Sheriff Says He Will Prosecute Phelps for Pot Use
Tue, Feb 03, 2009 10:36 am
Source: www.denverpost.com
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said he will charge Michael Phelps with a crime if he determines the Olympics hero smoked marijuana in Richland County.
Phelps, who set a record with eight gold medals in the 2008 Summer Olympics, was photographed smoking a marijuana pipe at a November party in Columbia.
The picture was published in the British newspaper News of the World. Phelps apologized Sunday, calling his behavior "inappropriate."
"This case is no different than any other case," Lott said Monday. "This one might be a lot easier since we have photographs of someone using drugs and a partial confession. It's a relatively easy case once we can determine where the crime occurred."
Possession of marijuana is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to 30 days in jail or a $570 fine, plus court costs. But Lott seems to be the only person talking about making a case against Phelps. The University of South Carolina and Columbia Police Departments said they would not pursue charges.
Meanwhile, Phelps' sponsors — from apparel company Speedo to luxury Swiss watchmaker Omega — issued statements calling the incident a "nonissue." The International Olympic Committee accepted his apology.













» add a comment
Midnight Toker
Feb 17 2009, 7:57 pm
karlmarx
Feb 12 2009, 11:51 am
sheriff@rcsd.net
I just sent of a scathing rebuke.
HU210
Feb 9 2009, 1:38 pm
Proud Ras
Feb 6 2009, 3:20 pm
I'm sure the square wouldn't even know what you're talking about. Unless it had something to do with war. Or hate.
to: Massachusetts Cop
Feb 6 2009, 2:30 pm
tastes like sour diesel........... BITCH
umm
Feb 6 2009, 9:57 am
umm
Feb 6 2009, 9:50 am
LovesToSmoke
Feb 6 2009, 8:48 am
LovesToSmoke
Feb 6 2009, 8:47 am
umm
Feb 6 2009, 7:34 am
♥
to : loves to smoke
Feb 6 2009, 4:56 am
Nigtmove
Feb 5 2009, 8:16 pm
I no longer purchase Kellogg's products.
Baltimore Fred
Feb 5 2009, 4:24 pm
fumundayamomma
Feb 5 2009, 2:22 pm
Nigtmove
Feb 5 2009, 1:50 pm
It does not bode well for young Phelps!
I have read all the government studies and watched the government films and by my calculations he should now be in some strangers garage collapsed into a fetal position. He will of course be pulling his hair out in small clumps, studying each intently...wait, he's bald isn't he? But I am sure he is in a sad shape hoping and wondering where his next fix will come from. For you see, there is a war on drug's. That means he will eventually need to abandon the safety of the garage to make it to that smart ass kid's house down the street, he always loads it down with extra stems for the weight, Phelps will, by now, hate it when he gets dirty bags of weed.
STAY AWAY FROM THE GATEWAY!! DO NOT GO TOWARD THE GATEWAY!!
the real loves to smoke
Feb 5 2009, 11:30 am
LovesToSmoke
Feb 5 2009, 11:18 am
LovesToSmoke
Feb 5 2009, 11:15 am
LovesToSmoke
Feb 5 2009, 10:11 am
hmm
Feb 5 2009, 5:33 am
Nite nite all...
HU210
Feb 5 2009, 4:53 am
A soldier guards the forensics office where the body of a slain former general was taken in Cancun, Mexico.
Retired Gen. Mauro Enrique Tello Quiñonez, his aide and a driver were tortured before being killed, said Quintana Roo state prosecutor Bello Melchor Rodriguez y Carrillo. He said there was no doubt Tello and the others were victims of organized crime.
"The general was the most mistreated," Rodriguez said at a Tuesday night news conference monitored by El Universal newspaper. "He had burns on his skin and bones in his hands and wrists were broken."
An autopsy revealed Tello also suffered broken knees and was shot 11 times, Mexico City's Excelsior newspaper said.
Tello had just been appointed a special drug-fighting consultant for Gregorio Sanchez Martinez, the mayor of the Benito Juarez municipality, which includes the city of Cancun. Tello, who retired from the army in January at the mandatory age of 63, had moved to the resort area three weeks ago.
