State House Drug Inquiry Kept Under Wraps

UPDATE: The marijuana that looks like dog turds displayed with the story is not the marijuana that was actually found in the State House. Only a copy of a picture of the original marijuana was found and it wasn't suitable for newsprint.




There is an unbelievable follow-up to the Alabama State House Drug Dealer story that broke near the end of the legislative session in today's Montgomery Advertiser. I can't quite get my head around all of it.

Here's the skinny. A janitor placed a backpack with two pounds of marijuana inside former legislator Bobby Humphreys office in 2006. Humphreys found the backpack, opened it and discovered that it contained 2 pounds of pot, baggies and scales. He called security. Security looked at video tapes of people entering the State House, matched the bag to a janitor named Lorenza Hooks, who admitted the bag was his....but not the weed. Yeah right....I suppose we have evil, pot smoking, State House elves running loose in Montgomery, that plant marijuana in the backpacks of unsuspecting janitors

Hooks was never charged for the pot and continued as a State House employee for two more years until he was suspended after being named as a suspect in a shooting. Quality staff that guy!

But wait...there's more. After Hooks was named by the shooting victim as the guy who shot him a grand jury returned a 'no bill' on the case and turned him loose. Only then did the legislative council decide to fire him. The House legislative council did not know about the drugs until that meeting in April 2009. Hooks personnel file did not contain anything about the drugs and did not contain the pictures from the security camera even though House Security, administrative asst. to the clerk Don Ladner and Clerk Greg Pappas were all notified the day the drugs were found.

When Hooks was finally suspended after the shooting he was allowed to use his leave time to continue on the House payroll and to receive health benefits. According to a note in Hooks' personnel file, he had 336 sick leave hours and 229 annual leave hours. Three unidentified House employees also donated 160 hours of leave time to Hooks, which ultimately kept him on the House payroll until Dec. 1, 2008.

Wonder who those three House employees were?

You have to go and read the rest of this story.

My guess? Mr. Hooks was selling to some very high ranking officials inside the Alabama State House. People whose names we would all recognize. They covered for him. How else could this guy can haul two pounds of marijuana into the state house, get nailed but never charged for it? If it were anyone else they would have been charged with possession with intent to distribute and trafficking. How many young black men have been arrested, prosecuted and convicted of much lesser infractions involving marijuana in Montgomery?

I say we call all representatives and senators into a special session where they will be drug tested using a hair test, because urine tests for drugs are much too easy to manipulate. That will give us a baseline on who smokes pot, snorts coke, smokes meth or uses opiate based drugs. Then they can be charged, prosecuted and imprisoned like the 'common riff raff' that they rule from Goat Hill.

Oh....the weed in that picture up top looks like total bunk schwag. A commenter over on REDDIT asked "Ugh, is that dog shit in those baggies?" I wouldn't even smoke it. "It's Labrador man" ~Tommy Chong~ You'd think with that 62% pay increase the members of the House and Senate could afford the good stuff. Somebody needs to be prosecuted for making our state look worse than usual with that terrible representation of Alabama weed.


And here's another interesting tidbit...The day after Alvin Holmes took the mic on the State House floor and gave the low down on what was going on Speaker Seth Hammett (who is mentioned in the full story) announced he would not seek re-election. Coincidence?

I hope all of you who read this will commence writing LTE's at once. And please take a moment to vote this up on Reddit and DIGG

More thoughts on the State House Drug Dealer

The more I think about the State House Drug Dealer story the stranger it gets.

When, in the entire history of Alabama, has a black man simply said "It's not mine" when caught with weed and gotten away with it? Never! And he was caught on video camera and we all know that video cameras don't lie. Lorenza Hooks even admitted the bag was his.

Who in the Alabama State House has the power to keep those files related to the marijuana out of his personnel file?

Who in the Alabama State House has the power to make the ABI come to the conclusion that there wasn't enough evidence to charge Mr. Hooks even though he was caught on video and admitted the bag containing the marijuana, scales and baggies was his?

Who in the Alabama State House has the power to make a grand jury return a 'no bill' in a shooting case where the victim identified Mr. Hooks as one of the shooters?

