XPost: alt.drugs.psychedelics, alt.drugs.pot, alt.hemp.politics

Drug War Chronicle, Issue #1156 -- 3/10/22
Phillip S. Smith, Editor, psmith@drcnet.org https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/1156

A Publication of StoptheDrugWar.org
David Borden, Executive Director, borden@drcnet.org
"Raising Awareness of the Consequences of Drug Prohibition"

Table of Contents:

1. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN COPS PLANT A GPS TRACKER ON YOUR CAR WITHOUT YOU
KNOWING? [FEATURE]
The law on police placing GPS tracking devices on vehicles is being tested. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2022/mar/10/what_happens_when_cops_plant_gps

2. WHITE HOUSE OUTLINES POLICIES ON OVERDOSES AND OPIOID EPIDEMIC, GOP
LEGAL POT BILL COULD GET HEARING, MORE... (3/3/22)
Costa Rica becomes the latest country to legalize medical marijuana, an Oklahoma psychedelic study bill is moving, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2022/mar/03/white_house_outlines_policies

3. SD NOT LEGALIZING, ISRAEL DECRIMINALIZING, TN FENTANYL TEST STRIP
BILL ADVANCES, MORE... (3/7/22)
Bills to produce marijuana-consuming workers advance in Illinois and DC
an Idaho bill to require drug tests for substitute school teachers is
killed, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2022/mar/07/sd_not_legalizing_israel

4. RI DRUG DECRIM BILL FILED, MYANMAR DRUG TRADE RAMPING UP AMIDST CIVIL
WAR, MORE... (3/8/22)
Oklahoma Republicans move to take on what they see as an out of control
medical marijuana system, Afghan farmers are planting more opium poppies
this year, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2022/mar/08/ri_drug_decrim_bill_filed

5. POLL SHOWS STRONG SUPPORT FOR LEGAL MARIJUANA BANKING ACCESS, POLICE
PAYING BILLIONS TO SETTLE MISCONDUCT CLAIMS, MORE... (3/9/22)
The Washington Post has a major piece on police misconduct payouts, an expungement bill advances in California, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2022/mar/09/poll_shows_strong_support_legal

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1. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN COPS PLANT A GPS TRACKER ON YOUR CAR WITHOUT YOU
KNOWING? [FEATURE] https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2022/mar/10/what_happens_when_cops_plant_gps

This piece was contributed by criminal justice reporter Clarence Walker, newsjournalist360@gmail.com.

What happens if an unsuspecting citizen finds a police-installed GPS
tracking device attached beneath his vehicle? As documented in the case
of Indiana v. Derek Heuring (https://law.justia.com/cases/indiana/supreme-court/2020/19s-cr-),
things can turn pretty strange.

At first glance, the "tiny box" resembled a bomb -- so the vehicle owner snatched the GPS tracker and tossed it. But should the law then allow
the arrest of a person for theft of the GPS? The police thought so,
because this bizarre sequence of events happened to suspected drug
seller Derek Heuring, a Boonville, Indiana resident.

After they executed a search warrant, the Warrick County Sheriff
Department narcotics officers in Heuring's hometown charged him with
theft of a GPS tracker, which they had secretly put on his SUV. Heuring
never knew who owned the tracker or why the device had been under his
vehicle.

A search warrant must clearly show the officers had sufficient probable
cause to believe Mr. Heuring had committed a crime to make a theft of
the GPS stick. How can people be lawfully charged with theft of property
found on one's vehicle, when they didn't know it was there in the first
place?

Evansville Indiana criminal attorney Michael C. Keating insisted from
the beginning that Heuring did not know what the device was or who it
belonged to -- and Keating said his client "had no obligation to leave
the GPS tracker on his vehicle."

Desperate to find the GPS, officers executing the search warrant on
separate properties owned by the Heuring's family scored a bonus when
they recovered meth, drug paraphernalia, and a handgun.

The Indiana Supreme Court Justices threw out the GPS theft charge
including the methamphetamine possession charges on February 20, 2020.

"I'm not looking to make things easier for drug dealers," Justice Mark
Massa said during arguments on the case. "But something is left on your
car even if you know it's the police tracking you, do you have an
obligation to leave it there and let them track you -- and if you take
it off you're subject to a search of your home?" Massa asked rhetorically.

Deputy Attorney General Jesse Drum answered Massa's question with a
resounding "yes".

"The officers did everything they could to rule out every innocent explanation," Drum told the justices, hoping to have the warrants upheld
and win the state's case.

This legal groundbreaking story is important for law enforcement
authorities, judges, prosecutors, and the public because the charges
against Derek Heuring highlight the wide-ranging tactics police often
use to justify illegal searches in drug cases, as well as raising
broader questions about privacy and government surveillance.

