Will There Be Justice For Family Whose Home Was Raided Because Cops Couldn't Tell Tea

A case just decided by the Tenth Circuit shows how utterly absurd the “war on drugs” has become, how petty and power-mad the police can be, and how blindly deferential some of our federal judges are.

The case, Harte v. Johnson County Board of Commissioners, arose out of an idiotic, military-style raid by Kansas police on the home of Robert and Adlynn Harte in 2012. They were not in any way involved with drugs (particularly marijuana), but a few officers came to the conclusion that they might be. Here’s how.

One August day in 2011, Mr. Harte and his two children (ages 9 and 13) went to Green Circle Garden Store in Kansas City. Harte wanted to buy the supplies necessary for a hydroponics experiment for the kids – growing tomatoes in the basement.

Unbeknownst to the Harte family, Green Circle was under surveillance by Sgt. James Wingo of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, who had made it his “pet project” to take notes on all of the customers, assuming that some of them could be buying materials necessary to grow marijuana. Wingo often spent three or four hours per day on this crucial use of law enforcement time. In March of the following year, Wingo shared his information on all those shady Kansans who frequented the store with Sgt. Thomas Reddin of the Johnson County (Kansas) Sheriff’s Office (JCSO).

Reddin was glad to get that tip because his office was planning a big publicity stunt for April 20, designed to show the effectiveness of JCSO in fighting the drug war. Specifically, Reddin and his fellow drug warriors would announce the arrest of some local weed growers.

By itself, the fact that Robert Harte had made purchases at a garden supply store was not sufficient evidence of illegal marijuana growing, so the police began rummaging through the family’s trash in April. During these “trash pulls,” deputy officers Ed Blake and Mark Burns discovered wet, shredded vegetation. It could be marijuana, they theorized, and so they performed field tests which they said tested positive for marijuana. (Somehow, they neglected to photograph or document those tests, which in any case the manufacturer of the field kit says, should be verified with a true laboratory; in their haste to find enough evidence for a raid on the Harte home, the officers couldn’t be bothered with that.)

What was that wet vegetation? Tea leaves. But on the supposition that the Hartes were growing marijuana, the police got their warrant and proceeded to conduct a SWAT-team raid on the morning of April 20. The family was kept in terror while the black-clothed officers search their home for almost three hours, finding nothing. The warrant specified marijuana, but after finding no plants, the police broadened their search to look for “any kind of criminal activity.” They also used the occasion to give their canine unit some extra training.

JCSO officials were furious that their publicity stunt had fizzled.

Source

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