The three victims were found inside a white Toyota pickup truck outside of Cancun on the road to Merida.
The truck belongs to the Benito Juarez municipality, Excelsior said, citing Luis Raymundo Canche, an assistant prosecutor for Quintana Roo state.
The three men were abducted Monday night, possibly in Cancun, tortured and then later shot to death, El Universal said, citing prosecutor Rodriguez. The bodies were found with their hands bound, the newspaper said.
The killings happened around 4 a.m., the prosecutor said.
The other two victims were identified as Lt. Julio Cesar Roman Zuniga, who was Tello's aide and the chief bodyguard for Mayor Martínez, and civilian driver Juan Ramirez Sanchez.
Tello is the second high-ranking army officer to be killed in the area in the past few years. Lt. Col. Wilfrido Flores Saucedo and his aide were gunned down on a Cancun street in 2006. That crime remains unsolved.
The killings come as Mexico grapples with the highest violent-death rates in its history -- around 5,400 slayings in 2008, more than double the 2,477 reported in 2007, according to Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora.
Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich has characterized the battle among drug cartels and with government authorities as a "civil war."
On Tuesday, 12 men were gunned down in Chihuahua state in northern Mexico, Excelsior reported Wednesday. Eight other people were shot and killed in Chihuahua last weekend.
More than 200 people have been killed this year in Ciudad Juarez, the largest city in Chihuahua and considered the most violent town in Mexico, El Tiempo newspaper said, citing local authorities.
Last year, according to the National Commission on Human Rights, there were 1,900 organized crime killings in the state of Chihuahua. About 1,600 of those slayings occurred in Ciudad Juarez.
Can you say-Drug law related crime?
stupidest
Feb 5 2009, 3:51 am
gstlab3
Feb 4 2009, 2:08 pm
HU210
Feb 4 2009, 1:53 pm
Geting er done out in Iowa. See Comments about Phelps in the Des Moines Register.
Help keep the issue hot. Write your congress critter today and demand a pardon for Phelps and DEMAND LEGALIZATION also
President Obama
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, D. C. 20500
Nigtmove
Feb 4 2009, 11:56 am
I hate that myself.
Nigtmove
Feb 4 2009, 11:55 am
Until we can come to the table in our "big boy" suit all we are doing is throwing ourselves on the floor for a nice little temper tantrum.
I have this nightmare that I'm going into battle for something I believe in when I turn around to find all the people on my side with bath towels tied around their neck like capes and slapping the bush's and the tree's with little plastic Darth Vader sword's. WHY do people spend so much time whining about the cops?
Cop's ARE NOT THE PROBLEM. Cop's are a symptom of the problem. The problems are the law's and the people we put into office. Did you vote? Did you really?
We need to quit being just rocks on the land and build ourselves into a wall.
My first suggestion is to boycott anyone who drops Phelps as a spokesperson. (We do not NEED Phelps to endorse our cause because he has already done it. He became a hero who on occasion smokes the weed. Let the man stack his green. The window of opportunity for an Olympic winner to rake it in can sometimes be short. Lower your eyes and kick a rock man. You worked your ass off for it I don't want you to lose out on a penny. Live the dream baby! Oh yea, thanks for the pic!)
If everything works out for Phelps then good, our work here is done.
But then we need to pick something out and say that for this day we will not purchase this.
What's your idea for a boycott for the day?
Just something that shows how big we really are.
Nigtmove
Feb 4 2009, 11:52 am
I have this nightmare that I'm going into battle for something I believe in when I turn around to find all the people on my side with bath towels tied around their neck like capes and slapping the bush's and the tree's with little plastic Darth Vader sword's. WHY do people spend so much time whining about the cops?
Cop's ARE NOT THE PROBLEM. Cop's are a symptom of the problem. The problems are the law's and the people we put into office. Did you vote? Did you really?
We need to quit being just rocks on the land and build ourselves into a wall.
My first suggestion is to boycott anyone who drops Phelps as a spokesperson. (We do not NEED Phelps to endorse our cause because he has already done it. He became a hero who on occasion smokes the weed. Let the man stack his green. The window of opportunity for an Olympic winner to rake it in can sometimes be short. Lower your eyes and kick a rock man. You worked your ass off for it I don't want you to lose out on a penny. Live the dream baby! Oh yea, thanks for the pic!)
