News » Pot Bust Video Highlights Police Lapses





It certainly seemed like an open-and-shut case – police pull over a car, walks up to the driver’s door, and spies driver stuffing a bag of weed in his pants. The cop then brings in a drug-sniffing dog to prove probable-cause for a drug search warrant, and then proceeds to find a kilo of cannabis in the suspect’s car.

Except that it was all a fabrication by the police officer, Officer Steven Lupo, who was proven to be lying right after giving his testimony, when the defense unexpectedly produced video evidence of the bust contradicting his story.

Video from nearby surveillance cameras ended up contradicting key parts of Officer Lupo’s police report and testimony, most crucially showing Lupo and a supervisor rummaging through the suspect’s trunk hours before a search warrant was issued. Just minutes before the video was shown in court, Lupo had been on the witness stand emphatically denying that he’d proceeded with the search before getting the search warrant.

After Lupo’s testimony was compared against the video, Judge Lydia Y. Kirkland tossed out the whole case, and Philly Internal Affairs are now probing Lupo’s conduct. Law enforcement sources also said that Lupo would no longer be used as a witness in criminal cases. The defendant, on the other hand, has been freed.

Defense attorneys say the Lupo video shows what their clients often tell them: Police frequently lie on the stand in order to make their case.

“I can just tell you from my experience,” said veteran defense attorney Diamondstein, “in the majority of cases, while the clients may not deny having narcotics, in the vast majority of cases the circumstances surrounding the arrest did not happen as it was described in the paperwork or in court.”

We wish we could say that this case was an exception to the rule of justice here in the U.S., but based on our own experiences and those of our friends’, this seems to be just business-as-usual for the police, and the exception here was that this time, the cop was caught lying while still on the witness stand.

[source Philly.com]

Tags: busted, law, law enforcement, police