In addition, Heuring's case raises the question of whether the police,
even with a warrant, should have the leeway to both place a tracking
device on a person's vehicle and forbid the individual to remove it from
their vehicle if the person knows the police put it there to watch their
every move. For example, if a person discovered a hidden camera in his
bedroom should the law require him to leave it there without removing it
-- knowing the police are trying to build evidence against them?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Jones "
target="_blank_">US vs. Antoine Jones became the first landmark case to
be decided by the US Supreme Court involving law enforcement's illegal
use of a GPS tracking system. Jones had been sentenced to life in prison without parole on drug conspiracy charges and his conviction was
reversed on January 23, 2012. FBI and DEA agents planted a warrantless
GPS on Jones' vehicle to monitor his movements thinking he was a Mexican
cartel associate responsible for distributing mass amounts of cocaine in
the Washington DC area. Jones' case is the standard-bearer that forces
law enforcement in America today to first obtain a warrant to track
someone with a GPS. Antoine Jones singlehandedly fought the almighty
Feds tooth, nail, and claw, and finally won his freedom.

In Heuring's situation, the circumstances show how the narcs used a
dubious search warrant to recover a GPS tracker claiming that Heuring
had stolen it. The police charged him with the GPS theft without
evidence that a theft occurred. They were hoping a bogus theft case
would suffice against Heuring whom they suspected of dealing illegal drugs.

In a final ruling against state prosecutors that effectively dismissed
the cases altogether, another justice opined, "I'm struggling with how
that is theft," said Justice Steven David.

"We hold that those search warrants were invalid because the affidavits
did not establish probable cause that the GPS device was stolen. We
further conclude the affidavits were so lacking in probable cause that
the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule does not apply,"
Justice Loretta Rush wrote (https://www.courierpress.com/story/news/2020/02/20/indiana-supreme-court-sides-boonville-man-gps-theft-case/4820831002/).

Thus, under the exclusionary rule, "the evidence seized from Heuring's
home and his father's barn must be suppressed."

"We reverse and remand,'' the Indiana Supreme Court Justices wrote.

How It Went Down

During summer 2018, Warrick County Sheriff Department narcotic officers
Matt Young and Jarrett Busing received information from an informant
that Heuring was slinging dope for a living. Officer Young obtained a
warrant on July 28 to place the department's GPS tracking devices onto Heuring's Ford Expedition SUV to track his movements for 30 days. This
GPS tracker was a black box, about 4 inches by 6 inches with no
identification to identify where it came from.

The warrant authorized 30 days of tracking, but the device failed to
transmit Heuring's location after the sixth day. Then on the seventh
day, the narcs received a final update from the tracker showing
Heuring's SUV at his residence. The officers were increasingly puzzled
over why they weren't detecting location information three days later.
Finally, however, a technician assured the officers that the battery was
fully charged but that the "satellite was not reading."

Alarmed over the ensuing problem, Officer Busing decided to check out
the happenings with the GPS. Busing drove over to Heuring's father's
barn where the SUV was parked. He thought the location of the barn
thwarted the satellite signal. Subsequently, the officers saw the
vehicle parked away from the barn, and then parked outside of the
family's home. Officer Young again contacted a technician "to see if the
GPS would track now." The tech informed him, "that the device was not registering and needed a hard reset."

Officers went to retrieve the GPS from the SUV, but it was gone!

The officers discussed how a GPS had previously disengaged from a
vehicle by accident, yet still, the device was located because the GPS continued to transmit satellite readings. Convinced the GPS had been
stolen and stashed in either Heuring's home or his father's barn,
Officer Busing filed affidavits for warrants to search both locations
for evidence of theft of the GPS.

With guns drawn, deputies stormed Heuring's home and the barn. Deputies recovered meth, drug paraphernalia, and a handgun. Next, Officer Busing obtained warrants to search the house and barn for narcotics. The
officers located the GPS tracker during the second search, including
more contraband. Finally, deputies arrested the young man.

Although a jury trial hadn't taken place, Heuring's defense attorney
Michael Keating filed a series of motions in 2018 to suppress the seized evidence. Keating challenged the validity of the search warrants under
both the Fourth Amendment and Article 1, Section 11 of the Indiana Constitution. Keating's motion argued the initial search warrants were
issued without probable cause that evidence of a crime -- the theft of
the GPS device -- would be found in either his home or his father's
barn. Prosecutors argued the opposite, and the trial court judge ruled
against Heuring, thus setting the stage for defense attorneys to appeal
the trial court adverse ruling with the first-level state appellate
court, arguing the same facts about the faulty search warrants. After
hearing both sides, the appellate judges upheld the trial court's
refusal to suppress the evidence against Heuring.

