Posted on 07/11/2008 11:28:12 AM PDT by weegee
LAKE WORTH – The case against a teenager accused of delivering drug-tainted cookies to police crumbled Thursday after scientific tests revealed no traces of narcotics. Christian Phillips, 18, became a cookie monster and the butt of jokes around the globe following his arrest Tuesday after he left a basket of treats at Lake Worth police headquarters. Authorities said then that "field tests" they conducted on the cookies showed traces of marijuana and LSD. But lab tests performed by the Tarrant County medical examiner's office were negative for drugs, and Mr. Phillips – who had been charged with tampering with a consumer product – was released from jail shortly after 5 p.m. Thursday. The felony charge was dropped. Mr. Phillips, of Watauga, was facing up to 20 years in prison and fine of $10,000 if he had been convicted.
...
"These are the facts of the case, and if the lab says it ain't dope, that's what I'm going to go with," Lake Worth Police Chief Brett McGuire said.
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"He got convicted before he got a chance," Mr. Davis said. "He got buried in the media. He has been derailed, and we need to get him back on course." Community service Mr. Phillips was delivering cookies as part of his 80-hour court-supervised community service following his arrest last year on charges of assaulting a police officer. That charge was reduced to simple assault, a misdemeanor, and Mr. Phillips was serving court-appointed community service with Mothers Against Drunk Driving when he delivered the cookies. That case was to have been dismissed on Wednesday if Mr. Phillips successfully completed his community service hours. He was about 10 hours away, his attorney said. On June 27, Mr. Phillips was videotaped delivering the snacks to Watauga police...
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
Followup PING
Fire! Ready! Aim!
Who baked the cookies?
/johnny
54 hours in jail.
And he still needs to “complete” his 10 hours of community service.
And the police are still “of the mind” that he was guilty. Their noses and field equipment shall not be challenged, citizen. The quotes are there in this and another article that they are still “sure” of what the story is.
Or maybe just an apology?
/johnny
No good deed shall go unpunished.
The kid needs to sue for false imprisonment. No crime was committed and he was deprived of his liberty without cause.
Sure the taxpayers will be the ones taking the hit, but if they are burned badly enough, maybe they will start holding these idiots to a the higher standard they should be already holding themselves.
Assuming these "field tests" weren't a complete invention of "the authorities", I'd like to know exactly what these fields tests are, the frequency with which they produce incorrect positives, the number of people arrested because of these field tests, etc.
Of course, they'll never provide any of that. The cops will just drop it, act like it never happened and arrest the next chooch on the basis of their "field tests", which is probably just their belief that somebody looks guilty of something.
And he still needs to “complete” his 10 hours of community service.
Sounds like he served his time.
Chief McGuire said a preliminary field test conducted on the chocolate chip cookies by police detected LSD. A canine was brought in and indicated drugs were inside Mr. Phillips' car.
When he was arrested, Mr. Phillips was carrying a list of 25 police agencies in Dallas and Tarrant counties. Thirteen of the names had been checked off. Officers in some of the jurisdictions, including Fort Worth and Watauga, ate the cookies and reported no ill effects.
Lake Worth sent the cookies to the medical examiner's officer for a more thorough review. Officials there conducted more stringent chemical tests and a microscopic examination as well as tests involving gas chromatography and mass spectrometry.
Blue Mound police also sent cookie samples to the ME's office and those, too, came back negative for drugs.
But Blue Mound police Lt. Thomas Cain said Thursday that while he respects and accepts the medical examiner's report, he is sure he smelled dope on the home-baked Toll House treats.
"They did have a pungent, rancid odor," Lt. Cain said. "They did have the odor of marijuana. I got within two feet of it; I could smell it."
Blue Mound officers also conducted their own field test that came back positive for marijuana.
"How do you explain it? I don't know," Lt. Cain said.
Be very careful if you get involved with the Blue Mound Police Dept. If this is representative of their field testing for drugs, then every case they have been involved in needs to have a thorough going over.
They had an officer on CNN or something this morning stumbling over why the field test was positive but not the lab test. He didn’t sell me at all and then he tried to say that someone down the line might have come into contact with marijuana or something in the past. I heard that and went hmmm, doesn’t just about every dollar bill out there have some type of residue possibly then?
Libertarian ping! To be added or removed freepmail me or post a message here.
That case was to have been dismissed on Wednesday if Mr. Phillips successfully completed his community service hours. He was about 10 hours away, his attorney said.
sure doesn’t give me confidence in the ability of these field ‘tests’...
We will see. I will be asking the questions, though. It is my fair city, after all.
/johnny
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