Judge Slams ‘Incompetent’ Cops After SWAT Raids Innocent Family for Growing Tomato Plants

Wichita, KS – In a “huge and significant victory for the Fourth Amendment,” the federal 10^th Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated a lawsuit brought by a Kansas City couple who endured a SWAT raid over their tomato plants. Robert and Adlynn Harte — and their two young children — were caught up in a county-wide sweep of suspected cannabis growers, in a prohibitionist state which still has not even legalized any form of medical cannabis.

The judges not only reinstated the Harte’s lawsuit against the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, which was dismissed by a federal judge in 2015, but went on to castigate the law enforcement agencies involved. They described the 2012 raid as an “unjustified government intrusion based on nothing more than junk science, an incompetent investigation and a publicity stunt.”

In the realm of unlawful police raids, this one may take the cake. It began with a Missouri State Highway Patrolman staking out a garden store every day in Kansas City in hopes of catching some pot growers. Robert Harte visited the store with his two children to buy supplies for an educational vegetable garden project in his basement.

The sergeant shared Harte’s information with a counterpart in the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office (JCSO), which was planning to raid several suspected cannabis growers on 4/20. JCSO went through the Harte’s trash on three occasions, eventually finding what officers believed was cannabis clippings soaked in THC extract.

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But the “marijuana” was actually discarded tea leaves.

Despite a lab technician saying the tea leaves looked nothing like cannabis leaves or stems, deputies Edward Blake and Mark Burns used notoriously faulty field drug test kits which showed the presence of THC. These supposed field drug tests were the basis for planning the raid, but the deputies never photographed or documented the tests — leading Judge Carlos Lucero to note that these circumstances gave the deputies strong motive to lie.

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They had to find something on the Hartes, because the JCSO had already scheduled the raid on the Harte’s home. Several routine investigatory steps were ignored, making their search warrant “based on nothing more than gardening supplies in a bag and wet tea leaves in the garbage.”

The list of sheer incompetence goes on. In his written decision, Lucero used extraordinary language to characterize just how reckless these drug warriors were.

“Law-abiding tea drinkers and gardeners beware: One visit to a garden store and some loose tea leaves in your trash may subject you to an early-morning, SWAT-style raid, complete with battering ram, bulletproof vests, and assault rifles.

Perhaps the officers will intentionally conduct the terrifying raid while your children are home, and keep the entire family under armed guard for two and a half hours while concerned residents of your quiet, family-oriented neighborhood wonder what nefarious crime you have committed. This is neither hyperbole nor metaphor—it is precisely what happened to the Harte family in the case before us.”

During the two and a half hour raid – where heavily armed SWAT team broke in during early morning hours while the children were home – officers frantically searched for anything to justify their debacle, but found only tomato plants and gardening supplies. Knowing the history of no-knock SWAT raids, someone could have easily gotten killed.

The cops had picked the wrong target this time, as both Mr. and Mrs. Harte are former CIA employees and knew a thing or two about research. After the traumatic experience, the Hartes set out to find out why this happened to them. Spending thousands of dollars in legal costs, they were able to procure a probable-cause affidavit.

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It was easy to see that the “probable cause” was full of holes, and thankfully the 10^th Circuit court actually studied the facts. The reinstated lawsuit includes unlawful search-and-seizure claims against 10 deputies, the sheriff who started the fiasco and the Johnson County Board of Commissioners.

The Hartes can also move forward with trying to prove that the cops lied about the field tests, and other claims under state law including trespass, assault and false imprisonment.

“There was no probable cause at any step of the investigation,” wrote Lucero. “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.”

We will certainly be monitoring the outcome of this lawsuit. It exposes the ludicrous nature of the war on cannabis still being carried out in prohibitionist states controlled by Reefer Madness politicians. If there is any “justice” left in the justice system, the Hartes will succeed in holding these deplorable cops accountable.

State Supreme Court Justice Just Called for the Release of All Those in Prison for Cannabis

Amid the seemingly constant bad news about rising international tensions and the crushing police/surveillance state at home, one bright spot remains. Cannabis decriminalization keeps on sweeping the U.S. – as, according to polls, almost no one believes cannabis should be illegal.

It is well known that the war on drugs serves no purpose but to enrich and empower the police state and the corporatocracy. On the other hand, cannabis legalization has provided tremendous benefits to the people.

Medical cannabis is proving to successfully treat an ever-growing number of physical and mental ailments, without the side harmful side-effects of pharmaceutical products. While it is not a panacea, medical cannabis is giving life to children where before they were expected to die, allowing children to finally stop having debilitating seizures, and allowing war veterans to find treatment for PTSD where none other exists, to name just a few.

