Bird-Watcher Wrongly Arrested for Possession of Pot Had Sage in Backpack

Palm Beach Post ^ | SUSANNAH BRYAN

[freedumb2003]

Well, we haven’t had a raucous WOD thread in quite some time.

There are many herbs that appear to be drugs — and the lady should NOT have to stop carrying sage if she finds it enhances her bird-watching activities.

[hinckley buzzard]

Stupid deppity dawgs like this make all LEO's look bad. Cops need to police themselves better.

[freebilly]

Brown says she has learned her lesson. She leaves the sage at home these days.

Wrong lesson to learn in a free country....

[DemforBush]

I’m siding with the bird-watcher on this one.

[SeeSharp]

...if we allow people to sue prosecutors for mistakes they would be afraid to do their jobs

Or maybe they would be more careful in how they do their jobs.

[razorback-bert]

Two ozs is a felony, wow.

[mnehring]

Wow, I didn’t realize that sage will trip up field kits.

[Fester Chugabrew]

"Looking back now at this specific police report, it would have been the better practice to test the evidence before filing a formal charge."

Ya think?

[Morpheus2009]

No I think she should bring the sage with her. Excuse my ignorance, but how does Sage resemble marijuana?

[dog breath]

Sage doesn’t smell or look like pot, those are some dumb old boys in that department. I think even Barney Fife would of figured that one out or at least Andy.

[dog breath]

Sage doesn’t smell or look like pot, those are some dumb old boys in that department. I think even Barney Fife would of figured that one out or at least Andy.

[nickcarraway]

How couldn’t you? What did she do wrong?

[PENANCE]

"They said if we allow people to sue prosecutors for mistakes they would be afraid to do their jobs,"

How the F%$#! is this different from any other job? We should not only NOT hold public officers to a higher standard -- we should have absolutely ZERO standard, ZERO accountability, and UNLIMITED ability to do whatever the F%$# they want to whoever they want for any reason they want!! In the case of a prosecutor making a mistake, the life of the falsely accused/ prosecuted/ convicted is inevitably royally screwed up. And that's aside from the fact that allowing prosecutors free rein to make "mistakes" without any repercussion makes a mockery of the concept of "innocent until proven guilty".

[Lurker]

Ullman said one apologetic prosecutor called him to say it was "scary" someone could be arrested under such circumstances.

This idiot should be dancing at the end of a rope right now instead of making lame excuses like this.

[NoLibZone]

She should sue the Major County Sheriffs Association Inc,

http://www.mcsheriffs.com/officers.shtml

That’s the only way to fix this.

[Huskrrrr]

I paid a lot of money for sage back in my early college days...but that’s another story.

[DemforBush]

I was wondering the same thing - especially when it comes in a store-bought plastic sleeve labeled “Smudge stick” (in the video at link).

The cops involved here must not have ever seen someone actually smoking dope. If they had, they’d probably know most people generally don’t bundle it with incense and then burn it outdoors in a giant woven bowl. /sarc

[DemforBush]

She did nothing wrong, obviously. I just didn’t feel like making a longer post (bit tired tonight).

[bvw]

Three months later, Raimondi showed up at the Massage Envy in Weston where Brown works and took her away in handcuffs. They arrested me in front of my customers, my boss, my co-workers," Brown said. She later was subjected to a body cavity search, a strip search and an overnight stay in jail.

Even if it had been marijuana there was NO NEED to arrest her, no need to handcuff her, no need for the jailing and the body cavity search. Why? It's not a big crime. Not a violent crime. Serve her to appear in court. This is presumptive criminal process, totally beyond anything the Founders would have tolerated.