UPDATE: 3:40 p.m. – County attorney Chris Smith has acknowledged receiving a letter to dismiss the charge in the case. He said the case was dismissed without prejudice, which means the charge could be refiled.
Smith said he reviewed the manner in which the paperwork seeking charges was completed and determined there was "nothing inappropriate with the affidavit filed by the officer."
There was probable cause to pursue the case in the court system, he said, but due to some of the questions that arose that will not happen at this point.
Among the questions raised was how long it had taken the officer to search his vehicle after the woman in question was in the patrol car. Smith said the search occurred less than 24 hours later but after an officer had used the car for another shift.
The investigating officer, however, checked with the officer from the other shift and determined no other suspect had been in the backseat of the car.
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Questions about the way an Arkansas City police officer investigated a recent drug case have led police chief Sean Wallace to ask that a drug-possession charge be dropped against a woman arrested in connection with an incident this summer, police and court officials acknowledged Tuesday.
Police would not identify the 50-year-old woman by name but said she was arrested last Wednesday on a possession of cocaine warrant. A person claiming to be a family member of the woman, brought the issue to the attention of reporters during NewsCow’s Friday Live Blog.
Wallace was contacted by a KSOK reporter Tuesday in regard to the incident and then issued a written statement about the matter to a number of news agencies.
Here is his explanation of events:
The incident occurred in August when the woman was placed in a patrol car at the scene of a disturbance. She was not arrested at that time and was released from custody.
But an officer ? whose name was not released, but has served the department for only a "short time" ? searched his vehicle and found what he believed to be drugs. Officers often search their vehicles, Wallace said, to see if suspects have dumped anything in fear of being caught with it.
The officer said the drugs he found were not in the car before the woman got in but were there afterward.
The officer conducted a field test that indicated the substance was methamphetamine and filed an affidavit for an arrest warrant with the Cowley County Attorney’s office. Subsequent testing by the Kansas Bureau of Investigations determined the substance was cocaine, not meth.
When the test results returned this fall, a warrant for cocaine possession was signed by Judge Jim Pringle, but shortly after the woman’s arrest, the charges were dropped.
Wallace said that is because the officer who filed the case, being new to the force, was not familiar with the fact that two field tests must be performed on a substance or it may turn up a false positive for meth. Also, the officer was not able to find the woman in the days following the discovery of the drugs so that she could be properly interviewed and questioned about what was found.
Wallace said he believes there was probable cause to sign and issue a warrant. However, he acknowledged that the difference in test results and the fact that the woman was not located for an interview led to a decision to drop the charge.
The chief wrote a letter to the county attorney asking that the case be dismissed.
County attorney Chris Smith acknowledged the arrest had happened but said he was unable to comment further on the matter.
Check back with NewsCow for more on this story as it is available
