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Title: Weed Warriors Who Mistook Tea for Marijuana Will Pay Their Victims $150,000
Source: Reason
URL Source: https://reason.com/2020/05/05/weed- ... will-pay-their-victims-150000/
Published: May 5, 2020
Author: Jacob Sullum
Post Date: 2020-05-06 18:18:16 by Deckard
Keywords: None
Views: 1479
Comments: 11

After seven years of litigation, a Kansas couple finally obtains some compensation for a comically inept drug raid.

teavana-black-tea-cropped

Not marijuana (Teavana)

The Leawood, Kansas, couple whose home was raided in 2012 after sheriff's deputies claimed that loose tea found in their trash was marijuana will receive $150,000 for their trouble under a settlement agreement with the Johnson County Sheriff's Office. The settlement—which caps seven years of litigation, including two trips to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit—falls far short of the $7 million that Adlynn and Robert Harte originally sought. But it represents an implicit acknowledgment that the Hartes and their children suffered an outrageous invasion of their privacy and dignity in the service of a comically inept publicity stunt.

Here are some of the absurd facts that emerged as the couple's case was making its way through the courts:

• The family was targeted because Robert Harte bought supplies at a hydroponic gardening store in Kansas City. Harte was planning to grow vegetables with his son as a science project. But to Sgt. James Wingo of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, who was staking out the store, he looked like a cannabis kingpin.

• Wingo passed his hot tip to the Johnson County Sheriff's Office, which sat on the information for eight months. Deputies did not start investigating the Hartes until early April 2012, a couple of weeks before they planned to conduct a bunch of pot raids on April 20, the unofficial stoner holiday.

• The deputies never conducted a background investigation, which would have revealed not only that the Hartes had clean criminal records but that they were both former CIA employees with the highest level of security clearance.

• Desperate to justify a raid that had already been planned, deputies rummaged through the Hartes' garbage on three occasions. The first time around, Deputies Edward Blake and Mark Burns found "a small amount of wet, green vegetation," which they deemed innocuous.

• During his second inspection of the Hartes' trash, Burns found the same leaves, which he suddenly decided looked like "wet marijuana plant material." A drug field test supposedly confirmed the presence of THC.

• When Burns dove into the family's refuse a third time, just three days before the big 4/20 event, he found more leaves, which again supposedly tested positive for THC.

• The "wet marijuana plant material" was actually loose tea that Adlynn Harte favored. Burns later confessed that he had never seen loose tea before but thought, based on his training and experience, that it looked like marijuana leaves.

• A lab technician consulted after the raid disagreed, saying the leaves found in the Hartes' trash didn't "appear to be marijuana" to the unaided eye and didn't "look anything like marijuana leaves or stems" under a microscope.

• Field tests for drugs are notoriously unreliable. As 10th Circuit Judge Carlos Lucero noted after considering this case in 2017, one study "found a 70% false positive rate using this field test, with positive results obtained from substances including vanilla, peppermint, ginger, eucalyptus, cinnamon leaf, basil, thyme, lemon grass, lavender, organic oregano, organic spearmint, organic clove, patchouli, ginseng, a strip of newspaper, and even air."

• The label on the test kit used by Burns warns that its results "are only presumptive in nature" and should be confirmed by laboratory analysis. Yet then-Sheriff Frank Denning, who authorized the search of the Hartes' home without laboratory confirmation of the field test results, claimed he had never heard such tests could generate false positives, despite four decades in law enforcement and despite the warning on the label.

• The visit to the hydroponic store and the tea in the trash were the sole basis for the search warrant.

• On the day of the raid, 10th Circuit Judge Joel Carson noted in a 2019 opinion, "Bob opened the front door" shortly before 7:30 a.m., "and the deputies flooded in the foyer. Bob ended up on the ground with an assault rifle pointed at or near him. The deputies ordered Addie and the couple's two young children to sit cross-legged against a wall. A deputy eventually allowed the family to move to the living room couch where an armed deputy kept watch over them."