Will there be another investigation? If so, who will carry it out? Troy King? Oh please NO...he couldn't investigate his own asshole with a flash light and a mirror. I wouldn't trust the ABI to conduct another investigation considering the first conclusion they came to. Who does that leave? State Police? Would it be enough to get the feds involved? Seems to me since Rep. Alvin Holmes said his life was threatened that would be enough for federal involvement. About the only ones far enough removed from the good ole boy network in Montgomery to conduct an independent investigation would be the FBI.

This thing is HUGE y'all. HUGE! Call me a conspiracy theorist if you want but by the time this is over some big names in Alabama politics are going to take a very hard fall.

So, who was the 'State House Drug Dealer' Dealing Drugs To?

According to the Montgomery Advertiser State Rep. Alvin Holmes (D- Montgomery) claims that a janitor set up shop in the former office of a State Rep. and dealt drugs out of that office at the Alabama State House.

State Rep. Alvin Holmes, D-Montgomery, said he’s no stranger to death threats, but he’s concerned that someone who was allegedly involved in dealing drugs out of the State House is threatening his life.

Holmes informed the House that there are rumors circulating that there is “a hit out for him” in connection to the firing of House employee who allegedly conducted a drug operation on the fifth floor of the State House.

“I’ve not received any telephone calls or anything like that,” he said. “But the rumor that has been reported to me is that they’re going to get somebody to get me.”

I have four things to say.

1. Who were the drugs being dealt to?

2. In order to find out the answer to #1 I say we drug test all elected officials and state employees and find out. If I have to be drug tested to work at Wal-Mart, then those elected to run government, control the checkbook of the entire state and be in a position of power, which they use to put other people in prison for using drugs, certainly should be drug tested. And they should be in line way, way, way ahead of me.

3. If drugs were legal then this would be a moot conversation and Rep. Holmes would not fear for his life.

4. Many, many, many politicians use drugs. They have very demanding schedules. Amphetamines and cocaine are the choice drugs of most elected officials.


Power drugs.

Montgomery D.A. Investigates State House Drug Dealer

There is a follow up today to the State House Drug Dealer story that first appeared in Sunday's Montgomery Advertiser. Today's story is about the Montgomery County D.A.'s office opening their own investigation into the matter.

Here's the money quote:

State Rep. Craig Ford, D-Gadsden, said that the investigation could have an impact on hiring and employment practices in the future, including whether there will be drug testing of House employees.


I say we drug test every elected official in the State House. Normally, I am against that kind of thing, but these are the jackasses who sit on their thrones and pass laws that put other people in prison for smoking marijuana, or using harder drugs, when many of them probably use drugs when no one is looking. They are the very first ones that should be tested and they should be tested every other day as long as they are elected. Every other day would be better than just random testing because most illicit substances have a 72 hour half-life in ones system.

After the Alabama Bureau of Investigation questioned Hooks and had the drugs analyzed, the agency determined that it did not have enough to prosecute.

And that is the thing that gets to me the most. How did the ABI come to that conclusion? Lorenza Hooks admitted to owning the bag and the video camera showed him putting the bag in the empty legislator's office. The ABI investigated and conducted tests to see if the marijuana was actually marijuana. It was. How does that equate to 'not enough evidence to prosecute'?

Someone commented on the original post here a few days ago that the only reason a person isn't charged when they are caught red handed is if they are an informant for the police or they are rolling on someone. I wonder if that is the case here?

REDDIT

State House Drug Dealer Plot Thickens

There is yet another story out today in the Montgomery Advertiser covering the State House Drug Dealer scandal and it is looking for all the world like the Clerk of the House, Greg Pappas, is up to his neck in the whole thing. Today he stopped talking to the newspaper.

Now, I don't know what powers the Clerk of the House has, but I'd wager that he doesn't have the power to cover this up all by himself. He doesn't have the power to make the ABI decide not to prosecute Lorenza Hooks after they saw him on video camera leaving the bag full of marijuana in an empty office. I'd bet he also doesn't have the power to make a Grand Jury return a 'no bill' when Lorenza Hooks was named as the shooter by the person who got shot. It could be that Greg Pappas was trying to help the guy keep his job, in which case, he would be a good guy in my book. For the record, I've only communicated with Greg Pappas on a couple of occasions when trying to set up a rally at the State House. He has a great radio announcer voice and seemed genuinely nice.

