Lawyer attacks credibility of man at center of Grand Manan riot in July

ST. ANDREWS, New Brunswick – A lawyer attacked the credibility of a man whose home was razed during a riot on a Canadian island off the Maine coast, suggesting in court Tuesday that the contents of his kitchen indicate he may have been cooking up drugs.

David Lutz, who is defending men accused of arson in the case, asked about items seized during an earlier search of the Ronald Ross home, including digital scales and baking soda – which can be used in the production of crack cocaine.

“You’re not a baker, are you?” Lutz asked Ross. “You don’t make cookies and muffins?”

But Ross denied there was anything suspicious about the baking soda.

“I used it to deodorize my refrigerator,” he said.

Ross, 42, claimed in court that small-town gossip and fear mongering on Grand Manan island led to a crowd burning his house to the ground during the riot.

He was testifying during the trial of five Grand Manan men accused of arson and weapons charges after Ross was beaten and his home destroyed during a hot July night of terror and mob violence.

Ross denied he was a drug dealer running a crack cocaine house, as his attackers have suggested.

“I never sold crack to anybody,” Ross said during his testimony. “Islanders stick together. If one person doesn’t like you, no one likes you. They gossip and stories get twisted around. They tell lies to make things better for their own people.”

Ross said he lived on Grand Manan for 10 years, but was always considered an outsider.

He admitted to occasionally using crack cocaine himself, but insisted he did not produce or sell the drug to others.

He now lives in Digby, Nova Scotia, and describes himself as a lobster fisherman.

Ross gave his version of events on the night of July 21 and the early morning hours of July 22 when about 30 residents of Grand Manan decided to hand some vigilante justice to him – claiming he threatened his neighbors and sold drugs to young people.

Ross said trouble began when someone started firing flares at his house, which started small fires.

Ross said there were verbal confrontations, and that one person said they were going to run him off the island.

The five accused are Carter Foster, 25, Matthew Lambert, 27, Michael Small, 27, Gregory Guthrie, 27, and Lloyd Bainbridge, 31, all of Grand Manan. Foster, Lambert and Guthrie face weapons charges while Bainbridge and Small are charged with arson.

The trial is expected to last several more days.