Why Do You Think They Call it Dope?

Sep 7, 5:53 PM (ET)

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) - A marijuana dealer telephoned police after armed thieves stole his quarter-pound stash of pot. The 19-year-old Felton man told police that two men, one of them armed with a handgun, robbed him at gunpoint as he sat in his car on Tuesday night.

"It was unique to have people who were dealing drugs calling us when they've been ripped off," police spokesman Zach Friend said.

After the thieves made off with his stash, the dealer telephoned police. When police arrived, the dealer's story became progressively confused.

First he showed officers a medical marijuana card and told them he bought the pot at a medical marijuana dispensary. Then he said he got the pot from a friend. Eventually the dealer admitted he had arranged to sell the marijuana to the men who stole it from him, investigators said.

The Felton dealer wasn't arrested.

"From our standpoint, it's more important to address the fact there are individuals out there who are willing to use a weapon to commit robberies," Friend said.

Sep 6, 5:04 PM (ET)

RUMFORD, Maine (AP) - A man swiped a pot plant from the back of a pickup truck that was being used by an undercover state drug agent, leading to a chase and drug theft charges against a pair of men.

Travis Child of Peru and Jeremy Belskis of Rumford, both 20, were arrested Wednesday afternoon after the pursuit ended at Child and Sons Auto Sales. The arrest was made by two uniformed Rumford officers while the plainclothes agent stood by.

Child told the Sun Journal newspaper in Lewiston that they'd seen the pickup with marijuana plants in the back and that he hopped out of their car and swiped one of the plants at a stop sign. He said he just wanted "to know what it was."

Child only managed to get part of one of the 4-foot-tall plants that had been seized earlier in the day, but the agent wasn't going to let them get away with it, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.

"It was blatant the way they did it. One of them jumped out of the car in plain view and broke off part of the plant," he said.

The pickup gave chase and Child said they were initially fearful that they was being pursued by a drug dealer, not a law enforcement officer.

"It was a bad decision on our part," Child said. "It was stupid." Both of the men were released on cash bail.

Sep 5, 11:24 PM (ET)

BOSTON (AP) - A pair of former Northeastern University freshmen are facing charges after prosecutors said one leaned out his dorm window Sunday and loudly told a woman in the dorm opposite his that he and his roommate were selling pot.

Oops. Two police officers happened to be nearby.

"If you're looking for weed, my roommate Ferrante has some for sale," Michael Emery said out the window, according to the Suffolk district attorney's office. Two plainclothes Boston officers in the building overheard the conversation and went to a second-floor room where they arrested Emery, 18, and Matthew Ferrante, 18, after finding about four ounces of marijuana; drug paraphernalia, including a scale; and several bottles of alcohol, prosecutors said.

The students were arraigned Tuesday on charges including possession of a class D substance with intent to distribute in a school zone, a count that carries a maximum of two years in jail.

They pleaded not guilty, were released on personal recognizance and are due back in court next month. Attorneys for the men did not immediately return calls for comment.

They are no longer students at Northeastern, university spokeswoman Laura Shea said.

Woman Who Registered Dog to Vote is Sentenced

SEATTLE (AP) - A woman who faced up to 90 days in jail for registering her dog to vote has agreed to a deal that could remove the charge from her record. Jane Balogh, 66, won't be prosecuted on the charge of making a false or misleading statement to a public servant if she does 10 hours of community service, pays a $250 fine and avoids violating the law for the next year, District Judge Mariane Spearman said Wednesday.

Balogh registered her Australian shepherd-terrier mix, Duncan M. McDonald, to vote in April 2006 by putting her telephone bill in the dog's name and using that as identification when she mailed the form to election officials. She said she did it to protest a change in the law that she believed made it too easy for noncitizens to vote.

In November she wrote "VOID" across the first ballot sent to the dog and returned it with an image of a paw print on the signature line. An election official called and she admitted what she had done, but the dog still was sent absentee ballots for school bond elections in February and May.

Duncan M. McDonald was removed from the voter roles in July, three weeks after the charge was filed against Balogh, who pleaded not guilty. 65 Year-old Woman Carded, Refused

65 Year-old Woman Carded, Refused

Sep 6, 4:01 PM (ET)

FARMINGTON, Maine (AP) - A 65-year-old woman who went into a Farmington supermarket to buy wine was turned away because she didn't have an ID with her. But Barbara Skapa of Mount Vernon says that won't happen again.

"I'll be bringing my driver's license with me from now on," Skapa said.

She normally carries her license. But with her leg in a cast, Skapa was being driven by a friend when she went into the Hannaford Bros. market last week in and picked up several items, including a few bottles of wine.

The cashier told her it was policy to check for identification, said Skapa, who believes "no one would mistake me for 30 or even 40." Skapa asked if her friend could buy the wine for her, but that was disallowed too because it's considered "third-party" purchasing. Skapa asked to see the manager.

A spokeswoman for the supermarket chain, Rebecca Howes, said Hannaford's new policy is to check IDs of anyone who looks under 45 and wants to buy alcohol. The previous policy was to check for proof of age of those who look younger than 30.

The policy is not unlike those of many other Maine businesses and chains who want to stop minors from illegally buying alcoholic beverages and cigarettes. In 2005, the state Legislature passed a law that requires identification from those who look under 27 years old before they can buy either.

The Big Apple chain's 90 stores in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont require clerks to require identification from anyone, regardless of age, who buys alcohol or tobacco. The strict policy went into effect after two Portland stores sold alcohol to minors in one night.

Earlier this year, some Portland establishments tightened their ID policies following an undercover sting of dozens of bars and convenience stores that led to 20 summonses for selling alcohol to underage customers. One restaurant, the Flatbread Co., told employees to card anyone ordering drinks who looks under 40.