It appears, however, that Mr. Pappas violated some rules when he donated 80 of the 160 hours of leave time donated to Lorenza Hooks to keep him on the payroll even though he was suspended. According to the Montgomery Advertiser...

"Under Alabama Code 36-26-35.2, state employees are allowed to donate their accrued and unused annual sick or com­pensatory leave time to another state employee who has qualifi­ed for catastrophic sick leave or maternity leave."

There are other BIG, POWERFUL people involved in this....have to be.

REDDIT

Loretta Nall to Co-Host Drug Truth Network TONIGHT!

Tonight at 6:30 p.m. CST I will be co-hosting The Drug Truth Network Hour with fellow reformer and sensational host Dean Becker. Dean and I will be discussing the zero-tolerance principal Ricky Nichols whose estranged wife was recently arrested for providing sex, alcohol and marijuana to one of Principal Nichols students, the Alabama State House Drug Dealer Scandal and Georgia Rep. Tommy Benton (R- Jefferson) who recently advocated caning marijuana smokers, executing marijuana business people and turned a constituents email over to police all because he disagree with constituents position on marijuana and the drug war.

Tonight is also a pledge drive for The Drug Truth Network. Dean Becker does a remarkable job spreading the truth about the drug war. He often has hapless drug warriors on his show to skewer live on the air. In his home base of Houston he's convinced many law enforcement officials of the failure of the drug war and won them over to the right side of the fight. His show airs on tons of networks across the nation. Please tune in and pitch in a contribution to Drug Truth Network tonight at 6:30 p.m. CST.

Tune in via the internet at KPFT

Below is a note from Dean.

This Sunday, on the Drug Truth Network hour we will interview Loretta Nall, reformer extraordinaire, playing some Cultural Baggage songs (and Shotgun Lobotomy as well, my last two bands before getting into drug reform/hosting radio shows), lots of satirical PSA's and asking for your pledge of support.

We have nearly 70 radio stations, but none of them pay me a dime and the mothership of DTN needs your support.

KPFT, Houston is one of the 5 Pacifica affiliates (and from my perspective the one that best follows Lew Hills intent.

(No listener calls on the air this week, but we do need to hear from, Toll Free across N. America, call in to 1-877-9-420-420

Please listen in Sunday, August 16 at 6:30 to 7:30 PM central time and call in your pledge to 713-526-5738.

Basic membership in the Pacifica Foundation is $25 for students and seniors, $35 for those in between.

Thanks for your show of support over the years. (8 Years this coming October)

Sincerely

Dean Becker
Producer - Drug Truth Network
Speaker - Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
713-849-6869
Drug Truth Network

Drug Dealing Claim Raises Questions

My letter regarding Rep. Alvin Holmes claim that a drug dealer was operating out of the Alabama State House was published in today's Montgomery Advertiser.

Drug Dealing Claim Raises Questions

In response to Rep. Alvin Holmes' claim that a drug dealer set up shop in the Statehouse and now has a claim on his life, I have four things to say.

# Who were the drugs being dealt to?

# In order to find out the answer to that, I say we drug-test all elected officials and state employees and find out. If I have to be drug-tested to work at Wal-Mart, and kids have to be drug tested to play in the band, then those elected to run government, control the checkbook of the entire state and be in a position of power, which they use to put other people in prison for using drugs, certainly should be drug-tested.

And they should be in line way, way, way ahead of anyone else. I'll even supply the cups.

# If drugs were legal, then this would be a moot conversation and Rep. Holmes would not fear for his life.

# Anyone who thinks politicians don't use drugs is smoking way stronger stuff than I am.

Loretta Nall
Alexander City

Stupid Alabama Legislature Tricks

Every year in the Alabama Legislature there are a host of really stupid, idiotic and completely pointless bills. So far this year I have discovered two that really stand out. I'm sure there are many more...but let's start here.

