Posted on 01/07/2013 1:48:37 AM PST by Slings and Arrows
VERNAL — A man says Vernal police disrupted an intimate moment of mourning with his deceased wife of 58 years when they searched his house for her prescription medication without a warrant within minutes of her death.
-snip-
Ben D. Mahaffey, 80, said he was distraught and trying to make sure his wife's body would be taken to the funeral home with dignity, when he says officers insisted he help them look for the drugs.
"I was holding her hand saying goodbye when all the intrusion happened," he told the Deseret News.
-snip-
Mahaffey said he was treated as if he were going to sell the painkillers, which included OxyContin, oxycodone and morphine, on the street.
"I had no interest in the drugs," he said. "I'm no addict."
Mahaffey filed a federal lawsuit Thursday, alleging police violated his Fourth and 14th amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure and for equal protection under the law, respectively.
The officers' actions "at the deeply intimate setting, and during a highly distressing time, added a great amount of pain and distress to any already difficult situation," the lawsuit states.
-snip-
Following the incident, Mahaffey asked Vernal city officials and police administrators why officers would search his home without a warrant. He said he was told the Utah Controlled Substances Act provides authority for the search.
According to the lawsuit, Mahaffey also said city manager Ken Bassett dismissed his concerns, saying he was "overly sensitive" and that police were just trying to protect the public from illegal use of prescription drugs.
-snip-
Fackrell said there's nothing in the controlled substances act that allows police to enter a home and search for prescription drugs without a warrant.
He said it's apparently common practice for Vernal police when someone dies, but that it's selectively applied.
(Excerpt) Read more at deseretnews.com ...
Just because someone is 80 years old, doesn't mean they are automatically above suspicion at any death scene, family or not.Probably especially not family.
Your #1-#7 is immediately invalidated because it is just your own ignorant opinion of a single “report”, unrelated to any actual factual knowledge regarding this particular case.
In a real black and white world, you would be instantly indicted for falsely attempting to portray your opinions as facts.
Please tell me you are a registered Democrat voter!
Every year, there is a drug take-back day in October. We gathered up all of our narcotics and some expired drugs and took them to the local police department. The officer on duty assured us they would all be destroyed.
I don’t like throwing drugs into the toilet, because there is a pollution problem with pharmaceuticals (even with water treatment). They can be detected in waterways at levels that may be hazardous to fish health, and with bioaccumulation, to the health of anything that consumes those fish. As much as possible, I want the drugs destroyed so they don’t harm wildlife. Also, so addicts don’t get them.
“No. The constitution is the rules for the Federal Government. Not the states.”
Amendment XIV (1868) Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
I see that my reply was far from timely.
Sorry. I been sick.
Just because someone is 80 years old, doesn’t mean they are automatically above suspicion at any death scene, family or not.Probably especially not family.
You might consider actually reading the article in question before making assumptions, she DIED OF NATURAL CAUSES, with Nurses at her side, there is NO SUSPICION INVOLVED. Now please tell us all what “right” the thugs had in forcing their way into this mans home at gunpoint?? We also learned in the OJ trial in Vegas that by definition they are also Guilty of FELONY KIDNAPPING. Unless the thugs can demonstrate “Reasonable Suspicion” or a “warrant” issued beforehand with “sworn statements” demonstrating “probable cause” they are as guilty as SIN. You also might want to check the inside label on floorsheim shoe polish, it states rather clearly that LICKING SHOE POLISH CAUSES MORAL BANKRUPTCY AND BRAIN DAMAGE.
He's right:
Utah Controlled Substances Act - http://www.dopl.utah.gov/laws/58-37.pdf
Ignorance of the law is no excuse...unless you’re a cop.
No “nurses” were present. The Hospice nurse arrived later, along with the cops.
Nowhere in the article does it say the cops forced “their way into this man’s home at gunpoint”.
That’s just one example of your hyperbolic twisting of the supposed known facts reported to date.
Stop doing that.
It’s pretty simple, I don’t try to rationalize or make excuses for CRIMINAL ACTS it just is, but why do you insist on defending the morally bankrupt, ethically corrupt, Criminal Acts of the Police?? We know they ILLEGALLY searched his home, they admitted it, we Know they STOLE DRUGS from the House, they admitted it, we Know they DID NOT HAVE A WARRANT, they admitted it. there was No mention of Reasonable suspicion which even if there was, it is not enough to SEARCH A PRIVATE RESIDENCE in Every State of the Union, that requires a Judges Signature on a REAL SEARCH WARRANT. So I ask again Why do you blindly defend these criminal acts??
We are all really very impressed by your persuasive ...stawman/stupid troll/useless idiot additions to this thread.
Really!
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