10-19-01

Dumb Crooks^TM

A man who authorities said unwittingly boasted about the quality of his marijuana to a police officer over an open telephone line remained in Cumberland County Prison on Tuesday under $25,000 bail.

The bizarre chain of events began when Randy Smeltz, 40, called the Middlesex Police Department on Oct. 2 and asked that an officer call him back about a stolen radio, authorities said.

When police returned the call, someone at Smeltz's home at the Country manor Mobile Home Park picked up the phone but did not answer. The officer stayed on the line and took notes while listening to two men and a women talk about illegal drugs, police said.

After a few minutes, apparently still unaware that an officer was on the line, Smeltz picked up the phone and tried to make a call, authorities said. The officer said hello and engaged Smeltz in a conversation.

"Smeltz told officers to listen to this and inhaled deeply, stating this was good marijuana," police said in a news release about the case.

Smeltz gave police his address, and two officers went to his residence, authorities said. There, police said Sarah Dawson, 37, who also lives at the trailer park, admitted there was marijuana inside.

Officers confiscated marijuana from Smeltz's home as well as a dozen marijuana plants growing in a flower beds at his home and at his mother's home, also in the park.

Smeltz is charged with possession of marijuana and growing marijuana.

There is a tile retailer in western Sydney. They display a lot of tile samples in the front parking lot of the shop for specials and suggested paving combinations.

The shop is on a busy main road. At the front of the shop, bordering the parking lot, they also have a number of palm trees.

One morning he got to work to find that three of the trees had been removed from the parking lot. Funny thing was, he only had to follow the trail of dirt up the street to a house which was about 100 yards away. The trail of dirt led around the side of the house. When he looked into the back garden he saw the trees planted in the garden, bordering a paved barbeque area.

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. -- A would-be bank robber may have learned a lesson about bankers' hours.

The man showed up at a Citizen's Bank branch Monday wearing a mask and carrying a note at 3:08 p.m., eight minutes after the branch lobby closed for the day.

Bank workers watching from a window called police as the man pulled futilely on the locked door, police said. He then fled in a truck.

A police sergeant witnessed the man throwing the mask and a note out the truck window. Both were recovered.

Michael Maslar, 45, surrendered without incident after being stopped by the officer. Police did not find a weapon. Maslar was charged with criminal attempt to commit third-degree robbery and was being held on $500,000 bail.

Police said Maslar, who lives with his 72-year-old mother, is on federal probation for a bank robbery in 1991 in New York state.

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You Might Be a Dispatcher If...

1. You answer your home phone “9-l-l. What is your emergency?”
2. The statement, “No, I don’t know him, he’s my baby’s Daddy,” makes perfect sense to you.
3. Adult police officers not related to you refer to you as “Mother.”
4. You see nothing wrong with eating a Taco Bell Grande meal or a pizza at 3 a.m.
5. Your bladder has the storage capacity of an oil tanker.
6. You believe that the statement, “It sure is quiet!” will bring the wrath of God down upon you.
7. You have spent time explaining to a police officer the difference between a dispatcher and a personal assistant.
8. You spend a large portion of your time explaining the difference between a police department and a cab service.
9. You live in fear of full moons.
10. The media calls you for breaking news stories.
11. It’s midnight and you know where everyone’s kids are.
12. You respond faster to the name ”Dispatch” or “radio” than to your own name.
13. You find yourself talking to friends and family in signals and codes.
14. You hear more alien invasion/abduction stories than Scully and Mulder of the X-Files.
15. Your idea of a good time is an armed robbery with injuries resulting in a high speed chase.
16. You can talk on the phone, listen to the radio and type a request into the computer at the same time without missing anything.

Legal Issues - Confession

PRIVACY RIGHTS VIOLATED BY SECRETLY RECORDING CONVERSATION BETWEEN ACCOMPLICES BEING HELD FOR QUESTIONING.

Two suspects were taken into custody for questioning about an attempted burglary. The defendant and another man were placed in separate rooms, but the accomplice asked to speak with the defendant in private before answering any questions.

The men were placed together in a room and left alone. They discussed the burglary and made incriminating statements which were recorded without their knowledge.