The first one is HB147 which, would make it a crime not to have a tax stamp attached to any crack cocaine rocks you might sell.

Now, crack cocaine is illegal....100 times more illegal if you are black than if you are white and use powder cocaine. I don't think anyone selling crack rocks is going to suddenly be-bop it up to the court house and buy tax stamps to affix to the corners of their sandwich baggies.

So, what exactly is the purpose of this legislation? My guess is that it serves two nefarious purposes.

1. To make it easier for the state to seize peoples homes, cars, bank accounts and any other property that the state takes a shine to. Someone selling small amounts to support their own habit wouldn't really be making any money....but with this law every rock sold would have tax affixed to it and although the bill does not say how much each tax stamp is I would be willing to wager that it is very high. So, say a person wasn't a 'dealer' who sold vast quantities and never used any money made for anything other than to support their own habit. They never bought a house, car, didn't have a bank account processing those funds and never bought any other property with the funds. The state would still be able to seize everything they did own, even if it was gained through acceptable means, because of 'back taxes' owed on the crack cocaine they sold.

2. To make it harder for people convicted of selling crack cocaine to get their voting rights restored after they complete their sentence. One of the requirements for having ones voting rights restored is that all fines, restitution and so forth be paid in full. Adding a tax to any illicit drug makes it almost certain that voting rights will never be restored. This specifically targets the Black community since so many more black people are in prison for crack cocaine than white people. And that's just the way they want it.

Another stupid bill is HB2 which, makes selling glass tubes that could be used to smoke crack illegal.

Do they really think that drug users are so uncreative that they will suddenly stop smoking crack if glass tubes are removed from the market? Do they think that glass tubes are the only way to ingest crack cocaine? PLEASE!!! I've seen people use a coke can and cigarette ashes to smoke it. I've seen them use a straw and tin foil and a host of other things. Marijuana pipes and bongs are already against the law here....but that hasn't stopped anyone from smoking pot. A pipe can be made of an apple, toilet paper tube and tin foil, a tampon paper, a coke can with small holes punched in it...the list goes on and on. Will the legislature eventually move to outlaw every common household item that could potentially be used to ingest an illicit substance?

The legislative definition of 'drug paraphernalia" is as follows...

"(a) Definition of "drug paraphernalia". - As used in this section, the term "drug paraphernalia" means all equipment, products, and materials of any kind which are used, intended for use, or designed for use, in planting, propagating, cultivating, growing, harvesting, manufacturing, compounding, converting, producing, processing, preparing, testing, analyzing, packaging, repackaging, storing, containing, concealing, injecting, ingesting, inhaling, or otherwise introducing into the human body a controlled substance in violation of the controlled substances laws of this state.

Looks to me that under that definition they have effectively outlawed, air, water, sunshine, dirt, bat shit, Miracle Grow, sandwich baggies, kitchen scales, shovels, hoes, rakes, garden shears....man that is quite a list and is very short considering all of the things that could fit into this overly broad definition of 'drug paraphernalia'.

I can't help but wonder what they are thinking when they come up with shit like this. What it says to me is that they know they are powerless to stop drug use in the state of Alabama. In light of that, they have decided to try and pass any useless, feel-good piece of legislation that will make them look good to their constituents, even if the bill itself does NOTHING to stop illegal drug use. These kinds of bills DO, however, infringe on the rights of people who don't have anything to do with drugs. That's one of the scarier parts. People who clamor for these laws do not realize that it will affect them at some point. Sadly, that is what government has become. A weapon to be wielded against others to stop them from doing something they want to do or to force them to do something they don't want to do by threat of government force.

Will they ever realize that they cannot legislate natural human behavior, that they will not ever be able to legislate drug use out of existence, that they are wasting our time and money sitting around debating useless legislation like this?

One day, probably not in my lifetime, they will realize that drug use is a health, social and family issue and not a criminal justice one. Hopefully they will also realize all of the damage their laws have done to our once free society and to the human lives that their laws helped further destroy. I am not holding out for them ever being held accountable for their actions.





