A 29-year-old man in Oklahoma was charged with carrying cocaine in his backpack.
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) October 16, 2019
After two months in jail, he pleaded guilty to end the nightmare.
He was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Then the tests came back.
It was powdered milk, not cocaine.https://t.co/o2AWHCapHB
October 16, 2019
Nightmare.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
45 comments:
He’s lucky they didn’t switch out that powdered milk for cocaine while it was in evidence lock up.
Why is riding without lights cause to search his backpack?
Anyway, he obviously thought it was cocaine, so he's dumb as well as unlucky and (probably) a victim of racially motivated targetting.
Was Adam Schitt(D) or Kamala in charge of the prosecution?
That's idiotic. It's pretty easy to tell if something is cocaine or not. Just dab a tiny amount of the powder in question on you're lip. If it causes a numbing sensation, it's most likely cocaine.
Did Mr. Gregg think he was carrying cocaine, which later turned out to be powdered milk? Powdered milk in a baggy? The soup kitchen gave him 46 grams of powered milk in a baggy? For what, to make one glass of milk in the future? Oh, sure, I believe that.
It seems to me that if Mr Gregg knew he was carrying powdered milk he would have told the cops "You stupid cops! That's powdered milk, not cocaine! Taste it, test it. It's so obvious even a cop can figure it out" and they would have had to let him go.
I have some vague memory from years ago of a guy being put away for possessing what he thought was an illegal substance, even if he had just been sold filler by his provider. That memory may not be accurate.
As The Washington Post’s Radley Balko wrote last year, the list of innocent items that have been misidentified as dangerous drugs includes chocolate chip cookies, breath mints and the glaze from a Krispy Kreme doughnut.
That KK glaze is some hard-ass addictive shit! No lie, muthafuckas!
"He’s lucky they didn’t switch out that powdered milk for cocaine while it was in evidence lock up."
This. You're insane if you don't think it happens daily. I've seen the fast and loose workings of the justice system up close. I'll never have to serve on a jury because I'd never have the slightest hesitation in telling them I'm not going to trust their witnesses.
Drugs are Bad, OK?
As to jury duty, a lawyer friend advises one of two methods for being dismissed on voir dire--
1) just say that the defendant wouldn't be there if he wasn't probably guilty, OR
B) just say that you consider the defendant a political prisoner, as are nearly all "criminals" in the stage of Late Capitalism.
Narr
Haven't had an opportunity to deploy one yet
The story does not appear in Chrome. I had to go to Firefox to see it.
Maybe it’s the opposite, Cracker. Cops stole the coke; swap out milk powder. Happens every day. Could explain plea. Corrupt prosecutor takes plea.
Something in this story makes literally no sense- the biker had to know what was in the pack himself, didn't he? This doesn't excuse the not testing the substance like a day or two after the arrest, but still the biker seems to have believed he was carrying cocaine- otherwise, why take a 15 year sentence just to end 2 months in jail awaiting trial?
We need better journalists, or actual journalists.
"According to the paper, Gregg told the judge that he got the milk from a food pantry. He said that he entered a guilty plea only so that he could stop languishing in Oklahoma County Jail, which has been plagued with issues including overcrowding, chronic mold and an unusually high suicide rate for decades."
Some of the commenters here seem to hold unwarranted high (enough) opinions of the police to assume they will behave rationally, even if told the white powder is powdered milk and not cocaine. They also seem not to realize how well trained the police are in coercing admissions of guilt from even innocent persons, who, sometimes, stressed beyond their tolerance, will confess simply to minimize as best they can the horror they must endure.
"Why is riding without lights cause to search his backpack?"
The police do what they want.
"He’s lucky they didn’t switch out that powdered milk for cocaine while it was in evidence lock up."
I'd say the opposite is more likely. He was carrying coke, but someone in the evidence room swiped it and left powdered milk in its place.
Cops have their share of addicts also.
was this a "The Telltale Heart" sort of thing,
...or some cartel members with a sense of humor?
Why does it take so long for "the tests to come back"?
This is fascism, plain and simple. The Antifa people and those claiming Trump is fascist have no idea they're looking in the wrong places.
Of course, if Young Hegelian's conjecture is correct, this story can be pretty complicated. And the accused may well not have had innocent intent. But, still, there's a complete miscarriage of due process and simple justice going on.
Seeing Red said...
He’s lucky they didn’t switch out that powdered milk for cocaine while it was in evidence lock up.
You mean...
