Police wouldn’t manufacture fictitious probable cause to obtain warrants for a drug raid, would they? Don’t be so sure:
KopBusters rented a house in Odessa, Texas and began growing two small Christmas trees under a grow light similar to those used for growing marijuana [grow lights are themselves lawful — ed.]. When faced with a suspected marijuana grow, the police usually use illegal FLIR cameras and/or lie on the search warrant affidavit claiming they have probable cause to raid the house. Instead of conducting a proper investigation which usually leads to no probable cause, the Kops lie on the affidavit claiming a confidential informant saw the plants and/or the police could smell marijuana coming from the suspected house.
The trap was set and less than 24 hours later, the Odessa narcotics unit raided the house only to find KopBuster’s attorney waiting under a system of complex gadgetry and spy cameras that streamed online to the KopBuster’s secret mobile office nearby.
(WindyPundit, Dec. 6; Balko, “Hit and Run”, Dec. 6; J.D. Tuccille, Dec. 7). A cautionary view: Greenfield. And Orin Kerr @ Volokh has likewise warns that we don’t know yet all of the circumstances about the engineering of the sting, raid and video; read the comments as well.
3 Comments
Wow. I’d be interested to see what the police actually put in the affidavit to get a judge to issue a warrant.
Well, for starters, here’s a guy with quite a large pair. Among the largest, I submit. I’m most interested in which way the prosecution will take this. Will they figure out a way to leverage some forgotten law from say 1824 and try to prosecute this guy. OR, will they realize what seems quite apparent from the video, assuming all other details are true, and start to have a look-see in to what appears to be some pretty inappropriate and illegal behavior? Nevertheless, is there an FOIA requirement at the state level which compels officials to release the warrant documents? I’m all about cops being good and keeping bad guys and drugs off the street. But I recall something being written down somewhere about people and their papers being free from governmental intrusion, with certain exceptions, of course.
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