I posted a few days ago about a typical "rush to judgment" in today's hysterical drunk driving environment (Anatomy of a Lynching). Here, the latest example – complete with initial disavowals by MADD, later reluctantly withdrawn:
Man Accused of Taking Drug-Laced Cookies to Cops
Fort Worth, TX. AP, July 8 – A man accused of delivering baskets of drug-laced cookies to as many as a dozen police departments, causing several officers to become sick, was arrested Tuesday.
Christian V. Phillips, 18, of Watauga, was arrested Tuesday morning after allegedly taking cookies to the Lake Worth police station, where officers had been tipped off that someone was falsely claiming to deliver treats on behalf of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said Lake Worth Police Chief Brett McGuire.
"Our officers took a good whiff and thought they smelled like marijuana," McGuire said, adding that preliminary tests instead detected traces of LSD…
In nearby Fort Worth, at least three officers got sick after eating some cookies and candy after a basket was delivered to that police station Monday night, authorities said.
Lake Worth investigators found that Phillips had a list of about two dozen North Texas departments, with 13 checked off.
Blue Mound police tipped off Lake Worth after receiving a call from MADD that no one was delivering cookies on its behalf.
For the next few days a lynch-mob mentality permeated the media:
Man Accused of Delivering Drug-Laced Cookies
to Police Stations Across Dallas-Fort Worth
Dallas, TX. July 10 – Police officers in Blue Mound didn't think much of the cookies dropped off at their station Monday night – until they got a whiff of them.
Overpowering the chocolate chips was the pungent smell of marijuana, police said.
"It reeked of it," said Lt. Thomas Cain, a Blue Mound police spokesman. "It wasn't hard to tell. Anyone that's been around marijuana before would have known".
The next day:
"Tainted" Cop Cookies Deemed Safe
Lake Worth, TX. AP, July 11 – A teenager jailed on accusations that he delivered drug-laced cookies to a dozen police stations was released Thursday after tests showed no drugs in goodies taken to two departments.
Blue Mound and Lake Worth police said tests by the Tarrant County medical examiner showed there were no controlled substances in cookies delivered this week by Christian V. Phillips, 18, who had been jailed in Lake Worth on $75,000 bond on a charge of tampering with a consumer product.
Phillips walked quickly out of the jail without commenting while accompanied by his father, who then drove away with his son.
Phillips' attorney said his client was performing community-service work when he delivered goodies for Mothers Against Drunk Driving to about a dozen stations in the past couple of weeks. Only two stations had any treats left over to be tested for drugs.
"I'm really upset that this thing has gotten to this point, that this kid has gotten convicted in the media before any evidence was collected," said the attorney, L. Patrick Davis.
The post The Great Cookie Caper appeared first on Law Offices of Taylor and Taylor - DUI Central.