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| Love Stings in Drug Bust |
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Posted by FoM on October 24, 2001 at 09:45:38 PT By Joel Miller Source: WorldNetDaily 
Citizens in Northern California are sleeping easier now that a major drug ring has been handily dealt with by the long, plainclothes arm of the law. Earlier in the year, alerted by parents to Lindhurst High School's "rampant drug use and sales" problem, the Yuba County Sheriff's Office decided to send an undercover cop into the school to flunk a few locker-side dealers. According to the April 25 Appeal-Democrat, a 27-year-old agent of the state Alcohol Beverage Control was enrolled in classes and began attending on a daily basis near the start of the semester – "21 Jump Street" for the new millennium (though, ironically, Johnny Depp more recently starred as infamous narco-trafficker George Jung in the movie, "Blow," instead of a troubled teen version of Dudley Do-Right). After racking up a total of 21 marijuana, ecstasy and diet-pill sales, the agent was pulled out and, days later, the arrests made. In all, eight hardened drug offenders met the business end of the law. One such hardened criminal, Richard David Rodney, was the only adult stung by the sting, as he turned 18 shortly before the bust. His offense: Rodney, at the agent's request, sold her two $10 bags of marijuana, pot which the judge in the case later declared to be "extremely poor" in quality. "The agent attempted to have the defendant obtain methamphetamine and cocaine for her," Judge James Curry wrote in his decision, "but he said he did not use those drugs and had no ability to obtain them." Not that authorities weren't happy with the dime-bag duo. Originally, Rodney faced two counts of felony transportation, distribution and importation of marijuana. If convicted, he could have spent the next four years in jail. Instead, as reported in the Oct. 17 Appeal-Democrat, he'll get 45 days in the clink after a plea bargain to a single misdemeanor charge of possession. Even that, while some will disagree, is nuts. Seems Rodney had the hots for this undercover agent – an apparently attractive 27-year-old. She asked him to score her some drugs, and, wanting to get on her good side, he did his best – two dime bags of garbage ganja. He didn't even know where to look for the harder stuff she wanted. "All parties agree that the two marijuana sales were an effort by the defendant to impress the female operative, and did not appear to be part of an ongoing profit-making enterprise," said Curry in his decision, citing Rodney's "naiveté." By any reasonable standard, that's entrapment. Sure, the officer didn't make him break the law, but she certainly cajoled and induced him to – and, added to the hormonal charge of a teen-age male looking to score with a girl clearly more "mature" than any other senior on campus, the whole scenario almost inevitably led to his grabbing a few bags for her. Just to show you how far gone he was, according to the judge's decision, friends told Rodney the lady was probably a narc. It didn't matter to him. Boys in lust will do almost anything to win the heart of the woman they want – even doing the legal equivalent of swimming at sea with raw horseflesh in hand, knowing sharks might well be lurking. I'm frankly surprised he didn't get the coke and speed she asked for. The ACLU responded to a similar Los Angeles case in which a high-school football player, egged on by his "girlfriend's" insistent demands for drugs, was arrested after finally succumbing to her pleadings. Chalk it up to dumb jock luck – she was an undercover cop. "When other adults try to get young people involved with drugs, we call it contributing to the delinquency of a minor," the ACLU noted. "When the LAPD does it, we call it the school-buy program." As for the "juveniles" busted, it was a first offense for all but one of the other seven arrested. No drugs like cocaine or meth were involved, as authorities expected. As it turns out, Lindhurst's "rampant drug use and sales" problem consisted of one repeat offender and seven rookies out of a student body of 1,250. "Rampant" is a pretty lousy adjective. And it's also pretty lousy that with genuine criminals on the prowl, people inflicting damage to life and property, law enforcement officials deem it worth their scarce time and resources to root out offenders that have to be prodded and pushed to break the law. Rodney might never have broken the law if an undercover agent hadn't asked him to do it for her. This is one sting that really stinks. Source: WorldNetDaily (US Web) CannabisNews Articles - Joel Miller Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
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Comment #7 posted by lookinside on October 24, 2001 at 17:41:13 PT:
