Magistrate Judge Joel McCormick heard preliminary evidence from Dade County Sheriff’s officers Wednesday morning in a variety of local criminal cases. All were in prison orange, handcuffs and shackles, having been incarcerated since their arrests.
First on the magistrate’s monthly docket was a man accused of violating a temporary protective order (TPO) barring him from any contact with the mother of his children. Sheriff’s deputies had responded to a call from his ex’s mother, who told them the man had called her while she was babysitting one of the children on April 3, saying he was on the way over to fetch his child and assault her daughter. He had told the grandmother, testified Deputy Denny Reyes, “He was going to bash her head in and knock her teeth out.”
Evidence against the prisoners was presented by Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit Assistant District Attorney Len Gregor. The accused was represented by Public Defender Jennifer Hartline. Ms. Hartline ascertained from Reyes that the TPO contained no provision allowing the prisoner visitation with his children.
Magistrate McCormick bound the case over to Dade Superior Court, the routine outcome in such cases. His alternative is to dismiss charges if he finds a lack of evidence to support them.
"I believe he shed a tear" -- defending his girl.
Next, the magistrate heard evidence against a 44-year-old man accused of possession of methamphetamine and drug-related objects. Deputy Michael Cloud testified he’d stopped a pickup truck on Sand Mountain when he recognized the man, who had a warrant out against him, as a front-seat passenger. Also, said the deputy, the license plate on the vehicle was obscured.
The deputy arrested the suspect on the warrant. After stopping the vehicle, the deputy noticed opened containers of alcoholic beverages in the truck, and he also arrested the driver of the truck, 48, for driving with a revoked license. As he found that the other passenger—the daughter of the driver, and fiancée of the suspect—also had no valid driver’s license, he called a tow truck to impound the vehicle.
At this point the driver of the vehicle asked the deputy to retrieve his cellphone from the pickup’s glove box. Opening the glove box to do so, the deputy noticed on top of the cellphone a black container he thought he had noticed falling out of one of the suspect’s pants pocket as he courteously emptied them prior to being arrested, which the deputy believed the fiancée had retrieved. Opening the container the deputy found needles and a small amount of meth ice.
When he questioned the trio about ownership of the stash, said the deputy, the suspect asked him if he were going to charge the other two for it. The deputy said he wasn’t charging anybody yet, but only wanted to establish ownership. At this point, said Deputy Cloud, “He kind of dropped his head—I believe he shed a tear—and said it was his.”
Defender Hartline ascertained that the truck had belonged to the driver, and that there had been no field test performed on the suspected meth.
Again, Magistrate McCormick bound the case over to the higher court.
Behind the 8 ball
The last two cases were prisoners charged with dealing drugs, and the police witness was Matt Cole, a Dade County’s Sheriff’s sergeant currently attached to the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit’s Drug Task Force.
First came a young woman who had been arrested in a sting operation which Cole said had been thrown together hastily after he received a tip from a “CI”—confidential informant—that the suspect had three “8 balls” of methamphetamine she wanted to sell that day. Cole explained that that meant just under half an ounce—an “8 ball” is an eighth of an ounce. He said the CI had been wired for video and furnished with $800 to buy the meth, which from his experience was in line with street value if perhaps a tad on the high side.
The CI and the suspect had accordingly met at an appointed time and place while Cole and several other officers watched and listened electronically. The suspect had arrived with two male companions who Cole said appeared to be functioning as lookouts. The suspect had come equipped with digital scales.
After watching the deal transacted, Cole said, law enforcements had closed in, and the suspect was found to have more methamphetamine tucked in her bra. Her two companions were arrested along with her—Cole said she didn’t want them to get into hot water but admitted they knew what the deal was about.
Magistrate McCormick bound the matter over to the higher court for trial.
Finally, McCormick heard evidence against a man accused of possessing Schedule 1, 2 and 4 controlled substances and possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, as well as possession of firearms by a convicted felon.
Sgt. Cole explained he had gone to the suspect’s Sand Mountain home to execute a warrant on behalf of his probation officer. He had also, however, received information of drugs being sold from the suspect’s house on Hartline Road.
Cole and another officer arrived at the house to find the suspect not home but his 18-year-old son and a friend on the premises smoking marijuana. Checking the house to ensure the suspect was really not there, they noticed digital scales with marijuana residue and “roaches,” half-smoked marijuana joints, as well as boxes of sandwich-sized plastic bags sitting out on surfaces.
Obtaining a search warrant, the offices found THC oil of the sort used in e-cigarattes, a 22 pistol, a couple of Tramadol and hydrocodone pills, a black powder pistol and two rifles. They also found plastic bags from big gallon-sized ones to sandwich to small jewelry-sized bag.
The suspect arrived during this search. He told the officers the black powder pistol was his wife’s, said Cole, and the rifles had been left by people who owed him money. Cole said the suspect told him the sandwich bags were left over from a time in the past when he did sell marijuana.
Magistrate McCormick bound the case over to Dade Superior.
Comments