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Monday, February 11, 2013

POT Undercover Cops Coerce Reluctant Man into Selling Joint for $5

Posted by Dominic Holden on Mon, Feb 11, 2013 at 2:32 PM

A man is being charged with a felony for selling $5 worth of marijuana to undercover officers, King County Superior Court records show, even though he never offered to sell any pot in the first place. Only after being lured with cash did the defendant agree to sell a joint.

According to records filed in January by the King County Prosecuting Attorney's office, the incident began when two King County Sheriff's deputies—Officer Escobar and Officer Schwab—boarded a Metro line last July in Tukwila for "a covert bus ride." A 51-year-old black man who will remain nameless had also boarded the bus and struck up a "casual conversation" with one of the officers. That officer spontaneously brought up the subject of pot: "Detective Schwab told [the man] he was looking for marijuana." According the the report, the man asked how much marijuana the undercover officer wanted (it must be noted that this part of the report seems odd, because, as you will see, the man shows no interest in selling marijuana nor has marijuana packaged for sale). After Detective Schwab said he wanted to buy $20 worth of pot, the man "told Detective Schwab that he only had a joint." But the man did not offer to sell the joint, rather, he "offered to share it with Detective Schwab at the next bus stop," the report continues. "Detective Schwab declined to smoke with him but offered to purchase the marijuana cigarette from him to smoke later."

Finally, the man "agreed" to sell his joint for $5, the report explains, and officers arrested him. He reportedly told them that he "does not sell drugs and was only going to use the money to get to Tacoma."

I followed up today by calling the sheriff's and prosecutor's offices to ask about this case—did this advance public safety, was it a prudent and ethical use of resources? After all, here was a man who, despite a record for several low-level thefts in his lifetime, didn't bring up the subject of marijuana and didn't try to sell any.

"We don't necessarily know that he [was not trying to sell marijuana]," King County Sheriff's Department sergeant Cindi West told me. "It's kind of semantics here," she added, saying that when the suspect asked how much marijuana the officers wanted that it potentially indicated he was trying to sell drugs on the bus. "When it comes to Metro safety, smoking in a bus or near a bus, the deputies enforce that. In the big of scheme of things, it is not murder or robbery, but for people riding, day in day out, out these are the things that keep people safe on the bus." Then I asked how paying undercover cops to badger this man to sell his joint made buses safer—and something weird happened.

The line went dead.

Just as I reached Sergeant West again by phone at 1:15 p.m., an e-mail arrived from the prosecutor's office. "The charge will be dismissed," wrote prosecutor's office spokesman Dan Donohoe.

"Thank you for bringing this to our attention," Donohoe said when I called him. "We had a short discussion here and decided that the charge would be dismissed and that will likely happen this afternoon." He said that charging this as a felony was inconsistent with Initiative 502, which legalized marijuana last fall.

What's interesting, though, is that this case was already brought to the prosecutors' attention—they were the ones who filed a felony charge last month. What was brought to their attention is that the media cares about this. Not just because marijuana is legal. I-502 doesn't legalize person-to-person delivery of marijuana until regulations are in place this December, so that point is legally moot. The problem with this case is it shows law enforcement creating a crime where one didn't exist, manipulating a situation and apparently entrapping someone to turn a low-level possession offense into a serious felony. Under duress, many people could be pressured into selling a tiny amount of marijuana for $5. I don't want to pat myself on the back here—any reporter could have done this—but this case withered because it couldn't withstand public scrutiny.

That King County is using its police resources this way—and that the prosecutor would dignify it by charging this as though it's a legitimate case—is indefensible. When King County comes bleating to voters every couple of years about how it needs more money for cops and prosecutors, they need to convince us they use resources prudently. And this was a wasteful abuse of law enforcement resources.

Given that the charges are being dropped, I asked Sergeant West about this these tactics. "With the passage of I-502," she explained, "things have changed. You will see and that we will be doing different types of enforcement."

