Judges Unafraid To Side With Accused

[Tom]

JUDGES UNAFRAID TO SIDE WITH ACCUSED OVER COPS

 

Arrested at least 36 times before, Frederick Davis could have faced 10 years in prison after deputies said a search of his vehicle turned up drugs last winter.

 

This week, Davis is a free man.

 

U.S. District Judge Gregory A. Presnell ruled in favor of the "very street-smart" suspect over the testimony of two Orange County deputy sheriffs, court records show.

 

"It wasn't a question of just raising a reasonable doubt that they weren't telling the truth," said Davis' lawyer, Peter W. Kenny of the Federal Public Defender's Office. "The judge simply did not believe the police."

 

Such rulings are uncommon, but prosecutors and defense lawyers point to them as indicators of the justice system's fundamental fairness that shows police and federal agents are held to the same standard of credibility as defendants.

 

The chief judge for U.S. Middle District of Florida, for instance, ruled in a 2001 counterfeiting case that four Secret Service agents repeatedly threatened a suspect and violated his rights to remain silent and see a lawyer.

 

"His version of the events . . . is by far more plausible and believable than the tightly constructed, seemingly rehearsed, almost verbatim testimony of the four agents who testified," wrote U.S. District Judge Patricia A. Fawsett of Orlando, chief judge of the district covering 35 counties from Fort Myers to Jacksonville. "His several requests to talk to an attorney fell on deaf ears."

 

Her ruling led to the dismissal of charges against Raymond E. Lyons III of Cocoa, who worked in a west Orlando shoe store.

 

In another local example, U.S. District Judge Anne C. Conway threw out a case in 2001 against a Mexican laborer who was picked up by the U.S. Border Patrol simply because agents thought he looked "Mexican."

 

Cop Search Questioned

 

In Davis' case, court records show the 32-year-old Oviedo man was arrested after midnight Jan. 10 when a half-ounce of crack cocaine and two baggies of marijuana were found in his 1994 Chevrolet Suburban. Deputies say Davis gave them permission to search the vehicle.

 

Deputy Paul Meinke, who had arrested Davis several times before, testified that he noticed from two blocks away that the SUV had illegally tinted windows. The vehicle was seen leaving a house known for drugs on Lee Street in west Orlando.

 

Meinke's account came under scrutiny, starting with the tinted windows.

 

"It is hard to believe that an officer driving in a car could discern, on a dark night on a dark street, that a Suburban pulling out of a driveway two blocks away had windows tinted to an illegal degree," Presnell wrote. "Moreover, window tint is not unusual in Florida, so the mere fact of having tinted windows would not raise an officer's suspicions."

 

Deputy Surprised

 

The judge's findings surprised the deputy, a 10-year veteran.

 

"Especially when you know you did everything right," Meinke said, in a telephone interview. "I knew at the time when I stopped Davis that this was going to be an ordeal in court so I made sure every 't' was crossed and every 'i' was dotted."

 

Records show Presnell did not believe that Davis would have allowed deputies to search his car knowing it contained crack cocaine. Meinke testified that Davis likely gave him permission because the drugs were in what Meinke described as a hidden compartment.

 

A second deputy, John Ward, corroborated Meinke's account.

 

The judge ordered the vehicle brought to the federal courthouse on North Hughey Avenue in Orlando, where he inspected the center console that Meinke testified contained the hidden compartment.

 

Judge Disagrees

 

"In the court's opinion, there is nothing unusual about this configuration, and the compartment is not 'hidden' such that a simple cursory search would fail to reveal it," he wrote.

 

Presnell also did not believe that a tiny fleck of marijuana was spotted underneath the driver's seat by the light of a flashlight aimed through the darkly tinted window.

 

"The government's brief contends that Meinke 'observed cannabis protruding from underneath the driver's seat.' The court finds it difficult to understand how a piece of marijuana smaller than a seed can protrude from anything," Presnell wrote in his April 21 order prohibiting the use of the seized drugs to prosecute Davis.

 

"If Davis had consented to a search, Meinke would have gone to the car, opened the door, and began to search freely," instead of using a flashlight to peer into the Suburban, Presnell wrote. "Meinke's conduct does not comport with someone who has obtained a full consent to a search."

 

Davis, who was released a week ago Friday, did not return repeated voice-mail messages. A woman answering at Davis' Oviedo home hung up when told a reporter was calling.

 

Most of Davis' 37 arrests have ended in dismissed charges or prosecutors have declined to prosecute, Orange County court records show. Three of those were dropped after evidence was thrown out after legal challenges, Kenny said.

 

"The main thing that really hurts me is that I've known Freddie for 10 years . . . and someone like that doesn't belong on the street," Meinke said. "It hurts that he's back out on the street."

 

 

Source.