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Thursday, July 17, 2008

Police Report on the Pot Bust

posted by on July 17 at 15:42 PM

I just got a hold of the police report for Tuesday’s University District pot search, where police seized hundreds of patients’ medical records.

At about 3:30 p.m., police entered an office on the Ave, claiming they were responding to the smell of marijuana. According to Martin Martinez, who runs the office, police—apparently looking for a pot garden—removed a wall, seized some dried pot, a computer, and took hundreds of patients’ medical records on file at the office for a medical-marijuana ID card registry.

Here’s the police report. Click the image for a larger version.

mj_search_report_small1.jpg

mj_search_report_small2.jpg

This highly redacted report makes a brief mention that, prior to obtaining a warrant, officers saw parts of the marijuana plant that are not ordinarily smoked. Without the full report, one can only speculate whether officers believed the “leaves and stems” indicated marijuana was growing (which would be legal for Martinez, an authorized patient under state law), but it should also be mentioned that the typically un-smoked parts of the plant may have been present because he didn’t smoke them. Martinez says the storefront was not used to grow or dispense marijuana. No plants were found in the search. “It’s crazy,” says Douglas Hiatt, Martinez’s attorney. “There’s obviously no legal reasoning whatsoever.”

So far, law enforcement officials have been mum on the raid, but yesterday King County prosecutor’s office spokesman Dan Donahoe says police were responding to a complaint about the smell of marijuana coming from the office. However, prosecutors still haven’t explained whether they believe Martinez was violating the medical-marijuana law, or why they supported a warrant to seize medical records.

The county has not yet made public the warrant, the affidavit of probable cause, or the list of items seized. Stay tuned.

RSS icon Comments

1

It's fitting that our Kindergarten Kops redact with Crayolas.

Posted by DOUG. | July 17, 2008 3:58 PM
2

Why were they doing this instead of cracking down on jaywalkers and people who poo on our parking strips - both higher priorities for the SPD by law?

Posted by Will in Seattle | July 17, 2008 4:17 PM
3

oops - meant people whose dogs ...

Posted by Will in Seattle | July 17, 2008 4:20 PM
4

This is why you should never invite the police inside.
Someone working in any reasonable area near medical marijuana should definitely take a few classes on their rights.

Posted by chicago | July 17, 2008 4:28 PM
5

Redacted? Fuck that, my taxes paid for it, I want to read it!

Posted by Anon | July 17, 2008 4:48 PM
6

Hey reporters-- has anybody asked the cops who is allowed to view the medical records and what security has been placed on them?

We just had a public scandal about feds snooping in passport files of celebrities, right? Can anybody down at the station just dive into these records and read up? If somebody wants to read them, is there a formal review process as to whether they are allowed? How many people have looked at them so far?

Posted by eclexia | July 17, 2008 5:52 PM
7

Get an un-redacted copy of that report from the lawyer of the defendant, Dominic. They can't redact and it seems that lawyer would be willing to help you out.

That's bullshit they're redacting a report for a highly-publicized event.

Posted by Sam | July 17, 2008 8:40 PM
8

@7) I got it before the attorney.

Posted by Dominic Holden | July 17, 2008 9:32 PM

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