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hi my name is beverly, my son was arrested a few days after his 18th birthday for selling $5.00 worth of weed to a undercover cop in 2008. the courts gave him drug diversion, probation and one other thing. ok we were at every court hearing i only missed one and as far as i know my son said that they didn't give him another court date. anyway 2wks. ago they got him in front of my apartment and he asked them why was he being arrest they said that he missed a court date. so they took him back to jail. it was on a friday so of course he had to wait until tuesday 4 days inside which was hell for him because he had never been in jail for those many days. now since 2008 he has been in any kind of trouble. they wouldn't give him drug diversion again, so they gave him 5yrs. probation, work projected in which they took that off because he is disable, but the slapped something else on him which was home monitor which meant that he would have to have a phone installed in the home. or he could just turned himself in on the 16th of june to go to jail for 45 days and my son is scared to death, but he said mom i'm going to take jail and from listening to other people say man jail they have gang member and u have to pick a side or u wanted be protected and get jumped. he said that he would rather kill himself because he don't know what to do. mind my son is not a criminal they are treating him like charles manson, or like he skipped town and ran. i don't understand what is going on i am a mother that is at her wit's end can anybody tell me what to do plz.

Posted by liiingo on May 6, 2013 at 2:06 PM

Thank you Dominic, for this article and activism and for all you have done over the years.

Posted by Ed Byrnes on February 12, 2013 at 11:50 PM

According to Paul Craig Roberts, a former editor of the Wall Street Journal and former assistant secretary to the treasury under Ronald Reagan, "Police in the US now rival criminals, and exceed terrorists as the greatest threat to the American public."

Posted by malcolmkyle on February 12, 2013 at 1:11 PM

Damn right they dropped the charges. 502 exists to protect exactly this 51 year-old black man from exactly this sort of entrapment bullshit.

Posted by Fistique on February 12, 2013 at 6:45 AM

Who's gonna keep us safe from narcs on the bus?

Posted by Cynic Romantic on February 12, 2013 at 6:11 AM

The real issue is that people in Seattle can get a joint for five bucks!

Posted by Sandiai on February 11, 2013 at 9:11 PM

It starts.

Posted by disintegrator

on February 11, 2013 at 8:31 PM

The laughable part is it took TWO cops to do this. So take your outrage on what a waste of resources this was and double it.

But then, three cop cars regularly show up to deal with ANYTHING - even the most docile of drunken bums. If Seattle is so short on resources, how about sending just two cops deal with such trivialities, instead of six?

Posted by Free Lunch on February 11, 2013 at 8:20 PM

I believe the cops involved in this case should be suspended for wasting county resources and lying to the public!

Posted by jaden on February 11, 2013 at 7:51 PM

These sheriffs should be fired for wasting taxpayer $$$.This is just a create work action for them & the courts & judges.

Posted by Peter3Dogs on February 11, 2013 at 7:49 PM

I'm not a lawyer, but I don't understand how half of what cops do isn't entrapment, from a lot of the recent terrorism prosecutions to the case of this guy and his joint on the bus. There's enough crime in this country, from Islamic terrorism on down, without the police creating more.

Posted by Prettybetsy on February 11, 2013 at 7:45 PM

I think that passing a joint is distribution, which is a felony in Washington, whether it's likely to be prosecuted or not.

Most often, I'd expect such a charge to be used as "an important tool for law enforcement agents" in order to pressure someone into pleading guilty to something else. That's the way we do it in the US, right? Threaten someone with the crazy prosecutions we tell the public never really happen in order to avoid having to convince a jury of guilt for some lesser accusation?

Posted by Phil M

on February 11, 2013 at 5:17 PM

This is a rather sad commentary on police waste of my tax dollars, and a sad commentary on people striking up conversations of buses. Now I must look at the other riders and when they ask if I want to buy some Pot I must assume they are police.

Posted by Sargon Bighorn on February 11, 2013 at 5:07 PM

This is racist to the core, and an example of how two University of Washington studies showed that our criminal justice system is plagued by systemic racial bias top to bottom. This type of thing happens almost exclusively to black dudes in the big city, and almost never to white dudes in the suburbs or rural areas. All things equal, blacks are more likely to be engaged (stopped, searched, targeted by undercover operations), more likely to be charged in any given circumstance, if charged, more likely to be tried, if tried, more likely to be convicted, if convicted, more likely to receive a longer sentence. It the substantial cause of racial disparity in our prisons and a disgrace. And it is not unique to Seattle, It happens everywhere.

Posted by sarge on February 11, 2013 at 5:04 PM

Well written and illuminating Dominic. These deputies are a disgrace.

Posted by Phoebe in Wallingford on February 11, 2013 at 4:55 PM

Racking up arrest stats on garbage like this is way easier and safer than fighting actual crime, especially when it entitles the local cop shop to matching funds and grants from Uncle Sam.

Even better is going after cancer patients for possession, almost zero chance they'll have the strength to fight back.

Posted by Boring Dad is Boring on February 11, 2013 at 4:39 PM

@16 if they charged hiim with a felony, I am pretty sure he went to jail. Probably had to bail out too.