He’s lucky they switched out that powdered milk for cocaine they stole, while it was in evidence lock up.
fify!
They thought it was coke, he thought it was coke
If you cut it up into lines, using Occam's Razor; the clear answer is that it WAS coke
(before the cops stole it and sold it) Makes sense now; don't it?
This story makes zero sense.
While powdered milk may have some resemblance to cocaine, so do a lot of things. Sugar. Flour. I mean, c'mon.
If you have any experience with cocaine, you know powdered milk is nothing like it.
So, something is off about this story.
"That KK glaze is some hard-ass addictive shit!"
How well I remember. I could never eat just one Krispy Kreme doughnut. I always had to eat two. And they sat on my stomach like lead weights thereafter. Thank goodness I don't do that anymore.
They may have, perhaps inadvertently, saved him from ingesting doped dope, which has been a problem for vapers.
Kamala Harris would make sure this guy is put away and stays away.
He plead guilty. Must have thought he bought cocaine and was as surprised as anyone to find out he had been bamboozled.
Drug warriors are barbarians.
Rather than spend months or even years in jail while awaiting a trial, people who can’t afford to pay bail often end up reluctantly pleading guilty to crimes they did not commit.
That's not how it works - they'd still be in jail anyway.
They plead guilty because the barbarians threaten them with increased punishment if they exert their constitutional rights to a trial and lose, often accompanied by false statements about witnesses or in this case false statements about his "substance". But the Whappo can't be honest about something like that...or anything else, come to think about it.
When you travel through a foreign country you lose the rights that you have in the American legal system. This is the sort of thing that if it was rephrased and put on an exam everybody would get it correct, but not very many folks internalize it when traveling. If you’re in a country where beating a confession out of someone who has been arrested is commonplace, you will be beaten until you confess.
As to the powdered milk, perhaps Mr. Gregg likes milk in his morning coffee (or perhaps the milk was creamer). Perhaps he advised the arresting officer that it was creamer or powdered milk, or whatever it was, but he was beaten until he changed his story. That’s how even the US worked until comparatively recent times. It was called “the third degree” and IIRC it ended in the 1950s.
Why was it in a baggy? Easier to transport than a whole container of powdered milk or creamer. Weight is an issue when you’re camping so you only put what need for your trip in a baggy. Almost 60 years ago I was an Eagle Scout and that’s what I did. (Were ziplock bags even invented back then? I may have used sandwich bags and sealed them with the ties you get in a grocery store.)
"WANTED
Cody Alan Gregg
Wanted: In Kalamazoo County for a probation violation stemming from an original charge of felony distribution/manufacture of an imitation controlled substance."
How could it possibly take months to determine that the substance was not cocaine? Did they have to keep testing to see if it was some other illegal substance? How do you keep someone locked up during that process?
So in the end, the case was dismissed and the guy was released. I consider that to be the system working.
He wouldn’t do jail time under a dem administration. They want to empty out the jails of all the innocent people and fill up the cells with deplorables.
Robert Cook said, "They also seem not to realize how well trained the police are in coercing admissions of guilt from even innocent persons, who, sometimes, stressed beyond their tolerance, will confess simply to minimize as best they can the horror they must endure."
On this point, I agree. There's a great video on youtube, in which a law professor and a cop explain Why You Should Never Talk To The Police. One point the cop makes is that extracting confessions from people is WHAT HE DOES. It's his job. He's done it for many years, and he's really good at it. Most people being questioned by the cops are experiencing it for the first time, and they're nervous (if not scared), and they have no clue. Also, the cop says he isn't trying to railroad innocent people, but if he's questioning you it's because HE THINKS YOU DID IT. So he's not trying to find out if you did it, he's trying to get you to ADMIT it.
Don't. Talk. To. The. Police.
"In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial"
Two months is plenty of time to get statements from the arresting officer and to test the stuff to see if it's actually cocaine.
He should not only be released with the sentence vacated, but the responsible level of government should be forced to pay punitive damages.
And if someone knew it was not coke or was deliberately stonewalling the testing process they should lose immunity and be personally liable, criminally and civilly.
"So in the end, the case was dismissed and the guy was released. I consider that to be the system working."
I wonder how "successful" you would find it if this had been you. The "system working" would have been getting the substance analyzed before putting him in jail to begin with. This is an example of how horrible our "justice" (sic) system is.
"There's a great video on youtube, in which a law professor and a cop explain Why You Should Never Talk To The Police."
I've seen that a couple of times. It's great, and every American should watch it.