When the men noticed someone moving behind a mirror on the wall of the room in which they were being held, they immediately quit talking. There was no indication in the room that their conversation was being recorded or monitored.

The defendant was charged with attempted burglary and moved to suppress the statements that had been recorded. He contended that the recording was unlawful and that the interception of his oral communication was illegal.

The State responded that the defendant lacked standing to complain because he had no legitimate expectation of privacy in the room in which he was being held. The trial judge granted the defense motion to suppress, and the State appealed.

Holding: In order to show standing to contest the admission of evidence allegedly seized illegally, a defendant must show that he “exhibited an actual subjective expectation of privacy,” and that the privacy expectation was one “which society was prepared to recognize …as objectively reasonable.”

The trial court found that the defendant did have a subjective expectation of privacy in his conversation. Under normal circumstances, though, “society is not prepared to recognize as reasonable an arrestee’s subjective expectation of privacy with regard to conversations that occur in the back of a police car or in a jail or prison.”

This case is unlike those in which a secret recording is made in a place which the public has no reason to think is private. Here, the deputy who granted the request of the defendant and his accomplice to speak with each other privately, led the men to expect that their conversation would not be monitored.

Deliberate misrepresentations made by law enforcement officers to gather incriminating evidence should not be condoned, and there was no evidence that the recording was made for any purpose other than gathering such evidence.

“Where a law enforcement official lulls a defendant into believing his conversation with another will be confidential by allowing the defendant to speak privately with the other individual in a separate room but secretly records the conversation solely for purposes of gathering evidence, the defendant’s subjective expectation of private is objectively reasonable by societal standards.”

In this case, because of the circumstances and the deputy’s actions, the defendant had a legitimate expectation that his conversation would be private. Granting the suppression motion was proper.

COMMENT: As noted in the court’s opinion, prisoners generally have no reasonable expectation of privacy in conversations held in jail cells, police cars, or other places of confinement. Numerous cases have upheld the use of incriminating statements made by prisoners in just such situations. What seemed to bother the court in this case was the implicit promise by the deputy that the two men could speak with each other privately, when in fact their conversation was going to be monitored and recorded. There was nothing per se improper about recording the conversation, but the actions of the deputy created a reasonable expectation that the conversation would not be overheard where such an expectation otherwise would not have existed. State v. Scheineman, 2001 WL 518294 (Tex.App.-San Antonio 2001.)

Ground Forces

As you can see, here is yet another example of Americans of all races, religions, and other persuasions coming together.

From the Chaplain - Marilyn Featherstone

JUDGING OTHERS

A lady in an airport bought a book to read and a package of cookies to eat while she waited for her plane. After she had taken her seat in the terminal and gotten engrossed in her book, she noticed that the man one seat away from her was fumbling to open the package of cookies on the seat between them. She was so shocked that a stranger would eat her cookies that she really didn’t know what to do, so she just reached over and took one of the cookies and ate it. The man didn’t say anything but soon reached over and took another one.

Well, the woman wasn’t going to let him eat them all, so she took another, too. When they were down to one cookie, the man reached over, broke the cookie in half, and got up and left. The lady couldn’t believe the man’s nerve, but soon the announcement came to board the plane.

Once the woman was aboard, still angry at the man’s audacity and puzzling over the incident, she reached into her purse for a tissue. It suddenly dawned on her that she really shouldn’t judge people too harshly—for there on her purse lay her still un-opened package of cookies.

Cyber Space

So Many are False Emails, but have you gotten the Campbell Soup email?

“All of you have 30 seconds to spare! People in New York and DC are going to be having to hit food banks hard. There will be a need in NY for the soup. Below is an easy way to help....

“Campbell's is donating a can of soup to area food banks just by clicking on a football helmet at their website. So let's see which team gets the most support and help some hungry people, too! It's quick, easy, and can be done once a day.

“Here is a hyper link to directly connect you to their website. Just click on this web address http://www.chunky.com/click_for_cans.asp then click on your favorite team's helmet and Campbell has donated a can of soup.

“That is it! Please pass this to a friend or 2,3,4...