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F1234K
Wizard Of Tryptamines



Registered: 10/14/06
Posts: 1,241
Last seen: 11 years, 11 months
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Back to Chesapeake
#7964168 - 02/01/08 10:07 AM (16 years, 16 hours ago) |
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Quote:
Ryan Frederick was arraigned today. He was charged with first-degree murder, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, and . . . simple possession of marijuana.
That’s right. Though police still haven’t told us how much marijuana they found, it wasn’t enough to charge Frederick with anything more than a misdemeanor. For a misdemeanor, they broke down his door, a cop is dead, and a 28-year-old guy’s life is ruined. Looks like the informant mistook Frederick’s gardening hobby for an elaborate marijuana growing operation, and those Japanese maple trees for marijuana plants.
The parallels to Cory Maye are pretty striking. You’ve got a young guy minding his own business, with no criminal record, whose worst transgression is that he smokes a little pot from time to time. A bad informant and bad police procedures then converge, resulting in police breaking down his door while he’s sleeping. He fires a gun to defend himself, unwittingly kills a cop, and now faces murder charges.
Here’s hoping Frederick escapes Cory Maye’s fate. This guy shouldn’t be in jail. He should be compensated by the City of Chesapeake. As should the family of Detective Shivers. And these raids need to stop.
You wonder how large the pile of bodies will need to grow before the cops stop breaking down doors and invading homes to enforce consensual crimes.
http://www.theagitator.com/2008/01/30/back-to-chesapeake-3/
-------------------- Im Not Living, Im Just Killing Time
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Cowgold
Bullshit


Registered: 04/04/05
Posts: 12,486
Loc: .
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Re: Back to Chesapeake [Re: F1234K]
#7964303 - 02/01/08 10:52 AM (16 years, 15 hours ago) |
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One More From Chesapeake
Radley Balko | January 25, 2008, 3:18pm
In his interview with the Virginian-Pilot, Ryan Frederick said he was into gardening and landscaping, and that one reason he had the grow lamps is that he was learning how to grow young Japanese Maple trees.
In our comments section, "Kap" points out that the leaves of Japanese Maples look a lot like marijuana leaves. To an untrained eye, one wonders if a very young Japanese Maple (the kind that would require a grow lamp) might resemble a marijuana plant.
Could the informant have spotted the young trees in Frederick's garage, then mistakenly reported them to the police as marijuana plants, triggering the raid?
UPDATE: I just tipped of a Virginian-Pilot reporter on the Japanese Maple leaves and the possibility that the informant was responsible for the earlier break-in at Frederick's home, given the timing of the break-in and the information contained in the search warrant that the informant had been in the home 72 hours prior to the raid.
He told a couple of interesting things that didn't appear in the paper's interview with Frederick. First, Frederick told the reporter that as the police were taking him out of the house in handcuffs, he told them he was sorry, and that he was scared because his house had been burglarized earlier in the week. According to the reporter, Frederick says the police told him they not only knew about the burglary, they knew who had done it. Neither the reporter nor Frederick made the connection that the person who broke in could well also be the informant.
I'm starting to think now that that's the case. Frederick also told the reporter he rarely has visitors, and couldn't think of anyone who had been in his home that week.
As for the plants, the reporter confirmed that Frederick did actually own young Japanese Maple trees, in addition to tomatoes (which have also in the past been mistaken for marijuana, leading to drug raids) and several other plants. The guy was a gardening hobbyist.
Frederick also believes the cops found about three joints in his home.
I would be very suspicious if the police olice were to suddenly announce, a week later, that they did indeed find marijuana plants in Frederick's garage, too.
Here are a few questions I have for Chesapeake PD:
• Who was the informant? Under what circumstances did he hand over this information? Has he assisted the police in other cases?
• Did police tell Frederick at the scene that they know who broke into his home three days before the raid? Do they know? If so, was it the same person who tipped them off?
• If so, did he break in to Frederick's home with instruction from the police, or on his own accord?
• How much marijuana was found in the home? Could we get a definitive yes or no on whether marijuana plants were found, as indicated would be found in the search warrant?
• What sort of police work was done to coroborrate the informant's tip before conducting the raid?
• If there were no marijuana plants found in the home, did police find Japanese Maple plants? Tomato plants? Other evidence that Frederick was a gardening enthusiast, as he says?
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PsycKaliDelicate
Rebel Without aClue


Registered: 01/13/08
Posts: 45
Loc: In a VAN! down by the RIV...
Last seen: 15 years, 9 months
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Re: Back to Chesapeake [Re: F1234K]
#7964788 - 02/01/08 12:47 PM (16 years, 13 hours ago) |
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 Fatal tragedy
"Justice" and the application of law have very little in common.
Time for a walk through and visit with the Standing People
-------------------- Age and treachery always triumphs over youth and idealism.
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HighHat
Repeat Gold Medal eBay -TiVoist



Registered: 01/24/08
Posts: 303
Loc: Delocated
Last seen: 13 years, 11 months
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This is absolutely ludicrous. A cop is dead because someone thought this guy was growing weed. It wouldn't surprise me at all if some prohibitionist cop goes back into the house with as many weed plants as he can find and all the drugs he can get from the evidence closet and plants it all in the guy's house just so he never walks free again. I hope this causes as much outrage in others as it does me. Bullshit like this needs to stop.
-------------------- Have you ever felt like you were wearing a hat, but you weren't? "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety" -Letter from the Pennsylvania Assembly, November 11, 1755 This profile is strictly for role-playing. Any alleged association with illegal activities is purely fictional. Any images depicting illegal activities are photo-shopped or stolen.
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LoWgRoW
Strange



Registered: 09/22/07
Posts: 296
Last seen: 6 years, 11 months
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Re: Back to Chesapeake [Re: HighHat]
#7967704 - 02/02/08 06:07 AM (15 years, 11 months ago) |
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IT IS BULLSHIT. That kid is screwed. Too bad.
-------------------- Avoid negative people.
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