As has been said already, and what I tell everyone, never ever ever talk to the police about anything under any circumstances EVER. You have the right to remain silent for a reason. Use it. Law enforcement officers often have presumptive tests to determine the presence of cocaine or other drugs from mysterious unknown powders. I guess the old days of rubbing a bit on your gums to see if you get that tingling numb feeling are long gone.
They could have just done a little 'bump' and found out a lot quicker.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/nneyew/heroin-bag-art-dequincey-jynxie-interview
______________
Joke from Negotiable Instruments of cheque written on Cow
judge asking if the Cow had been crossed
// when marked like this cheque could not be paid to bearer.
___________________
in this case - So was the baggy stamped
Interesting that the homeless man was carrying baby formula. I don't know why but it reminds me of the ending scene in "The Grapes of Wrath" where Rose of Sharron is breastfeeding the starving man....
Sounds like the cops would have arrested them lewd conduct or something.
When did Hunter Biden visit Oklahoma?
So he's out already?
Either way, whether he's a cokehead moron or not, whether the cops snorted the original lot or not, the cops show themselves here for what they usually are-- incompetent and utterly unconcerned about it.
Narr
Agree with Cook and Mark Jones: DNTTP (especially if innocent, more lawsuit bucks that way)
Something like that happened here in Atlanta about thirty years ago, back before Atlanta became Yupville and counter-cultural folk could no longer afford to live intown. There was a guy in my Midtown Atlanta neighborhood whom several of us called "Old Hippie." (One look at him would have told you why.) Cops busted into his place, found a whitish powder, and arrested him on a drug charge, throwing him in the hoosegow and keeping him there without bothering to test the alleged "contraband." They kept Old Hippie behind bars for some ungodly amount of days, even weeks, still dragging their flat feet on testing the whitish powder. Turned out to be soya powder, used for making soy milk! I heard there was one much wealthier Old Hippie after he sued the police department.
Harrisism.
Ken B said... "Harrisism."
You mean Police Harrisment?
Cody, the homeless meth head and crooked, small-time drug dealer with a history of mental illness, tried to pedal away from the cop, then he abandoned the bike and ran. After a while the cop caught him and searched him and found the powder. Oh, and Cody was also carrying a scale.
The powdered milk was for cutting the small amount of coke he ditched while he was running from the cop.
He ran from the cop because he needed a chance to get rid of the coke - which he had on his person so that he could ditch it if necessary, not in a baggie, inside a can, inside a backpack. This is druggie rule number 1. Or 2, I don't remember exactly.
He sells adulterated cocaine to support his meth habit. Priorities people, priorities.
He made a stupid decision to plead guilty because he is a meth head with mental problems and he desperately wanted a hit of meth. That's how that works. They do stupid things to get a fix. Really stupid things, sometimes.
The field test was positive because Cody had cocaine residue all over him when he handled the milk powder.
It took two months (closer to 6 weeks) because the Oklahoma crime lab has a backlog like most state crime labs. It took two months because he initially pled not guilty and could not make bail while he waited on his trial date scheduled for a month after the not guilty plea. He could not make bail because his bail was high because Cody had jumped bail in the recent past.
Did I mention that Cody was carrying a scale?
Nonetheless, I don't see how the Judge accepted the guilty plea before the evidence was confirmed. Which, as it happened, was 3 days after the guilty plea.
I'm sure all the above is correct because I looked into it.
Rabel@5:32
Zing!
It takes about 3-6 months for a white or tan powder to be analyzed, and there isn't usually a field test.
There's no field test because of the danger of fentanyl - a few grains of it can kill a person, and police officers have been known to OD based just on brushing against powder on a suspect's clothing.
The lab tests take longer because some labs are extremely understaffed and that's how long the backlog is.
For what we expect of it, the American criminal justice system is very, very underfunded.
Rabel, if only more journalists were like you.
L"For what we expect of it, the American criminal justice system is very, very underfunded."
If they cannot immediately identify an unknown substance in small amounts, they should let the person go home. If the substance eventually tests positive for drugs, they can g arrest him. We do have a purported "presumption of innocence."
Blogger tim maguire said...
Why is riding without lights cause to search his backpack?
Because that is the nightmare America has become. I understand that people worry about the effect hard drugs have on society, or the damage caused by organized crime. I can empathize when government wants a war on drugs or a RICO law to curb these activities.
And I am always a little surprised when people look at a case like this and ask, “How did we get here?”
Really? Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to a 16 year imd boy. These cases are always the end result. .
Post a Comment