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War On Okra (Mistaking okra plants for marijuana leads to internal affairs investigation)
Houston Chronicle ^ | Oct. 2, 2002 | ROBERT CROWE

Posted on 10/10/2002 1:43:12 PM PDT by MrLeRoy

After mistaking a backyard patch of okra for homegrown marijuana, the La Porte Police Department has found itself in the middle of an internal affairs investigation into whether an officer stole personal property during the mistaken drug raid.

The officers on Aug. 14 served a warrant at the home of 88-year-old Irene Gilliam Hensley, in the 200 block of North Nugent Street. Officers believed her grandson, Charles Gilliam, who also lives there, was growing pot in a backyard shed and garden.

The department received a warrant after an officer -- following a tip from a family member of Gilliam's -- said he saw marijuana plants growing in the backyard after he peeked over Hensley's fence.

While the officers seized a pipe, catalogs and High Times magazines, they found no marijuana. The plants the officer identified in the backyard turned out to be okra in Hensley's garden.

[...]

Hensley said the whole situation would not have happened had her family not been feuding. It was Gilliam's 15-year-old cousin, Clinton Ryan Tully, who stated for the search warrant that Gilliam may be growing marijuana in a backyard shed.

Just days before the arrest, Gilliam and his aunt, Peggy Tellez, had been arguing. Tellez is Tully's grandmother.

While she alleges he threatened her and told her "to watch her back," Gilliam alleges she told him she would "find a way to get him out of the house."

"I did not tip the police department off (about the marijuana), but he threatened me," she said of the incident at Hensley's house a few days before the arrest.

Gilliam thinks Tellez and Tully cooked up the story about the marijuana to get him out of his grandmother's house.

The warrant specifically stated the officers seeking the warrant had experience identifying marijuana plants.

Reff said he was not embarrassed about the snafu his officers made when misidentifying the plants.

"I wouldn't say it's embarrassing, but I was surprised," he said.

(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: hereholdmuhbong; marijuana; pot; wod; wodlist
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Comment #21 Removed by Moderator

To: MrLeRoy

There's quite a difference.
22 posted on 10/10/2002 3:22:56 PM PDT by perfect stranger
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To: EggsAckley
QUESTION: What is the best way to serve okra?

ANSWER: To someone else.

No, that would be fried.

23 posted on 10/10/2002 3:26:06 PM PDT by carenot
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To: HoustonCurmudgeon; COB1
Texas okra ping!

You mean okry, I am sure.

24 posted on 10/10/2002 3:29:29 PM PDT by carenot
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To: MrLeRoy
The Okra Strut
25 posted on 10/10/2002 4:23:15 PM PDT by Moose4
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To: carenot
No, that would be fried.

Or with black eyed peas.

ol' hoghead

26 posted on 10/10/2002 4:24:47 PM PDT by ol' hoghead
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To: HoustonCurmudgeon
Back when I had a garden, I would snack on okra right off the plant as I tended the garden. Never once accidently smoked it.

---

Flyer

27 posted on 10/10/2002 4:36:54 PM PDT by Flyer
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To: carenot; HoustonCurmudgeon
"You mean okry, I am sure."

Heck, care, Texans can't even say, "okr..A"!

28 posted on 10/10/2002 8:31:01 PM PDT by COB1
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To: Flyer
"Never once accidently smoked it."

Probably puffed on the tomato plants but didn't inhale.

29 posted on 10/10/2002 8:32:48 PM PDT by COB1
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To: COB1; Flyer
I think the sentence for these 'agriculturally challenged' folks should be to harvest okra, in shorts and a cut off tank top, barefoot, at noon, with a dull knife. Off of fully grown row-spanning plants that're extra leafy! Then, the have to eat the okra....boiled! (cackle!)
30 posted on 10/10/2002 8:36:33 PM PDT by Black Agnes
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To: wardaddy; Cleburne; stand watie; stainlessbanner; billbears
Okra ping!
31 posted on 10/10/2002 8:37:36 PM PDT by Black Agnes
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To: Black Agnes
funny! this is your brain on okra....
32 posted on 10/10/2002 8:47:35 PM PDT by stainlessbanner
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To: Black Agnes
HAHAHA!

Let 'em start early in the morning when the dew is still on those extra leafy plants and work right through the noon day sun!
They'd run if they even saw another okry plant!

33 posted on 10/10/2002 9:24:26 PM PDT by COB1
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To: COB1
Yup. Bonus points for any and all fire ant bites they get too! *cackle*.
34 posted on 10/10/2002 9:34:18 PM PDT by Black Agnes
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To: COB1
Augh, I'm itching just thinking about it. Augh Augh Augh.
35 posted on 10/10/2002 9:35:12 PM PDT by Black Agnes
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To: Flyer
Back when I had a garden, I would snack on okra right off the plant as I tended the garden. Never once accidently smoked it.

Me neither. Couldn't keep it lit.

36 posted on 10/11/2002 5:25:13 AM PDT by strela
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To: bert
Okra isn't illegal, but it should be.

"I'm so hungry I could eat Okra!" Unknown Texan as the seige of Goliad.

:)

37 posted on 10/11/2002 5:33:30 AM PDT by LibKill
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To: Oberon
"I'll say it for you then, chief. It's embarrassing."

These days nothing is embarrassing. That would be true for anyone who is empty-headed.
38 posted on 10/11/2002 5:34:56 AM PDT by Spirited
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To: Black Agnes
Man, now I miss my grandma's okra. I need to go back home one weekend to get a mess. What kind of idiot mistakes an okra plant for a pot plant?
39 posted on 10/11/2002 5:38:05 AM PDT by billbears
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To: billbears
What kind of idiot mistakes an okra plant for a pot plant?

You go into drug enforcement if you're too stupid to do anything worthwhile.

40 posted on 10/11/2002 6:16:56 AM PDT by MrLeRoy
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