• It soon became clear that Johnson County's Keystone Cops had screwed up. "After searching the home for about fifteen to twenty minutes," Carson wrote, "the deputies found the hydroponic tomato garden that was readily visible from the exterior of the home through a front-facing basement window. And after ninety minutes of extensive searching, a couple of the deputies claimed to smell the 'faint odor of marijuana' at various places in the residence. A drug-detection dog showed up, but did not alert the officers to any other areas of the house requiring further searches. The dog's handler also did not smell marijuana."

• The deputies found no marijuana or any other evidence of illegal activity, even after searching the house "from stem to stern." But the same deputies who did not know the difference between tea and marijuana also did not realize there could be a legal explanation for the purchase of hydroponic gardening equipment. Blake "testified that up to that point in time, he had never seen a layout of a hydroponic-grow operation similar to Plaintiffs' that was not being used to grow marijuana."

Lucero summed up the situation well three years ago. "The defendants in this case caused an unjustified governmental intrusion into the Hartes' home based on nothing more than junk science, an incompetent investigation, and a publicity stunt," he wrote. "There was no probable cause at any step of the investigation. Not at the garden shop, not at the gathering of the tea leaves, and certainly not at the analytical stage when the officers willfully ignored directions to submit any presumed results to a laboratory for analysis. Full stop."

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#1. To: Liberator, Stoner, sneakypete, A K A Stone, misterwhite, Gatlin (#0)

The "wet marijuana plant material" was actually loose tea that Adlynn Harte favored. Burns later confessed that he had never seen loose tea before but thought, based on his training and experience, that it looked like marijuana leaves.

The deputies found no marijuana or any other evidence of illegal activity, even after searching the house "from stem to stern." But the same deputies who did not know the difference between tea and marijuana also did not realize there could be a legal explanation for the purchase of hydroponic gardening equipment. Blake "testified that up to that point in time, he had never seen a layout of a hydroponic-grow operation similar to Plaintiffs' that was not being used to grow marijuana."

Ignorant, stupid cops can't tell the difference between marijuana and loose tea?

Fucking morons!

Government is in the last resort the employment of armed men, of policemen, gendarmes, soldiers, prison guards, and hangmen.
The essential feature of government is the enforcement of its decrees by beating, killing, and imprisoning.
Those who are asking for more government interference are asking ultimately for more compulsion and less freedom.

Deckard  posted on  2020-05-06   18:22:08 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#2. To: Deckard (#1)

Ignorant, stupid cops can't tell the difference between marijuana and loose tea?

Fucking morons!

You need to understand that not everyone has the broad depth of experience that you do.

Why does loose-leaf tea look like marijuana?

Gatlin  posted on  2020-05-06   18:38:14 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#3. To: Gatlin, Stoner, sneakypete, A K A Stone, misterwhite, Liberator (#2) (Edited)

You need to understand that not everyone has the broad depth of experience that you do.

A frickin' cop should know the difference.

Anyone with a brain can see the difference. You think a 12 year old kid doesn't know the difference?

A 65 year old grandpa? 45 year old church-goer? You live in a such a delusional world.

Let's look at the whole bogus "case":

Robert Harte bought supplies at a hydroponic gardening store in Kansas City. Harte was planning to grow vegetables with his son as a science project.

Sgt. James Wingo of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, was staking out the store and got "suspicious" thinking that Harte was a "cannabis kingpin".

Never mind that buying and selling hydroponic equipment is LEGAL to own.

Using that "information", Wingo passed his hot tip to the Johnson County Sheriff's Office

The deputies never conducted a background investigation, which would have revealed not only that the Hartes had clean criminal records but that they were both former CIA employees with the highest level of security clearance.

As to your comment about understanding the difference between pot and tea: Burns later confessed that he had never seen loose tea before but thought, based on his training and experience, that it looked like marijuana leaves

Either their training is for shit, he's had very limited experience, he's just plain stupid or he's lying.

Cops searched the garbage on 3 separate occasions, finding more tea.

A lab technician consulted after the raid disagreed, saying the leaves found in the Hartes' trash didn't "appear to be marijuana" to the unaided eye and didn't "look anything like marijuana leaves or stems" under a microscope. So they tested it anyways:

Field tests for drugs are notoriously unreliable. As 10th Circuit Judge Carlos Lucero noted after considering this case in 2017, one study "found a 70% false positive rate using this field test...

Of course, they didn't care about that...they were about to become HEROES! They ignored the faulty tests.