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| local high school a few years ago... the agent was female, over 21...she had sex with a minor student...used drugs with some of her "suspects"...the local police chief was very proud of his "sting"...until the lawsuits started coming... funny...never heard anything more about the whole fiasco, except that the same agent was involved in another very nasty high school sting in another town where my sister and her family live...same result, alotta lawsuits...and no more press coverage... [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #6 posted by Elfman_420 on October 24, 2001 at 17:36:36 PT:
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| What if Rodney decided he wanted to get the harder stuff for this girl? I don't know anything about that town, but chances are, he would have had to go somewhere else to get the drugs. Dealing with hard drugs can be dangerous. He could have put his safety and his life in danger had he attempted to get involved in something that he's never been involved in before! The fact is, if it wasn't for that lady, he never would have been involved in any sort of drugs. (To our knowledge, though, a little weed never hurt an 18 yr old, and he couldn't get anything harder..) The law of entrapment defined as the officer cannot ask you to break the law, but it depends on how it is worded.. C'mon, they got a kid involved in an illegal activity that he wasn't involved in the first place. If that isn't entrapment, then I don't know what is. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #5 posted by E_Johnson on October 24, 2001 at 13:09:06 PT |
| One such hardened criminal, Richard David Rodney, was the only adult stung by the sting, as he turned 18 shortly before the bust. His offense: Rodney, at the agent's request, sold her two $10 bags of marijuana, pot which the judge in the case later declared to be "extremely poor" in quality. I can hear it now: Don't you bring this dirt weed into my courtroom again! [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #4 posted by Lehder on October 24, 2001 at 12:19:22 PT |
| Perhaps some of the parents of these kids know of cannabisnews. I would invite them to come here and discuss the ethics and the benefits bequeathed to society by this particular episode in Our Drug War. The invitation extends especially to any of the police officers involved in the case, and the judge and prosecutors. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #3 posted by E_Johnson on October 24, 2001 at 10:44:31 PT |
| Some old Jimmy Stewart movie about Chicago during Prohibition. In the voiceover opening they name Prohibition as the most violent era in Chicago history. In the opening scene, a police officer comes into a diner named "Wanda's" and says he's coming down with a cold, wink wink nudge nudge. So she lets him into the back room and hand him a bottle of booze. Then some masked gunmen bust in and chase her away and shoot him. That's the typical Prohibition story. How do American cops remember Prohibition? Or DO they bother to remember it? Are they trying to pretend it never happened, the way Noam Chomsky tries to pretend that the Soviet Union never existed? [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #2 posted by Lehder on October 24, 2001 at 10:36:00 PT |
| Unable or afraid to fight real criminals, this loathsome narc has humiliated and emasculated a promising young man, a decent fellow who knows better than to get involved with hard drugs and wants to treat a woman well. He's probably been emotionally damaged pretty badly, to say nothing of all the legal grief he faces, and may well interact poorly with women for a long time to come. For shame! And the older men who ogled this whoring narc and pinched her ass at the precint headquarters, egging her on, ought to be fired and forced into treatment. One and all involved on the side of our destructive law here have only degraded the school and crippled the lives and emotions of children. Tell me how our drug war is fought to protect children. These are CRIMES against children. Who has benefited? No one. Only some older and very emotionally disturbed adults have been empowered by an evil law to indulge in a sick immaturity. I can tell you that were I a parent of one of these children.... [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #1 posted by Patrick on October 24, 2001 at 10:06:11 PT |
| Maybe if more of this kinf of abuse of the peoples law enforcement authorities and tax revenue were exposed in the mainstream media we could get the change in priorities so desperately needed in this country. Imagine the benefit to she went undercover looking for terrorist plots instead of trying to entrap horny teenage boys to score her some low grade pot. What a travesty of justice. [ Post Comment ] |
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