Cannabis News The November Coalition
  Court: Police Wrongly Searched Bus
Posted by FoM on June 28, 2001 at 13:48:58 PT
By The Associated Press 
Source: Las Vegas Sun 

justice The state's highest court threw out a man's drug conviction Thursday, saying police had boarded a public bus to question its riders simply because it came from New York City.

The 7-0 decision by the state Court of Appeals said police must act on a legitimate tip or suspicious behavior before questioning riders. Instead, deputies from the Albany County Sheriff's Department had boarded a bus upon arrival in Albany to ask all 15 passengers to show their identification, the court said.

Deputies said the 3:30 a.m. questioning of riders at the Albany bus station on Jan. 23, 1997, was justified because the bus came from an area with illegal drug activity and was the overnight bus. Officers then observed the passengers for any suspicious behavior.

The inspector in charge said the technique, a form of geographic profiling, is used widely nationally.

The defendant in the case, Rawle McIntosh, was arrested after cocaine was found in a jacket next to him on the bus. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a prison term of 8 1/2 years to life.

"The sole reason for boarding the bus, confronting passengers and conducting this random suspicionless search was that the bus was coming from New York City, a locale where drugs exist and 8 million people live," wrote Judge George Bundy Smith in a concurring opinion.

If the court approved such conduct, he wrote, "any person leaving New York City on a bus or train would be subject to being stopped by the police."

There was no immediate response from the prosecutor's office, but the public defender's office said there was no chance McIntosh could face a trial now because the ruling essentially threw out all the evidence. In making his guilty plea, McIntosh had reserved the right to appeal the question of the legality of the stop.

"We said it was no different than in those old World War II movies when the Nazi came and said, `We want to see your papers,'" Public defender James Long said.

Long said McIntosh took a big chance by pursuing the appeal, rejecting a plea bargain that would have given him no right to appeal but left him with a shorter sentence.

The sheriff's department said the technique had resulted in more than 400 arrests over 10 years, but was discontinued late last year when the late night buses from New York City to Buffalo discontinued their stop in Albany.

"It's not really going to hurt us at all," said Inspector John Burke, a veteran narcotics officer with the sheriff's department. "We just have to alter some of our investigative techniques a bit."

Burke said other departments in New York state and in other states use the same technique.

Defense attorney Terence Kindlon, who has handled scores of such cases, called the court's ruling "magnificent."

"I think maybe people are beginning to think we've given up too much of our constitutional protections to win this war on drugs," he said.

Source: Las Vegas Sun (NV)
Published: June 28, 2001
Copyright: 2001 Las Vegas Sun, Inc.
Contact: letters@lasvegassun.com
Website: http://www.lasvegassun.com/

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Comment #1 posted by Anti-Anti-Anti... on June 30, 2001 at 21:15:13 PT
When the NAZIs Come to Amerika...
"It's not really going to hurt us at all," said Inspector John Burke, a veteran narcotics officer with the sheriff's department. "We just have to alter some of our --NAZI-- investigative techniques a bit."

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