Freedom is even greater in the eight states that have legalized recreational cannabis use. If this weren’t enough, legal pot is providing incredible economic boosts, such as in Colorado where the cannabis industry is boosting the economy more than any other industry.

More and more of those in government are getting it, and they’re not afraid to speak out or even act in the noblest of manners, such as Georgia Rep. Allen Peake who skirts the law to distribute Colorado medical cannabis to suffering children in his state.

Add Ohio Supreme Court Justice William O’Neill to the list. In a recent speech, the enlightened judge said cannabis should be legalized and all non-violent cannabis offenders should be released from jail.

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“The time has come for new thinking,” O’Neill said. “We regulate and tax alcohol and tobacco and imprison people for smoking grass.”

O’Neill says legalization and prisoner release would generate $350 million that would be used to treat drug addiction instead of criminalizing it, as well as create a mental health network to combat addiction.

“Treat addiction like the disease it is in the name of compassion,” he said.

O’Neill is pondering a run for Ohio governor, but won’t make a decision until the end of the year. Even if he doesn’t run, his remarks inject some much-needed substance into the race, and should spur the candidates to put their positions on the record.

Ohio legalized medical pot in Sept. 2016, although legal sales won’t begin for at least a year. Ohio will have dispensaries and cultivation centers to provide medical products for a host of qualifying conditions.

O’Neill’s call to legalize all cannabis use, like alcohol and tobacco, and release non-violent cannabis “offenders” is a natural progression in rational thought. As far as drugs go, we know that alcohol and tobacco use kills hundreds of thousands of people every year, while no one has ever been known to die from the use of cannabis.

How can the State logically defend the legal status of more dangerous drugs (with little to no medical benefit) while a harmless, medically beneficial one is illegal? If there is no rational basis, and cannabis was completely legalized, then it follows that there is no rational basis for holding non-violent users and sellers of a natural plant in jail.

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Pretty simple, but too many politicians still cling to the injustice of prohibition, even though we know the drug war was started to oppress minorities and suppress political dissent. They continue supporting the War on Drugs even though it has not achieved any of its stated goals, after five decades and $1 trillion being spent.

If Justice O’Neill ends up running for governor, his chances will certainly be boosted by calling for the freedom and economic boost that is legal cannabis.

1 Year Per Gram: Man Gets Insane 18 Year Prison Sentence for Weed, Judge Furious

Louisiana just proved how cruel the drug war can be, as the state’s Supreme Court upheld an 18-year prison sentence without possibility of parole – for possessing 18 grams of cannabis. In 2014, Gary Howard was convicted of “marijuana possession with intent to distribute” and a Caddo parish judge handed down the harsh sentence, labeling him as a “habitual offender” for a 2008 firearm possession conviction.

The Supreme Court was convinced that the ‘intent to distribute’ charge was justified because Howard had the pot in five separate bags, even though “a prosecution expert conceded the marijuana could have been for Howard’s personal use” and “acknowledged it was possible the marijuana was purchased in the same form that police found it.”

Chief Justice Bernette Johnson blasted the “outrageous” judgment of her colleagues, who made an arbitrary decision to ruin Howard’s life.

“As a practical matter, in light of the inconsequential amount of marijuana found, imprisoning defendant for this extreme length of time at a cost of about $23,000 per year (costing our state over $400,000 in total) provides little societal value and only serves to further burden our financially strapped state and its tax payers,” wrote Johnson.

“Legally, the state proved nothing more than simple possession of marijuana in this case.”

Johnson went on to suggest that authorities “overreacted” because a firearm was found during Howard’s arrest, resulting in a charge for which he was later acquitted.

The fact that in one state a person can be locked in a cage for 18 years for possessing a plant, while in other states a person can go to a store and legally buy the same amount of the plant, underscores a ‘justice system’ that is truly broken.

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For decades government has carried out an immoral War on Drugs, created for the purpose of stifling dissent, oppressing minorities and enriching the corporatocracy. To this day, federal government maintains cannabis as a Schedule 1 narcotic, and we see prohibition serving the same goals.

Even though most states have acknowledged the medical benefits of cannabis, legalizing its use, the feds continue a policy of deliberate ignorance – and it’s no coincidence that Big Pharma profits from prohibition. This is why pharma companies lobbied against state legalization efforts, admitting that legal cannabis threatens their profits.

The Louisiana Supreme Court decision shows that the Reefer Madness mentality is alive and well in the cretins that inhabit the halls of ‘justice.’ Even as 60 percent of Americans now think recreational cannabis should be legal, arbiters of ‘justice’ have no reservations about locking people in cages for possessing said plant.

The silver lining is that judges such as Bernette Johnson are not afraid to point out the absurdity of these sentences, which can only be called a war on people.