A story in yesterday's newspaper about an acting Magistrate scolding Police for an arrest reported the wrong name for the Magistrate. The acting Magistrate was the Wor. Charles-Etta Simmons.

A Magistrate scolded Police yesterday after a Devonshire man was grabbed and searched for drugs near the doorway of his own cottage.

Police found no drugs on Keith Glasgow, but handcuffed him and charged him with obstruction, the court was told.

The Wor. Cheryl Mapp said Police had no reason to accost or search the 33-year-old man.

"I'm disturbed by this case,'' Mrs. Mapp said as she dismissed a charge against Glasgow of obstructing a Police officer who was using his powers under the Misuse of Drugs Act.

"The defendant was in his parents' yard -- that is, his own home -- and he was not doing anything from the evidence he has given us that would raise a suspicion in a reasonable man.'' Glasgow testified he was roughly handled by as many as a dozen Police officers, one of whom tossed his cap out the window of the cruiser as he was taken to the Police station.

"I was frightened,'' he said. "They must have searched me a thousand times.'' Insp. Edward Gibbons testified he and another officer were on patrol near the abandoned apartment building the Incubator on Long Range Hill at 10.45 p.m. on January 8.

"I know this area to be one where controlled drugs are supplied and misused,'' Insp. Gibbons said.

The two officers were approaching the building from the west when they noticed Glasgow standing outside the cottage next door, he said.

"He looked toward us, immediately turned around, and began to walk quickly away from us,'' he said. "I noted that he had what appeared to be a small, light-coloured object in his left hand.'' Glasgow testified he was holding the keys to the cottage, where he lives.

Insp. Gibbons said he shouted to Glasgow to stop, but he continued to walk quickly to the back of the cottage. He and the constable gave chase and "caught up to him as he was about to enter the east side door of the cottage''.

"I took hold of his left arm and told him I was detaining him for a search under the Misuse of Drugs Act,'' Insp. Gibbons said.

Glasgow struggled and the officers had to pry him away from a stone pillar outside the back door of the cottage, he said. Officers eventually got him on the ground, cuffed his hands behind his back, and loaded him into a Police cruiser, he said.

At Hamilton Police Station, a search "found no articles liable for seizure under the act'', Insp. Gibbons said. He denied that Glasgow was roughly handled and reported no more than two officers on the scene.

"We applied the minimum amount of force necessary,'' he said.

Mrs. Mapp said that to use their powers under the Misuse of Drugs Act, Police must have "reasonable grounds'' to believe the person possesses controlled drugs.

Being in the vicinity of an area know for drug use, "is not in my estimation reasonable grounds'', she said.