A pilot program called Card ME was launched recently by the state Office of Substance Abuse and Maine's Higher Education Alcohol Prevention Partnership. It gives participating businesses educational guidebooks and material to help employees spot fake IDs.

Finally! A Good News Story!

Sep 5, 9:48 PM (ET)

NORTHGLENN, Colo. (AP) - They could have left the tree completely bare. But some honest shoppers at an unstaffed Dollar Tree store must have decided that honesty was the best policy while searching for bargains on Labor Day.

About 15 shoppers walked through the front doors of a closed Dollar Tree store Monday after a lock on the doors malfunctioned.

They also didn't see, or ignored, a sign on the doors indicating the store was closed for the holiday.

For one: the lights in the store were all on, plus, there was music playing in the background, all making it look like it was business as usual.

Northglenn Police spokesman Ian Lopez says one woman became suspicious when there was no one at the register to ring up her purchase, so she called authorities.

The cash registers were reportedly open and empty, but Lopez says it appears nothing was stolen.

Police were able to contact a manager, who fixed the lock and closed the store. Lopez says the incident showed that people can be "honest and good."

Law Enforcement: This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories

http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/500/law_enforcement_police_corruption

In Cleveland, Ohio, a Cleveland police officer was arrested August 25 for his role in a cocaine distribution ring. Officer Zvonko Sarlog, a six-year veteran now faces a federal indictment for conspiracy to distribute cocaine along with six other people, none of them police officers. The arrests came after a nine-month investigation by the Cleveland police internal affairs unit, which eventually called in the FBI. Sarlog is accused of having a relative in Mexico smuggle cocaine into the country for sale in the Cleveland area.

In Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, 10 police officers have been arrested on charges they planted drugs as evidence against poor islanders. The Puerto Rican Civil Rights Commission is planning hearings into allegations these arrests are only the tip of the iceberg. Eight officers were arrested August 23, and raiding FBI agents found a safe containing drugs held in reserve to plant on people. Two more officers turned themselves in days later. They are accused of using marijuana, cocaine and heroin to frame residents of housing projects between 2004 and 2007. They also made up elaborate details on arrest and search warrants, according to police. If convicted, they face 10 years to life in prison.

In Detroit a Flat Rock police officer was among five people indicted August 29 on federal prescription drug distribution charges. Officer David Dewitt is accused of conspiring with a local physician, Dr. Paul Emerson, and three other people in a ring that allegedly circulated a million pills a year. Dewitt and the other three acted as Emerson's patients, filled the prescriptions he wrote, then allegedly sold them on the black market, according to the indictment. Dewitt, 37, is charged with unlawful distribution of a controlled substance, unlawful possession of drugs with the intent to distribute several controlled substances and with being an unlawful user of some of the drugs while possessing his department-issued firearm. His status with the department was not known. [Ed: The question has to be asked in cases like this whether the doctors knew what the patients were doing -- often they don't, and such prosecutions are a major cause of the national problem of under-treatment of pain.]

In Gulfport, Mississippi, a jail guard was arrested and fired after being accused of smuggling drugs into the county jail. Harrison County Adult Detention Center guard Laquita Allen now faces up to five years in prison if convicted of introducing contraband into a jail. No word yet on details of the allegations against her. She is free on $25,000 bond.

In Portsmouth, Virginia, the former head of the Portsmouth police drug squad was sentenced to 4 ? years in prison for participating in a drug distribution conspiracy that prosecutors said brought more than $5 million worth of crack cocaine to the area. Former Lt. Brian Keith Muhammad Abdul-Ali was found guilty of warning his nephew, convicted crack distributor Gregory Elliott, of upcoming raids, thus allowing him to sell 110 pounds or more of crack cocaine in the area between 2001 and last December, when Abdul-Ali and his nephew were arrested. Abdul-Ali faced up to 10 years on drug conspiracy charges, but the judge suspended 5 ? years.

In Worcester, Massachusetts, a jail guard was arrested August 22 for repeatedly stealing prescription pain medications from prisoners. Western Worcester District Court jail guard Francine Melanson, 46, faces one count of larceny under $250 dollars, even though jail officials have her on videotape stealing pills on several occasions. She came under suspicion when a woman arrested by Leicester police in October 2006 claimed some of her hydrocodone pills were missing. The prescription drug is used for pain management. State police installed a camera in the court's cell area and subsequently caught Melanson in the act. Her lawyer said she is in treatment for a "substance abuse problem." The 11-year veteran guard is on unpaid leave from her $64,000 a year job.

In Boston, a DEA agent admitted in federal court August 23 that he used a government law enforcement computer to help targets in a mob investigation learn whether they were being investigated. The admission from DEA agent Louis Angioletti came as he pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor count of intentionally accessing a government computer in a manner that exceeded his lawful authority. Angioletti faces up to six months in federal prison. He also agreed to resign from the DEA. Angioletti got caught up in an FBI investigation of a conspiracy by mob-backed trash haulers to drive out the competition. While working at the DEA's El Paso Intelligence Center, Angioletti was approached by an old friend who worked for the mob-connected trash haulers, and he agreed to run the friend's boss's name through the federal Narcotics and Dangerous Drug Information System database. He later reported that the boss's name didn't show up. He will be sentenced November 9.

In Scranton, Pennsylvania, a Scranton police officer charged with selling Oxycontin while in uniform pleaded guilty August 28. Officer Mark Conway told the presiding judge he had been addicted to Oxycontin. His attorney made the strange remark that Conway "wasn't a drug dealer? but he distributed." Corruption or addiction? In either case, he was peddling pills while in uniform. He faces up to five years in prison.