The label on the test kit used by Burns warns that its results "are only presumptive in nature" and should be confirmed by laboratory analysis.

Apparently the sheriff at the time didn't give a shit about the bogus test results either.

Yet then-Sheriff Frank Denning, who authorized the search of the Hartes' home without laboratory confirmation of the field test results, claimed he had never heard such tests could generate false positives, despite four decades in law enforcement and despite the warning on the label.

Then the inevitable SWAT raid - all on a couple with no criminal record and the highest level of security clearance (which they would have known had they done a background check).

The family is predictably "hut-hut-hutted" by armed goons...and then they searched the house.

Thinking that they were taking down a massive marijuana grow-op, what did they find?

"After searching the home for about fifteen to twenty minutes," Carson wrote, "the deputies found the hydroponic tomato garden that was readily visible from the exterior of the home through a front-facing basement window.

OK, 15 minutes...let's look some more - the tomatoes might be a decoy.

And after ninety minutes of extensive searching, a couple of the deputies claimed to smell the 'faint odor of marijuana' at various places in the residence.

Wait - huh? They didn't smell it when they busted in, 90 minutes later they smell pot smoke? You can see the attempted CYA routine taking shape here.

The deputies found no marijuana or any other evidence of illegal activity, even after searching the house "from stem to stern."

Nothing found? What a shock!

10th Circuit Judge Carlos Lucero summed up the situation well three years ago: "The defendants in this case caused an unjustified governmental intrusion into the Hartes' home based on nothing more than junk science, an incompetent investigation, and a publicity stunt," he wrote.

"There was no probable cause at any step of the investigation.

Not at the garden shop, not at the gathering of the tea leaves, and certainly not at the analytical stage when the officers willfully ignored directions to submit any presumed results to a laboratory for analysis. Full stop."

Government is in the last resort the employment of armed men, of policemen, gendarmes, soldiers, prison guards, and hangmen.
The essential feature of government is the enforcement of its decrees by beating, killing, and imprisoning.
Those who are asking for more government interference are asking ultimately for more compulsion and less freedom.

Deckard  posted on  2020-05-06   19:57:12 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#4. To: Deckard (#3)

Why do I find it so difficult to believe that that loose tea pictured in the article was fond “found in their trash” when I see the same picture I captured below posted on the web over the headline of an entirely different story from California.

Do you ever wonder why it is impossible to place faith and belief in the stories that you post?

I guess not – fpr then you will always be able to find gullible people like Stoner hanging around …

Gatlin  posted on  2020-05-07   0:13:39 ET  (1 image) Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#5. To: Gatlin (#4) (Edited)

Why do I find it so difficult to believe that that loose tea pictured in the article was fond “found in their trash” when I see the same picture I captured below posted on the web over the headline of an entirely different story from California.

It's called a "stock image" you blithering idiot.

Look it up.

What's funny here is you trying to discredit the documented facts in the article by pulling this crap when you know damn well that there is no way you can deny that the facts and the ruling by the court are correct, and that the department seriously effed this one up big time.

"The defendants in this case caused an unjustified governmental intrusion into the Hartes' home based on nothing more than junk science, an incompetent investigation, and a publicity stunt," he wrote.

"There was no probable cause at any step of the investigation."

Government is in the last resort the employment of armed men, of policemen, gendarmes, soldiers, prison guards, and hangmen.
The essential feature of government is the enforcement of its decrees by beating, killing, and imprisoning.
Those who are asking for more government interference are asking ultimately for more compulsion and less freedom.

Deckard  posted on  2020-05-07   3:06:56 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#6. To: Deckard (#5)

Why do I find it so difficult to believe that that loose tea pictured in the article was fond “found in their trash” when I see the same picture I captured below posted on the web over the headline of an entirely different story from California.

It's called a "stock image" you blithering idiot.

Look it up

You may deceptively call it whatever you wish to.

The fact remains that it intentionally used as a “bias aid” since it has time proven to be an extremely powerful way that any and all visual communications can influence and predispose people because of its powerfully misconstrued message to others.

While you call it a “stock image” – I call it “lying to influence.”

