The Briefing Room
General Category => National/Breaking News => Topic started by: flowers on December 18, 2013, 11:33:18 pm
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http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2013/12/parker_county_meth_search_warr.php?page=all
Police in Parker County had been watching Michael Fred Wehrenberg's home for a month when, late in the summer of 2010, they received a tip from a confidential informant that Wehrenberg and several others were "fixing to" cook meth. Hours later, after midnight, officers walked through the front door, rounded up the people inside, and kept them in handcuffs in the front yard for an hour and a half.
The only potential problem, at least from a constitutional standpoint, was that the cops didn't have a search warrant. They got one later, before they seized the boxes of pseudoephedrine, stripped lithium batteries, and other meth-making materials, while the alleged meth cooks waited around in handcuffs, but by then they'd already waltzed through the home uninvited. They neglected to mention this on their warrant application, identifying a confidential informant as their only source of information.
Wehrenberg's lawyers argued during materials that the seized materials had been taken illegally and shouldn't be allowed as evidence. The motion was denied -- the trial court cited federal "independent source doctrine," which allows illegally seized evidence a third party told them about beforehand -- and Wehrenberg pleaded guilty to one count of possession and one count of intent to manufacture, getting five years in prison.
See also: Texas' Highest Criminal Court Overturns Ban on "Titillating Talk" With Minors
The Second Court of Appeals in Fort Worth wasn't so eager to overlook what appeared to be a clear case of police misconduct and overturned the lower court's ruling.
But it's the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals that has the final say, and last week they agreed with the trial court. In a majority opinion, Judge Elsa Alcala wrote that, while Texas' "exclusionary rule" bans illegally seized evidence from trial, federal precedent dictates that it can be introduced if it was first confirmed by an independent source.
Find out what experts say about the case after the jump.
Grits for Breakfast's Scott Henson, who first reported the case, isn't sure how significant the decision will prove to be on the ground.
"But the actions of police in the case don't pass the smell test," he writes. "If their informant was so credible, why not go to the judge for a search warrant in the 3-4 hours before their illegal entry? The judge was available in the middle of the night, so there's little basis to believe they couldn't have gotten it earlier. And why conceal the fact that they'd already swept the house and detained the suspects in the search warrant application if everything was on the up and up?"
He has a kindred spirit in CCA Judge Lawrence Meyers, who was the only justice to dissent. As Meyers wrote, "it is obvious to me that this search warrant was obtained based upon the officers' unlawful entry into [Wehrenberg]'s residence."
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One of our local public school districts have implemented a behavior analysis metric for students records that will follow them that will determine how much of a future criminal threat they will be. It is very disturbing and worse, implemented with scantly a peep amongst the community. (I'll see if I can find the article). It was very much like a Philip K Dick novel.
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One of our local public school districts have implemented a behavior analysis metric for students records that will follow them that will determine how much of a future criminal threat they will be. It is very disturbing and worse, implemented with scantly a peep amongst the community. (I'll see if I can find the article). It was very much like a Philip K Dick novel.
I hope you can find the article
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I hope you can find the article
Found it.
Longview ISD to track students tagged as violent
The Longview school district will join a nationwide group that identifies students who could become violent and tracks them throughout their education — regardless of where they move.
Longview ISD officials said Wednesday the district will participate in the Student Safety National Alliance starting in the 2013-14 school year.
“What we are offering and introducing to you today is the Walmart for student safety and security,” said interim district Superintendent James Wilcox.
About 70 school administrators and campus police officers from 25 school districts attended a school safety conference at the district’s education safety center to learn about the alliance.
The alliance of schools maintains and shares a database to track students who have been deemed by school personnel to be potentially dangerous — capable of committing massacres such as the ones at Columbine High School, Virginia Tech and Newtown, Conn., officials said....
...Information entered about students will follow them throughout their education — even if they move out of district or state, officials said.
The database can be used for students in grades kindergarten through college....
More: http://www.news-journal.com/news/local/longview-isd-to-track-students-tagged-as-violent/article_a87963a6-3ae8-5874-86cc-e985e754d73d.html
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Minority Report
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Minority Report
Beat me to it...... :chairbang:
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPB4EadWxw8
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I know a few kids I always called the kids from hell. They were mean as could be, and I dreaded babysitting for them. A couple are related to me, and there is no way I would take either in public. Not one of the mean kids I came in contact with got into trouble, and now are adults with children of their own. To label them so young is a roadmap for kids to follow. Too many become what they are accused of being because it is expected of them.
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http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2013/12/parker_county_meth_search_warr.php?page=all
A bootstrap warrant. Something that probably happens more often than we know or the government will admit to (they not being very honest and all).