Despite the trial court and the lower-level court upholding the
questionable warrants the Indiana Supreme Court Justices heard oral
arguments from the defense attorney and the attorney general on November
7, 2019. The central point of the legal arguments boiled down to the
search warrants. Supreme Court justices pinpointed the fallacies of the officer's search warrants by in their opinion.

"All of the evidence must be suppressed because the initial warrant was invalid," Justice Rush wrote. "Affidavits filed by the officers in
support of the search warrant failed to establish probable cause in two respects; first the warrants lacked information that the person who
removed the GPS was aware to get consent from the Sheriff's Department,
and second, the affidavits lacked information that there was an intent
to deprive the Sheriff's Department of the value or use of the GPS."

The justices concurred, "The affidavits support nothing more than
speculation -- a hunch that someone removed the device intending to
deprive the Sheriff's Department of its value or use."

"We find it reckless for an officer to search a suspect's home and his
father's barn based on nothing more than a hunch that a crime had been committed. We are confident that applying the exclusionary rule here
will deter similar reckless conduct in the future", Justice Rush concluded.

Derek Heuring is a free man today. Thanks to common sense judges.

And Another GPS Tracking Case: Louisiana Woman Cold-Busted State Police Planting GPS on Her Vehicle; She Removes It; Police Want it Back

Just last year in March, an alert citizen identified as Tiara Beverly
was at home in her gated apartment complex in Baton Rouge, Louisiana
preparing to run errands when she noticed something peculiar. She
spotted a group of suspicious white men standing near her car. Beverly's adrenaline shot sky-high when she saw one of the cool-acting fellows
bend over and placed something under her car.

"I instantly panicked," Beverly told local television station WBRZ (https://www.wbrz.com/news/woman-finds-tracking-device-on-car-louisiana-state-police-wants-it-back).
"I didn't "know if it was a bomb, but I found out it was a tracker.

Unsatisfied with Beverly's denial that she didn't have a location on the
person they were looking for, the police planted a GPS under her car.
Two weeks prior, Louisiana State Troopers visited Beverly's home and
harshly questioned her about a personal friend she knew. Again, Beverly vehemently denied knowing the person's whereabouts. Finally, two days
later, the officers put the GPS on Beverly's vehicle, Details are
sketchy of how the police gathered evidence to arrest Beverly on narcotic-related charges in February 2021. A judge released Beverly on a $22,000 bond.

When Beverly finally determined the GPS was placed on her vehicle by
police, she rushed to the local NAACP in Baton Rouge and told her story
to NAACP president Eugene Collins. Collins told the reporter he
contacted the police on Beverly's behalf and the police immediately
demanded Collins and Beverly to return the GPS tracker -- and they
threatened her.

"They asked me to return the box, or it could make the situation more
difficult for me," Collins recalled.

Civilians are prohibited from possessing or using GPS devices, but they
are legal for law enforcement, parole, and probation officers or
correctional officials to use, according to Louisiana Revised Statute
14: 222.3 (https://law.justia.com/codes/louisiana/2017/code-revisedstatutes/title-14/rs-14-323/).

Police told reporters they had a warrant for the tracking device placed
on Beverly's vehicle. However, when the WBRZ reporter asked to see the
warrant, the State Trooper's Office declined to produce it, issuing the following statement: "Upon speaking with our detectives, this is part of
an ongoing investigation involving Ms. Beverly and a suspect with
federal warrants."

The Public Information Officer added, "Further information regarding
charges and investigative documents will be available."

"The fact that a young woman can see you doing something like this means
you're not very good at it," Collins told WBRZ.

Police in Beverly Tiara's case had a good shot to track her whereabouts,
yet they blew it big time. Tiara's case isn't over yet, so we'll be
reporting on future developments.

In Derek Heuring's criminal charges, Chief Justice Loretta Rush summed
it up best when she said (https://www.courierpress.com/story/news/2020/02/20/indiana-supreme-court-sides-boonville-man-gps-theft-case/4820831002/),
"There is nothing new in the realization that the Constitution sometimes insulates the criminality of a few to protect the privacy of us all.

================ ...
___________________

It's time to correct the mistake:
Truth:the Anti-drugwar
<http://www.briancbennett.com>

Cops say legalize drugs--find out why:
<http://www.leap.cc>
Stoners are people too:
<http://www.cannabisconsumers.org>
___________________

bliss -- Cacao Powered... (-SF4ever at DSLExtreme dot com)

--
bobbie sellers - a retired nurse in San Francisco

"It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.
It is by the beans of cacao that the thoughts acquire speed,
the thighs acquire girth, the girth become a warning.
It is by theobromine alone I set my mind in motion."
--from Someone else's Dune spoof ripped to my taste.

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