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Evidence that the Drug War is an incentive for Police Corruption

This is a long read but worth every second of your time. Sadly, it took the murder of an innocent 92 year-old-woman to bring these corrupt, illegal and widespread police tactics employed in the drug war to light. This type of lying, illegal searches and mistreatment of the citizens happens every day, on every police force in the US. Death of innocents, as a result, also happens a great deal more that most folks are aware of. It is way past time to end the drug war and to restore our constitutional and civil rights & liberties.

Two Atlanta Cops Plead Guilty in Woman's Death
Atlanta Journal Constitution

What started with a few bags of marijuana being planted near a
suspected street dealer quickly spiraled out of control. Narcotics
officers lied to a judge, illegally broke into 92-year-old Kathryn
Johnston's house, fired 39 shots at her -- and then one handcuffed her
as she lay bleeding before he planted drugs in her basement.

The events of Nov. 21, outlined in court documents, were almost an
"inevitable" outcome of a troubled police unit, a federal prosecutor
said Thursday as two former Atlanta narcotics officers pleaded guilty
and promised to cooperate in a wider probe of the department.

According to investigators, Atlanta narcotics officers hoped to
satisfy goals set by police commanders by repeatedly lying to obtain
search warrants, barging into homes and sometimes restraining innocent
people, an atmosphere that led to tragedy.

The sweeping accusations were made in the guilty-plea agreements of
Gregg Junnier and Jason R. Smith, two on a team of officers that took
part in the botched raid at Johnston's home.

The deceit Nov. 21 didn't end with a faked warrant, according the
officers' plea agreements -- they conspired to cover their actions by
asking a confidential informant to lie for them. Instead, the
informant went to authorities, giving birth to one of the biggest
scandals to hit the Atlanta Police Department in years.

On Thursday, Police Chief Richard Pennington and other department
leaders stood stone-faced as federal officials talked at a news
conference about misconduct on their watch.

"This has been a very painful five months in the police department,"
Pennington said. "The mayor and I, we wanted one thing to occur, to
get to the bottom of this and let justice be meted [out]."

Falsified Search Warrants

In rapid succession Thursday, Smith and Junnier heard their
indictments for felony murder read in court, pleaded guilty in state
court to voluntary manslaughter and other state charges, then pleaded
guilty in federal court on charges of conspiracy to violate a person's
civil rights ending in death.

"Junnier and other officers falsified affidavits for search warrants
to be considered productive officers and to meet APD's performance
targets," according to a federal exhibit released Thursday. "They
believed that these ends justified their illegal 'Fluffing' or
falsifying of search warrants.

"Because they obtained search warrants based on unreliable and false
information, [the officers] had on occasion searched residences where
there were no drugs and the occupants were not drug dealers."

The officers' callous attitude was evident the day of the killing,
said Fulton County prosecutor Peter Johnson. After getting a tip from
a suspected low-level drug dealer that a kilo of cocaine was in a home
at 933 Neal Street, Junnier said they could get a confidential
informant to make a buy there to prove there were drugs there.

"Or not," Smith said, according to prosecutors' account.

The officers chose the latter and lied to a judge that they had sent
an informant to the home, according to the plea agreement.

At an evening news conference, Greg Jones, head of Atlanta's FBI
office, called the officers' conduct "deplorable" and said the agency
will pursue "additional allegations of corruption that other Atlanta
police officers may have engaged in similar conduct."

U.S. Attorney David Nahmias called Johnston's death "almost
inevitable" because of such widespread activity and vowed a
far-reaching investigation into departmental practices. He said he
expects to find other cases where officers lied or relied on bad
information.

"It's a very ongoing investigation into just how wide the culture of
misconduct extends," Nahmias said. "We'll dig until we can find
whatever we can."

Nahmias said: "The department must look forward to reform itself." But
he added "ongoing public scrutiny" on APD is needed to make that happen.

The news conference was held at Lindsay Street Baptist Church, a few
blocks from Johnston's home. It is the same church where Pennington
and Mayor Shirley Franklin faced an angry crowd of residents just days
after the shooting.

Pennington didn't hesitate to respond to questions that police
higher-ups set arrest goals.

"The Atlanta Police Department does not have a quota system," he said.
"Yes, we get on officers for performance. Any corporate system does
that."