You will of course remember that Stone severely chastised your stupid ass for the same thing when Matt Agorist used what you call “stock image” of SWAT training to portray the home of some old lady being broken into. He told you at the time something like stop doing it.

If one needs to resort to devious ways to support their story – then they really have no story.

It has long since been time proven that static visual aid images are intensely helpful for people with low numeracy as long as they had moderate-to-high graph literacy.

When the Nazis used the tactic what you call “stock image” – you said it was “Nazi Propaganda.” And yet when someone uses an image as a “propaganda ploy” in an article – you then see absolutely nothing wrong with that and try to rationalize it as the use of a “stock image.”

What's funny here is you trying to discredit the documented facts

What you are constantly doing is trying to influence people with falsely implanted images that are in no way “documented facts” – they are “deceptive tactics.” And that is in no way “funny.”

"The defendants in this case caused an unjustified governmental intrusion into the Hartes' home based on nothing more than junk science, an incompetent investigation, and a publicity stunt" …

"There was no probable cause at any step of the investigation."

I am not arguing against that. Let the facts be shown with any and all judgments made on facts – and not through the use of any “stock images” to sublimely influence people.

Deception in any form refers to the act of causing someone to believe something that is untrue. It has been shown that people lie you with the need to lie intentionally practice and use deception. In fact, various studies show that some people use these lies several times a day. One needs no “study” to see you intentionally using these “lies” several times a day. The evidence is there for all who will simply take time to look and see it.

… when you know damn well that there is no way you can deny that the facts …

I never deny “facts” – you can show me no place I ever have.

Why I will “deny” is the use of deceptive “stock images” to channel with the clandestine purpose of causing me me to agree with someone.

I see right through you – I always have, and I always will …

Deckard, you are one deceptive son of a bitch. And while you may always get away it with low IQ people like Stoner and at time occasionally with Stone – You will never – NEVER – get away with using it on intelligent people like me. Because I wall call your devious ass out every time.

God, I truly hat deception – and I find those who must resort to using it in an effort to influence others are truly loathing and repugnant individuals.

There …

Gatlin  posted on  2020-05-07   7:07:25 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#7. To: Gatlin (#6)

While you call it a “stock image” – I call it “lying to influence.”

Nothing deceptive about it. Plenty of sites PAY to use such images.

You still can't admit the cops screwed the pooch big time here.

How pathetic is that?

Government is in the last resort the employment of armed men, of policemen, gendarmes, soldiers, prison guards, and hangmen.
The essential feature of government is the enforcement of its decrees by beating, killing, and imprisoning.
Those who are asking for more government interference are asking ultimately for more compulsion and less freedom.

Deckard  posted on  2020-05-07   9:09:25 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#8. To: Deckard (#0)

April 2012, a couple of weeks before they planned to conduct a bunch of pot raids on April 20, the unofficial stoner holiday.

There is an official Stoner Holiday now?

In the entire history of the world,the only nations that had to build walls to keep their own citizens from leaving were those with leftist governments.

sneakypete  posted on  2020-05-08   12:51:09 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#9. To: Gatlin (#2)

You need to understand that not everyone has the broad depth of experience that you do.

YOU need to understand that drug cops SHOULD have a broad depth of experience and understanding of drugs before they are turned loose to ruin the lives on innocent citizens,and sometimes take those lives by mistake.

In the entire history of the world,the only nations that had to build walls to keep their own citizens from leaving were those with leftist governments.

sneakypete  posted on  2020-05-08   12:54:52 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#10. To: Deckard (#3) (Edited)

Either their training is for shit, he's had very limited experience, he's just plain stupid or he's lying.

MY vote is "ALL of the above".

They do this shit over and over and there are never any negative consequences for THEM because they bankrupt the people they have falsely arrested with court and attorney fees.

Truly 100 percent innocent people have lost their homes,lost their careers,and sometimes even lost their lives thanks to these retarded shitheads with badges and adrenaline.

In the entire history of the world,the only nations that had to build walls to keep their own citizens from leaving were those with leftist governments.

sneakypete  posted on  2020-05-08   12:56:02 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#11. To: Gatlin (#2)

You need to understand that not everyone has the broad depth of experience that you do.

Do they pass IQ tests, before hired? Did you?

A Pole  posted on  2020-05-09   7:07:43 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


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