Posted by wisepunk on February 11, 2013 at 4:32 PM

@11,
If the cops had entrapped that guy into selling them a can of beer, I'm pretty sure the anger here would still be the same.

The guy wasn't trying to sell drugs, the cops went out of their way to ask him to sell drugs.

Yeah, still illegal, but a totally dick move on the cops' part.

Posted by Urgutha Forka on February 11, 2013 at 4:25 PM

@14 heh. Random question: do you like sour beer? Have you tried Russian River's sour styles? I've heard they're going to stop distributing to WA, so maybe it's a moot question.

Posted by minderbender on February 11, 2013 at 3:57 PM

@9 sounds like a real winner. Expect him to be riding buses for a long time.

Posted by Pass the blunt on the left hand side on February 11, 2013 at 3:53 PM

I agree that the charges probably shouldn't have been filed, but @2 & 4, where does it say that this guy went to jail on this charge? I'm not defending the charge, but just because someone was charged doesn't mean that they went to jail.

Posted by Gidge on February 11, 2013 at 3:52 PM

Undercover cops are street thugs.

Posted by DOUG.

on February 11, 2013 at 3:51 PM

@12, I would like to beat him to death with a tire iron, if that answers your question.

Posted by Fnarf

on February 11, 2013 at 3:37 PM

Nice work Dominic. Not only for this, but for everything related to this issue. You are a real journalist, in the best sense of the word. Thanks.

Posted by Ross on February 11, 2013 at 3:33 PM

Fnarf, you can die happy, Will in Seattle has endorsed your comment. Or has there been a rapprochement? Or was the animosity always one-way?

Posted by minderbender on February 11, 2013 at 3:19 PM

You can't sell booze to strangers on buses, why should pot be different?

Posted by Equity sucks! on February 11, 2013 at 3:15 PM

John, are you planning to smoke Rand's shirt?

Posted by Ballard Pimp on February 11, 2013 at 3:13 PM

Shit, the other day I was on the 7, and it started totez reeking of weed, and I start covertly peeking around, and then realize it's the dude in the seat across the aisle, and he's just rolling up a blunt on the bus. Then he hops out his seat and, holding the still unrolled joint aloft, starts searching his seat and the floor beneath it. He sees me watching and just exclaims, "I lost my ball of hash!"

Posted by More, I Say! on February 11, 2013 at 3:13 PM

Meanwhile...

During testimony recorded by the Louisville Courier-Journal on Monday, [Rand] Paul claimed to be wearing a "hemp shirt" that he had been forced to buy in Canada due to an ongoing prohibition on the plant. He was one of several lawmakers to testify.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/11…

Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe

on February 11, 2013 at 3:08 PM

@2 for the win. If we don't keep blacks in prison, who will provide our indentured servitude labor?

@6 true dat.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on February 11, 2013 at 2:59 PM

And they wonder why people hate the police?

Posted by Pope Peabrain on February 11, 2013 at 2:56 PM

@3) Technically, convicting a person of drug delivery doesn't require a financial transaction under state law. But I think money is typically necessary to get the charges to stick, showing that an officer's cash ended up in the defendant's hands and that it was a consensual, deliberate delivery.

Posted by Dominic Holden on February 11, 2013 at 2:55 PM

This should be bookmarked to every sloggers smart phone, for when that one person goes on about how "people don't go to jail for pot". 2 officers time, and the time of the prosecutors office, all spent on $5 worth of pot. They get to keep their jobs, another black guy gets to go to jail, real criminals have 2 less cops to worry about for the day, and we all get to pay for it. Except some of us are finally raising out hands and calling "bullshit"! Good work, Dom.

Posted by wisepunk on February 11, 2013 at 2:53 PM

What's interesting here is, giving a joint to someone is completely 100% legal. It's not until you take that five bucks (at the recipient's insistence, in this case) that you're committing a felony.

Escobar and Schwab, we pay you to fight crimes, not generate them. Do you really think the public wants, or respects, this kind of "policing?"

Posted by Eric Arrr on February 11, 2013 at 2:50 PM

"The charges will be dismissed", but the mission was accomplished: harassing and jailing a man who was bothering nobody, for no reason other than to keep the message out to South County black people to keep moving, we're watching you, we'll pull you off the streets however many hundreds of times we feel like, because you are not a part of this community. It's a message of control. If you are black you can expect to have conversations like this every day of your life, whether you have pot on you or not.

Posted by Fnarf

on February 11, 2013 at 2:48 PM