"We have enough crime in Atlanta; we don't have to get quotas," he
said.

Community Not Satisfied

Thursday's event at the church got dicey again. State Rep. Able Mable
Thomas, who represents the area, took federal prosecutors to task.
"The community is not satisfied with the plea bargain," she said. "The
reality is the police are not off our back."

Nahmias tried to step in to get the conference back to a
question-and-answer, when an irked Thomas waved him off. "The federal
government just says close it!"

Markel Hutchins, the Johnston family's spokesman since the shooting,
stepped up to the bank of microphones, saying, "We are quite
comfortable this will be used as a tool to rid this community of this
conduct."

During Thursday's state plea, a fidgeting and barely audible Smith
leaned forward toward Fulton County Superior Court Judge Michael
Johnson and said: "I wanted to say how regretful I am ... and sorry."

Junnier chose not to say anything, but his outspoken attorney, Rand
Csehy, told the judge: "It's a case where the fish rotted from the
head down," referring to police brass not properly training narcotics
officers and turning a blind eye to improper tactics in that unit.

"Hopefully [the pleas] will reverberate through the police department"
and help the narcotics unit clean up its act, Csehy said.

Under the plea deals, Junnier, who came forward to federal authorities
Dec. 11, would get 10 years in federal prison and Smith would get 12
years and seven months.

The maximum penalty for the federal charge they accepted is life in
prison. Their sentences could be shortened if they provide
investigators with "substantial assistance" in their ongoing probe of
the department.

In state court, multiple charges of felony murder as well as burglary
and other charges were dropped.

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said his office has
started looking at hundreds of cases in which the officers were
involved. He said "as soon as we find out" corruption was involved,
those convictions will be undone.

Smith, 35, a former Georgia National Guard officer who served in Iraq,
was indicted on 13 felonies, including four counts of felony murder,
violation of an oath by a public officer, two counts of giving false
statements, two counts of burglary and one count each of aggravated
assault with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment and perjury.

Smith's attorney, John Garland, said his client "was trained to lie by
fellow officers to establish probable cause."

Junnier, 40, with nine years in the narcotics unit, was charged with
three counts of felony murder, violation of oath by a public officer,
criminal solicitation, two counts of burglary and one count each of
aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and making a false statement.

A third officer, Arthur Tesler, 40, is charged with violating his oath
as an officer, making false statements and false imprisonment. Tesler,
with eight months as a narcotics officer, vowed to fight charges
against him.

His attorney, William McKenney, said Tesler was "pleased the grand
jury listened to him. They saw [the more serious felonies] as baseless
charges. The imprisonment [charge] is factually flawed and will be
attacked."

Former Prison Guards Sentenced for Smuggling Drugs

I posted about this a couple months back.

Daily Home


By David Atchison
08-19-2008

ASHVILLE — Two former state correctional officers were sentenced to 5-year split sentences Monday for smuggling drugs into a prison.
St. Clair County Circuit Court Judge Charles Robinson sentenced Tommie Borden, 34, of Gadsden and Mark Clark, 27, of Anniston to each serve two years in prison, followed by three years of probation.

In June, a St. Clair County jury found both former correctional officers guilty of second-degree promoting prison contraband. The correctional officers smuggled a small amount of marijuana into the St. Clair Correctional Facility in Springville.

Before the sentencing, Assistant District Attorney Joey Stevens told Robinson this case wasn’t about the small amount of marijuana, but about the betrayal of the public’s trust by officers who were sworn to uphold the laws of the state.

“They earned a prison sentence,” Stevens said.

“They say there’s more dope in prison than there are out on the streets,” Judge Robinson said.

And therein lies the rub. What is the point of sending someone to prison over drugs? To keep them from getting more drugs? That obviously doesn't work. To prevent others from doing drugs? Well, that hasn't worked either. To hope that one day the government will lock up every 'drug user' 'drug dealer' in the U.S.? Laughable. Nearly every citizen in the US would then occupy a prison cell.....if enough cells could be built and tax dollars collected to house them.

The drug war is an abject failure. Let's scrap it and move on.