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posted by Fnord666 on Friday July 28 2017, @07:22PM   Printer-friendly
from the you-say-tomato-I-say-marijuana dept.

AlterNet reports

On April 20, 2012, seven heavily armed Johnson County sheriff's officers conducted an early morning raid on the house of Adlynn and Robert Harte based on vegetative samples found in the couple's trash. It turns out those samples were tea leaves, and officers found a hydroponic tomato garden instead of marijuana.

The Hartes sued the county for $7 million on unlawful search-and-seizure claims, which a federal judge tossed after finding the officers were entitled to qualified immunity.

On [July 25, 2017], however, a three-judge 10th Circuit panel disagreed--and Circuit Judge Carlos Lucero offered a sarcastic summary in the ruling of the mistakes made by the officers.

"Law-abiding tea drinkers and gardeners beware: One visit to a garden store and some loose tea leaves in your trash may subject you to an early morning, SWAT-style raid, complete with battering ram, bulletproof vests, and assault rifles", Lucero wrote. "Perhaps the officers will intentionally conduct the terrifying raid while your children are home, and keep the entire family under armed guard for 2½ hours while concerned residents of your quiet, family-oriented neighborhood wonder what nefarious crime you have committed. This is neither hyperbole nor metaphor--precisely what happened to the Harte family in the case before us on appeal."

[...] The Hartes claim that officers lied about the field test results showing the tea leaves tested positive for THC, the principal ingredient in marijuana. Police failed to photograph the results and did not send the samples to a lab for confirmation, given the pressure to obtain warrants for the April 20 crackdown--facts not lost on [concurring Judge Nancy] Moritz.


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  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday July 28 2017, @08:41PM (2 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Friday July 28 2017, @08:41PM (#545967)

    It's profiling - they KNOW this house is a grow house because the dude has long hair and wears black T-shirts, that f'ing THC test must've been wrong and the raid is already scheduled, if we don't do it on time, we might not get funding to keep the tank. It's a GO man, gear up, and in case we don't find anything bring along something from the evidence locker to plant.

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  • (Score: 2) by driverless on Saturday July 29 2017, @12:33AM (1 child)

    by driverless (4770) on Saturday July 29 2017, @12:33AM (#546060)

    they KNOW this house is a grow house because the dude has long hair and wears black T-shirts

    Except that in this case the family didn't. They knew it was a grow house because they saw discarded leaves in the trash, and that meant the family were growers, and because the family were obviously growers the leaves in the trash were weed and not tea leaves. Simple really.

    • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday July 29 2017, @02:24AM

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Saturday July 29 2017, @02:24AM (#546112)

      Yeah, so I thought I covered the leaves in the trash with the failed THC test, I'm sure there were other "unmentionable" profile points that factored into the decision to go ahead with the raid - cops aren't completely stupid, but they do trust their instincts way more than the law says they are allowed to.

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