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Prosecutors dropped charges Tuesday against a 31-year-old man accused of being caught with 10 pounds of marijuana in his car trunk.
The move followed a judge’s ruling earlier this month that a police search in the case was illegal.
Larry Buchanan, of the 800 block of West Jefferson Street, was arrested following a traffic stop Feb. 8 on West Market Street. Court records say Buchanan’s car did not have a functioning light over the rear license plate.
After stopping him, Bloomington police patted him down and found 4.6 grams of marijuana in a plastic bag in one of his pockets, according to court documents. A subsequent search found 10 pounds of marijuana in the trunk of his car.
He was charged with unlawful possession of marijuana and unlawful possession of marijuana with intent to deliver the drug, according to court documents.
“The judge found that the officers discovered the drugs following a search, which was not justified,” said Assistant Public Defender Brian McEldowney. “They did a pat-down search, and the judge found there was no basis for that.”
Bloomington police spokes-man Duane Moss said department officials may have comments on the case Wednesday, but they still were examining the ruling Tuesday afternoon.
A message left for a prosecutor handling the case was not immediately returned.
McEldowney said the marijuana found in the trunk was inadmissible because it is “the fruit of the poisonous tree” -- evidence that would not have been discovered without the unjustified search of Buchanan’s pockets.
“The police do a great job on the whole,” McEldowney said. “And they were following their instincts, and their instincts were right: There was a lot of drugs there. But the judge found that they didn’t have the basis to do the pat-down search, which led to the discovery of some of the drugs and the ultimate discovery of the rest of them.”
An officer searched Buchanan because of safety concerns, and he smelled a strong odor of marijuana during the search, prosecutors said in a document filed in response to the defense motion challenging the search.
McEldowney said he was not in a position to say why his client was driving a car containing marijuana or whether he knew the drugs were there. He said the issue of ownership of the drugs would have come up in a trial.
Newshawk: User - 420 Magazine
Source: Pantagraph.com
Pubdate: 22 November 2006
Author: Greg Cima
Copyright: 2006 Pantagraph.com
Contact: gcima@pantagraph.com
Website: Pantagraph.com | Central Illinois News, Sports, Classifieds and More
The move followed a judge’s ruling earlier this month that a police search in the case was illegal.
Larry Buchanan, of the 800 block of West Jefferson Street, was arrested following a traffic stop Feb. 8 on West Market Street. Court records say Buchanan’s car did not have a functioning light over the rear license plate.
After stopping him, Bloomington police patted him down and found 4.6 grams of marijuana in a plastic bag in one of his pockets, according to court documents. A subsequent search found 10 pounds of marijuana in the trunk of his car.
He was charged with unlawful possession of marijuana and unlawful possession of marijuana with intent to deliver the drug, according to court documents.
“The judge found that the officers discovered the drugs following a search, which was not justified,” said Assistant Public Defender Brian McEldowney. “They did a pat-down search, and the judge found there was no basis for that.”
Bloomington police spokes-man Duane Moss said department officials may have comments on the case Wednesday, but they still were examining the ruling Tuesday afternoon.
A message left for a prosecutor handling the case was not immediately returned.
McEldowney said the marijuana found in the trunk was inadmissible because it is “the fruit of the poisonous tree” -- evidence that would not have been discovered without the unjustified search of Buchanan’s pockets.
“The police do a great job on the whole,” McEldowney said. “And they were following their instincts, and their instincts were right: There was a lot of drugs there. But the judge found that they didn’t have the basis to do the pat-down search, which led to the discovery of some of the drugs and the ultimate discovery of the rest of them.”
An officer searched Buchanan because of safety concerns, and he smelled a strong odor of marijuana during the search, prosecutors said in a document filed in response to the defense motion challenging the search.
McEldowney said he was not in a position to say why his client was driving a car containing marijuana or whether he knew the drugs were there. He said the issue of ownership of the drugs would have come up in a trial.
Newshawk: User - 420 Magazine
Source: Pantagraph.com
Pubdate: 22 November 2006
Author: Greg Cima
Copyright: 2006 Pantagraph.com
Contact: gcima@pantagraph.com
Website: Pantagraph.com | Central Illinois News, Sports, Classifieds and More
