish. He was released on USD 10,000 bail, but was required to return on May 5 for an arraignment hearing. His public relations manager, Michael Goldstein, later revealed that he bribed a member of the Associated Press with a case of liquor in an effort to prevent the story from going out on the news wire. In his cross-examination of Canadian customs officials, defense attorney John O’Driscoll raised doubts about whether the narcotics belonged to him, who had no drug paraphernalia or needle tracks on his arms. He placed them on a counter at customs station and said: “If that that not yours, keep your hands off it” The agent repeated the order before asking Hendrix if they were his bags; he confirmed that they were at 9: 30 m a m.

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