Two Examples of How Not to Talk to Police About Weed
With Marijuana laws in change not only from state to state these days, but even from city to city and county to county, it is more crucial than ever to know your rights should you ever get pulled over by any type of law enforcement. More frequent than not, the best influence is to keep your record – and your car – clean as can be, and if you do get pulled over, keep your mouth shut and give as little information as possible. Here we give two recent examples of exactly how not to behave with the law when it comes to cars and marijuana.
Our first story comes out of one of the least marijuana-friendly states in the nation, Missouri. Specifically, Springfield, MO where a 25-year old man named David Farley apparently never got the “shut your mouth when talking to the cops” memo.It was on December 18th that Farley says he set up a routine meeting to buy some low grade pot at the local “Kum & Go” convenience store on Division Street. According to Farley, when the suspected weed dealer got out of his car at the store, he revealed a knife and robbed Farley for the $95 he had planned to spend on the marijuana.
This knowledge is know not by some random emotional Facebook post or Tweet, but by the official police report given after Farley called the cops to report the robbery. Thats right, the genius called the law to report he got robbed on an illegal pot deal. answering to his call, the cops agreed to meet Farley close by, but he apparently was hiding from them at first, and went back and forth with his story several times while giving his side of the story to the officers. One part of his account that was see through however was that he already had some illegal weed, but that he was just trying to fill up his stash that night. That’s what he told the police before pulling out his bag of pot for all to see.
Way past probable cause at this point, and seemingly not bothered by the fact that there is an alleged knife-wielding marijuana dealer on the loose, the cops searched Farley’s car and found a grinder full of weed and two pipes in the vehicle.So guess what? The Springfield police made a marijuana-related arrest that night – with info form the same nimrod informant handcuffed in the back of the police car. Meanwhile, about 800 miles to the northeast in Cleveland, Ohio, an unnamed 24-year old driver was already learning the hard way about dealing with the cops when marijuana is in your vehicle.
Just before 11pm on December 13th, Cleveland police saw a white Chevy Impala cruising past with no front license plate. When they followed the car to pursue the driver, he in panic changed lanes without using his turn signal.When they pulled the car over, the driver immediately came clean. The car belonged to his grandfather, he said. The license plate just fell off the other day, he said. The whole time the driver was talking, the officer was focused on the half-burnt blunt roach sitting in plain view in the middle of the vehicle . When confronted, the bigmouth confessed to smoking it “earlier in the day”, apparently creating that fabricated time frame might buy him some compassion from law enforcement. Wrong.
The cop asked if there was anything else in the car that should be brought to his attention, and again the bigmouth lied and said that was it. Then, as thanks for his assistance, he was pulled from his car and sat on the curb while the cops searched very inch of the vehicle.He tried to admit to a grinder in the center console that he suddenly recalled being there, but the cops had already found it (stuffed with pot), alongside a piece of crumbled blunt wrap packaging stuffed with a dozen more incriminating evidence.Like his soulmate from Missouri, the dude in Cleveland was arrested on charges of marijuana and paraphernalia possession, in addition to failing to use a turn signal and driving with no front license plate. Honestly, there is no telling what may have happened to either suspect had they observed their right to remain silent, but there is no doubt that every word they did say was absolutely used against them.
