Jim Finnel
Fallen Cannabis Warrior & Ex News Moderator
COOKEVILLE -- A man police said was hauling cash and bags of marijuana walked out of court free last week due to a legal technicality. General Sessions Court Judge John Hudson dismissed the case against Emmitt Darryl Taylor, 23, of North Washington Avenue, after Taylor's attorney, Shawn Fry, argued that police procedure in the case violated Taylor's constitutional rights and after the state prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Beth Willis, conceded that Taylor's detention was illegal under the circumstances. That means that the evidence against Taylor, the illegal drugs found in his car, cannot be used against him because the procedure used to obtain it was in violation of his rights.
The arrest was made by Cookeville Police Officer Josh Ward about 6 p.m. July 20 on North Washington Avenue. Ward stopped Taylor's 1988 Cadillac DeVille because it had a blue tinted cover over the license plate, making it hard to see the plate's information. Ward noted that Taylor seemed nervous as he was asked to produce his car insurance card and the vehicle registration papers. He was unable to produce an insurance card, and the officer wrote him a citation for that and for the license tag violation. Then, the officer asked for permission to search the car, and Taylor denied that permission, saying he wanted to call his lawyer.
But Ward called in another officer, who brought a drug dog to the scene and had the dog to walk around the car. The dog alerted on the car, giving the officer what he thought was sufficient legal reason to search the vehicle. That search produced a black leather satchel which contained seven grocery bags, each of which contained marijuana. Taylor also had $1,295 in cash in his pocket and two cell phones which contained "numerous messages" appearing to request illegal drugs, the officers said. Ward then arrested Taylor, charging him with possession of drugs for resale.
But the time lapse between the officer's handling of the citations for the original cause of the traffic stop and his bringing in another officer with a drug dog made the search of the vehicle illegal, Taylor's attorney, Shawn Fry, argued. Fry cited a 2005 Greene County case with very similar circumstances in which the defendant appealed a lower court's denial of his motion to suppress evidence used against him. That evidence was illegal drugs found in a search made after an officer had stopped the defendant's car for crossing a highway's center line.
Like Taylor in the case here, the defendant there could not produce proof of insurance (and also could not produce a driver's license) and the officer cited him for those offenses, then asked permission to search the vehicle, which was denied. The officer then ran a drug dog around the car, the dog alerted on the car, the defendant was searched and a bag of cocaine fell out of his clothing. Then the car was searched, and a pistol was found. The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals reviewed the case thoroughly and concluded that the officer had no justification for "delaying the detention for the purpose of using the drug dog."
"When the officer gave the defendant the citations, the legitimacy of the detention ended," the Court opinion said. Simply put, the court found that the officer had obtained the drug evidence illegally and therefore ruled that it should not be admitted as evidence in the case. Evidence obtained that way is in violation of both the U.S. Constitution and the Tennessee Constitution, which protect against unreasonable searches and seizures, the Court said. Asked about the case here, Cookeville Police Chief Bob Terry noted that the time lapse between the original stop and the dog's alert on the car "was the problem" and said, "It (bringing in the dog) just wasn't fast enough for the legal system."
"The officer acted very responsibly," Terry said. "Under the circumstances, there just was no other way to make that drug arrest, and that's the kind of case that frustrates law officers so much. You do your best to get them off the streets, but sometimes, there's a technicality like this. When you think about it, there was nothing the officer could have done any differently, and at least we got those drugs off the street," he said.
NewsHawk: User: 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: herald-citizen.com
Author: Mary Jo Denton
Copyright: 2009 The Herald-Citizen
Contact: Herald Citizen Online Edition - Cookeville, TN
Website: Drug case tossed on legal technicality: It took too long
The arrest was made by Cookeville Police Officer Josh Ward about 6 p.m. July 20 on North Washington Avenue. Ward stopped Taylor's 1988 Cadillac DeVille because it had a blue tinted cover over the license plate, making it hard to see the plate's information. Ward noted that Taylor seemed nervous as he was asked to produce his car insurance card and the vehicle registration papers. He was unable to produce an insurance card, and the officer wrote him a citation for that and for the license tag violation. Then, the officer asked for permission to search the car, and Taylor denied that permission, saying he wanted to call his lawyer.
But Ward called in another officer, who brought a drug dog to the scene and had the dog to walk around the car. The dog alerted on the car, giving the officer what he thought was sufficient legal reason to search the vehicle. That search produced a black leather satchel which contained seven grocery bags, each of which contained marijuana. Taylor also had $1,295 in cash in his pocket and two cell phones which contained "numerous messages" appearing to request illegal drugs, the officers said. Ward then arrested Taylor, charging him with possession of drugs for resale.
But the time lapse between the officer's handling of the citations for the original cause of the traffic stop and his bringing in another officer with a drug dog made the search of the vehicle illegal, Taylor's attorney, Shawn Fry, argued. Fry cited a 2005 Greene County case with very similar circumstances in which the defendant appealed a lower court's denial of his motion to suppress evidence used against him. That evidence was illegal drugs found in a search made after an officer had stopped the defendant's car for crossing a highway's center line.
Like Taylor in the case here, the defendant there could not produce proof of insurance (and also could not produce a driver's license) and the officer cited him for those offenses, then asked permission to search the vehicle, which was denied. The officer then ran a drug dog around the car, the dog alerted on the car, the defendant was searched and a bag of cocaine fell out of his clothing. Then the car was searched, and a pistol was found. The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals reviewed the case thoroughly and concluded that the officer had no justification for "delaying the detention for the purpose of using the drug dog."
"When the officer gave the defendant the citations, the legitimacy of the detention ended," the Court opinion said. Simply put, the court found that the officer had obtained the drug evidence illegally and therefore ruled that it should not be admitted as evidence in the case. Evidence obtained that way is in violation of both the U.S. Constitution and the Tennessee Constitution, which protect against unreasonable searches and seizures, the Court said. Asked about the case here, Cookeville Police Chief Bob Terry noted that the time lapse between the original stop and the dog's alert on the car "was the problem" and said, "It (bringing in the dog) just wasn't fast enough for the legal system."
"The officer acted very responsibly," Terry said. "Under the circumstances, there just was no other way to make that drug arrest, and that's the kind of case that frustrates law officers so much. You do your best to get them off the streets, but sometimes, there's a technicality like this. When you think about it, there was nothing the officer could have done any differently, and at least we got those drugs off the street," he said.
NewsHawk: User: 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: herald-citizen.com
Author: Mary Jo Denton
Copyright: 2009 The Herald-Citizen
Contact: Herald Citizen Online Edition - Cookeville, TN
Website: Drug case tossed on legal technicality: It took too long
No fishing allowed 
