The Juneau district attorney says that although he hasn’t made a final charging decision, it’s unlikely he will press felony charges against a 24-year-old man who was allegedly caught smoking a marijuana cigarette on the street, and then eating it to conceal the evidence.
“At this time, it’s unlikely that we’ll file a charge based on the information that we have,” District Attorney David Brower said in an interview at his office Tuesday.
The case originated when a police office patrolling the downtown Juneau area on Aug. 10 smelled marijuana at the intersection of Fourth and Harris Streets.
The officer located a man smoking a marijuana joint, and then observed him eating it, a police spokesman said earlier. The man’s name was not released since he was not arrested.
The district attorney’s office initially requested that the police forward the case to them for “tampering with physical evidence,” which is a class ‘C’ felony offense that can carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $50,000 fine.
That’s a much harsher charge than what would be for possessing marijuana in public, which is a ‘B’ misdemeanor that carries a maximum possible penalty of 90 days in prison and a $2,000 fine.
Brower said that in order to prove the felony charge, his office would have to bring in experts and also spend time convening a grand jury. He said that would be beyond the scope of his office’s resources for the alleged offense.
“The charge would be disproportional to the resources of our office,” he said.
Brower called it a “discretionary decision” that his office frequently runs into. Using a hypothetical scenario, he said the state would be willing to extradite a man in West Virginia if he was wanted for murder in Juneau, but probably not if he was wanted for dealing a little bit of marijuana.
He quipped about the marijuana cigarette, “Our office has more serious charges to deal with than that.”
• Contact reporter Emily Russo Miller at 523-2263 or at emily.miller@juneauempire.com.
Comments (24)
Add commentMore serious charges to deal with.
...like home invasion, assault, burglary, endangerment, stalking... About eight months behind on those. And they can be proven. Meanwhile, the alleged evidence tamperer could swear he was smoking hand rolled Bugler.
Common Sense
Finally,someone's willing to put the brakes on JPD!
JPD
Folks are still blaming JPD for the tampering charge. Try comprehending the story - it was the DA's office that requested that officers forward the charge, it wasn't the officer's decision to trump up a charge just for giggles. This constant harping on the police for doing the job we pay them to do is inane and insipid.
Snagger, how much do you
Snagger, how much do you really know about how JPD operates? Have you ever been on a ride-along? Do you personally know any of the officers? Or are your comments ignorent and not based on fact!
JPD does a great job in comparison to other departments around the state. We are lucky to have a professional and compentent police department. Thanks JPD.
Through my various careers
Through my various careers I've worked with dozens (perhaps a hundred or more) of police services across numerous states. Those here in Alaska are by far the most professional and hardest serving. It's a thankless job. Practically everyone they meet on the job is having a really bad day, either as a perpetrator or as a victim. Then they have all this constant harping when they do follow their duties. An officer who passes up an obvious illegal act right in front of them are failing in their duties. They don't make the laws, and they have very little discretion in how to respond to an illegal act. Cut 'em some slack.
...
This isn't even news worthy.
It's a damn plant, that happens to be a lot less harmful than alcohol.
Legalize It!
My Two Carrots Worth
SMOKE YOUR WEED AT HOME DUMMY!
Northern Lights Cannabis Indica
Next time he should just make weed butter for brownies but hold the rolling paper.
the plot thickens!
Wow.. very cool of Brower to admit that there are more important issues to take care of!
Just keep it inside your home, people.
@saltyfisherman
Brownies are soooooo much more potent anyway. I prefer brownies over any other method, hands down. Plsu, the only link to cancer and weed is the rolling papers used to smoke a j.
and just
where is Mr. Potato head?
It all boils down to the fact
It all boils down to the fact that JPD failed to collect the proper evidence--the guy's turds for the next couple of days. Without that, JPD didn't have $h/t on him.
those whole thing is bizarre.
those whole thing is bizarre. The DA's office requested the charge, then they backed off. They don't request things like that until after they get word from the arresting officer, so this isn't a JPD thing, it's a DA thing. So why all the bellyaching about JPD?
OH! SNAP!!
It wasn't worth their time or their money to pursue and obviously, like so many other arrests in this town the JPD officer became irate because the guy ate the evidence and felt as though he was outsmarted and it bruised his ego..hence the arrest. Oh! SNAP!
OH SNAP! Darkmaidenbot! The
OH SNAP! Darkmaidenbot! The man wasn't arrested, the officer filed charges on him!
Like so many others... you have opened your piehole and made an uneducated comment that leaves you looking like a pathetic cop basher! OH SNAP!!!
A subtle reminder folks...
the officer is making a quick call to the D.A.'s office regarding his next move. (or was it the watch commander?)
Sounds like the DA made the call here, only to backtrack and leave the officer hanging in the wind.
ken dunker II, You might be
ken dunker II,
You might be right on this one. Either way, it's a funny story and I have really enjoyed all the assorted views that have been posted on the forum.
I hope the perp now has the good sense to go off in the woods or go up Basin Road if he wants to get stoned. There was really no excuse for his behavior. This isn't New York. It's not like Juneau is devoid of good stoning spots.
Fume: That is so right on!
***
buNNy
must be a JSD graduate.... Not to trash the students in the JSD system, but investing in excess of $18,000 per year per student and getting failing results recently reported by the Juneau Empire about the school district leaves this taxpayer wondering where the cash is going? Obviously it is not into education...
Common sense or lack of same!
How this got further than the cop just badmouthing the guy and running his butt off the street with a nasty bunch of anti-pot vomit, is the funny part. It doesn't matter if it's JPD or the DA. Common sense should've somehow been found and we would've been denied the latest look at the ignorant viewpoints of the hilarious 'send potheads to jail' crowd. Peace!
Fluetsched again
Trashing JSD students is exactly what you did with your ignorant post.
In the paper version of the Empire, Corey Pavitt's photo is directly below the word "Marijuana", which makes it seem like he's the marijuana eater. LOL.
really really?
I never said the man was arrested? I said "like so many other arrests in this town" in reference to cops arresting people for minor things just because they "can". You read way too much into these comments...and you know what they say about one who assumes....
To pick a nit, if you refer
To pick a nit, if you refer to this as being "like so many other arrests", than you infer that this was an arrest.