05-30-03

A Crystal River, Florida man was arrested Thursday after deputies accused him of leaning into the driver's side of a Citrus County sheriff's patrol car and shifting the vehicle into drive, an arrest report said.

Deputies were at the Crystal Acres Mobile Home Park off State Road 44 just east of Crystal River investigating a traffic case.

Deputies said Carl William Pottschmidt, 32, a park resident, shifted the car into drive and caused it to make contact with another Sheriff's Office vehicle, the report said. Both vehicles sustained minor damage.

Pottschmidt, who was reportedly intoxicated, told law authorities someone dared him to do what he did.

Pottschmidt remained at the Citrus County jail Friday afternoon with bail set at $5,000.

He was held on charges of burglary of an unarmed, unoccupied vehicle and criminal mischief.

The three teenage burglars inside her home fled on foot when she arrived, but Glynna Hamilton made sure they didn't get far.

Hamilton came home Monday afternoon to find a strange car in her driveway, her front door open and eight rifles and shotguns against a wall, Collier County sheriff's officials said.

When the burglars noticed Hamilton had returned home, they escaped through a back door. Hamilton, however, ran into the house, grabbed a kitchen knife, then went back outside and slashed all four of their tires, according to the sheriff's report.

The suspects, forced to try to flee the area on foot, were caught about an hour later.

Used with permission
Www.dumbcrooks.com
© 2003 Dumb Crooks

TCLEOSE Training Requirement Chart

Legal Issues - Search and Seizure

FACTS CONNECTING SUSPECT TO HOUSE WHERE DRUGS WERE FOUND WERE SUFFICIENT TO ESTABLISH POSSESSION.

While officers were watching a suspected “stash house,” they saw two persons enter the house, remain for a few minutes, and leave with a shoe box. After placing the box in the back of their vehicle, the men drove away.

Officers followed the vehicle. When the driver failed to signal a turn, he was stopped for the traffic violation. Both of the occupants were arrested when the officers discovered that the driver had no identification, and the passenger was wanted on outstanding warrants.

In an inventory of the vehicle, two kilograms of cocaine were found in the shoe box. Based on this information and evidence, the officers sought a search warrant for the house the men had visited.

While this was happening, an officer who was watching the house saw the defendant walk up to the house and use a key to enter through the front door. Believing they needed to secure the house to prevent the defendant from destroying evidence, the officers knocked on the front door, intending to ask for permission to enter.

The officers heard footsteps, and blinds on one side of the door moved, but no one answered the door. An officer spotted the defendant trying to leave through a back door, wearing only his boxer shorts.

The suspect was detained, and gave the officers permission to enter the house while he got dressed. They waited in the house until the warrant was obtained.

During the execution of the search warrant, 68 kilograms of cocaine and 61 pounds of marijuana were found in a locked bedroom inside the house, along with drug paraphernalia. The key to the room had been taken from one of the men arrested in the traffic stop, and not from the defendant.

The bedroom identified as belonging to the defendant contained various items of personal property, including a false identification and Social Security card and several thousand dollars in cash, but no drugs other than some “seed material” thought to be marijuana.

The defendant was convicted of felony possession of cocaine with intent to deliver. He appealed on the grounds that the evidence was insufficient to link him with the cocaine discovered in the locked “packaging room” in the house.

Holding: “Mere presence at the same place where cocaine is found is not enough to obtain a conviction for possession under Texas law.” The State must prove that the defendant exercised “care, custody, control or management” over the contraband, and that the defendant knew that he possessed contraband.

The jury in this case could have convicted the defendant under the law of parties if it found that another person was guilty of possession and the defendant, “acting with intent to promote or assist the commission of the offense,” “solicit[ed], encourage[ed], direct[ed], aid[ed], or attempt[ed], to aid the other person to commit the offense.”

A fair inference from the evidence was that the driver of the vehicle, who had a key to the packaging room, obtained the cocaine found in his vehicle from that room. The evidence also would support a finding that the same person had care, custody, control and management over the cocaine in the house.

The defendant was living in the bedroom next to the packaging room, and there was no evidence that anyone else lived in the house. He did not answer the door when a uniformed officer knocked, but hurriedly tried to leave by the back door, wearing only boxer shorts.

The defendant’s action reasonably suggested guilty knowledge on his part. It was reasonable to infer that he knew about the cocaine and marijuana in the packaging room. The jury could have found that the defendant was living in the stash house to guard the cocaine, or to make it appear to be a legitimate residence.

The facts known to the jury supported their finding that the defendant was guilty of possession as a party to the offense. Salazar v. State, No. 01-02-00045 (Tex. App. – Houston, 11-27-02).

1. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.
2. If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be "meetings."
3. There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."
4. People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.
5. And when God, who created the entire universe with all of its glories, decides to deliver a message to humanity, He WILL NOT use, as His messenger, a person on cable TV with a bad hairstyle.
6. You should not confuse your career with your life.
7. No matter what happens, somebody will find a way to take it too seriously.
8. When trouble arises and things look bad, there is always one individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command. Very often, that individual is crazy.
9. Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.
10. Never lick a steak knife.
11. Take out the fortune before you eat the cookie.
12. The most destructive force in the universe is gossip.
13. You will never find anybody who can give you a clear and compelling reason why we observe daylight savings time.
14. You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests that you think she's pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment.
15. There comes a time when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday. That time is age eleven.
16. The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above average drivers.
17. The main accomplishment of almost all organized protests is to annoy people who are not in them.
18. A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person (this is very important. Pay attention. It never fails.)
19. Your friends love you anyway.

    

What kind of example are you setting for those around you? This applies to everyone, but especially parents.

If a child lives with criticism, he learns to condemn.

If a child lives with hostility, he learns to fight.

If a child lives with fear, he learns to be apprehensive.

If a child lives with encouragement, he learns self-confident.

If a child lives with tolerance, he will learn to be patient.

If a child lives with praise, he learns to be appreciative.

If a child lives with acceptance, he learns to love.

If a child lives with approval, he learns to like himself.

If a child lives with recognition, he learns to have a goal.

If a child lives with fairness, he learns what justice is.

If a child lives with honesty, he learns what truth is.

If a child lives with sincerity, he learns to have faith in himself and those around him.

If a child lives with love, he learns that the world is a wonderful place to live.

Thought for the Day

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.