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shortyflow
M.I.A.M.I
Joined: 24 Apr 2008
Posts: 682
Location: In a Bandage Box
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 Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 10:59 am Post subject: This guy got away with it. |
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MILLERSBURG Ð A Millersburg man accused of selling $50 worth of marijuana in 2002 was found not guilty in Holmes County Common Pleas Court on Tuesday.
Mark Allen Keith, 43, of 163 E. Jackson St.West Jackson Street business.
He was arrested by Holmes County Sheriff’s deputies as part of a larger investigation in October, and released on 10 percent of a $10,000 bond.
On Tuesday, the informant, Saunya Fry, 32, testified she became an informant with the Medway Drug Enforcement Agency in 1998 and since then has assisted with nearly 100 undercover drug buys in Wayne, Holmes and Medina counties.
Fry is incarcerated in the Holmes County Jail awaiting trial on charges of forgery and theft of checks.
She testified she entered the business from a back alley, wearing a microphone, and after talking with Keith about not being able to find marijuana to buy, Fry said Keith offered to sell her some, and went out to his vehicle to get it.
Former Medway Agent Guy Polzel said he searched Fry prior to dropping her off at the business. She had no drugs, money or weapons on her at that time.
He said he waited in a car for 30 minutes to an hour until he was given the go-ahead by Medway and Millersburg police surveillance officers in another vehicle to enter the establishment through the front door.
He said he gave Fry the $50 with which to pay for the drugs and witnessed her talking with Keith, but did not see the actual exchange of marijuana and cash, only hand movements.
The surveillance audio tape made of the transaction was played in court, but the sound quality was poor with ambient noise drowning out much of the conversation between Fry and Keith.
Polzel testified Fry turned around after the exchange and lifted a baggy halfway out of her shirt pocket to let him know of the purchase. She went into the ladies room to check the marijuana as she had been told to do by Keith.
After leaving the bar, Polzel testified he again searched Fry for contraband, and the baggy of marijuana was given to Millersburg Police Sgt. Scott Akins.
Akins testified he field tested the green vegetable matter and found it to be marijuana, and locked the evidence in a locker at the Millersburg Police station.
Assistant Prosecutor Jeffrey Mullen said the alleged drug was laboratory tested last week.
Judge Thomas D. White questioned the timing of the tests, made more than a year after the initial seizure of the sample and the week before the trial, and did not allow testimony on the testing.
Keith’s attorney Mark Clark argued field testing and visual inspection is not adequate to prove the material in the baggy was marijuana, alluding to the fact the seasoning oregano can be mistaken for marijuana.
Mullen argued the drug trafficking indictment lists the attempt to sell drugs as reason enough to convict, whether or not the matter was real marijuana or not.
White ruled the state did not provide evidence that proved beyond a reasonable doubt the material in the seized baggy was marijuana, and acquitted Keith.
Mullen said afterward he will not seek an appeal. |
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hayyez
Antiprohibitionist
Joined: 01 Oct 2007
Posts: 27
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| Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2009 2:05 pm Post subject: |
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| a 4 year snitch and over 100 busts wow f NARCS! |
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shortyflow
M.I.A.M.I
Joined: 24 Apr 2008
Posts: 682
Location: In a Bandage Box
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| Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2009 6:31 pm Post subject: |
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I was wondering how she would not have gotten caught up. I mean it was only three county's that's crazy.
Wonder if she ended up moving after her name was in the article? |
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