If everything works out for Phelps then good, our work here is done.
But then we need to pick something out and say that for this day we will not purchase this.
What's your idea for a boycott for the day?
Just something that shows how big we really are.
EvilSven
Feb 4 2009, 11:40 am
Copy
Feb 4 2009, 11:08 am
I can see it now. A sheriff sitting in his rocking chair in front of the county jail with his @!$%# kicking boots on and his dirty Nascar hat tipped over his eyes. His shotgun is sets close-by and his old hound dog fumbles around looking for a place to die.
to below
Feb 4 2009, 9:19 am
1) 2 billion to restart a coal fired power plant
2) 246 million tax break for Hollywood ( that ones real hard to swallow)
3) 650 million for analog to digital tv conversion
4) 448 million for a new Homeland Security building . ( DC is full of empty buildings)
5) 248 to furnish that building
6) 850 million earmarked for Amtrak
the list goes on. just look it up .
I have a problem with all this at a time when the country is going broke . Where does stimulus fit in ?
I also have a problem with the media for not making all this known to the public .
CHANGE ?
HU210
Feb 4 2009, 8:05 am
http://www.alternet.org/workplace/124836
HU210
Feb 4 2009, 7:48 am
From: http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Find-Freedom.htm?At=045001&From=News
WHO GETS WHAT: Obama plan has billions for cops
By MATT APUZZO – 17 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama wants the government back in the policing business, big time.
Obama's huge stimulus plan includes about $4 billion to resurrect grants that put tens of thousands of police on the streets during the 1990s. The programs were all but eliminated during the Bush administration amid criticism that their results didn't justify the hefty price tags.
The grants are popular with Democrats, and restoring them was central to Obama's campaign plan to combat rising violence. By tacking the money onto the stimulus plan, Obama avoids having to defend the spending during the normal budget process.
The proposal allocates $3 billion for the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant, a program that has funded drug task forces, after-school programs, prisoner rehabilitation and other programs.
Another $1 billion in stimulus money is set aside for the Community Oriented Policing Services program begun under President Clinton. The program, known as COPS grants, paid the salaries of many local police officers and was a "modest contributor" to the decline in crime in the 1990s, according to a 2005 government oversight report.
President George Bush slashed both grant programs over the past eight years, citing a series of reports questioning their efficiency and oversight.
But the programs remain popular among many lawmakers, who often used the grants to steer money to their home districts. Mayors and police chiefs love them, particularly during lean economic times.
In New Bedford, Mass., a port city of about 92,000, Police Chief Ronald Teachman said a new round of grants would put police on the streets at a time when experts expect crime to rise with the unemployment rate. With the mayor warning of city layoffs, Teachman said grants would keep him from having to move detectives and school resource officers into patrol cars to fill shifts.
And it would mean jobs, he said, which is why the stimulus was written.
"Any dollar they spend in New Bedford is going to be used better than one they spend on Merrill Lynch or others on Wall Street," Teachman said. "I'm not going to hold the money back and not tell you where I'm spending it."
The House passed the stimulus bill, but the version that makes it out of the Senate is expected to be different.
But because Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Attorney General-nominee Eric Holder strongly support the grants — and Democrats control Congress — the programs will likely be resurrected even if they don't make it into the final stimulus bill.
...and the beat goes on
HAHAHA
Feb 4 2009, 5:40 am
I thought that silliness had an election smell about it .
kourtneigh in Texas
Feb 4 2009, 3:38 am
If you are in Texas, visit TEXASNORML.ORG for more information on how to get up, stand up in here in the Lone Star state! We're more active than you think!
copSTOMPA
Feb 4 2009, 2:49 am
legalize
fuck the police !!!!!!!!!!
anon
Feb 4 2009, 1:10 am
anonymous
Feb 4 2009, 12:39 am
umm
Feb 3 2009, 11:58 pm
umm
Feb 3 2009, 11:58 pm
EvilSven
Feb 3 2009, 11:49 pm
EvilSven
Feb 3 2009, 11:44 pm
umm
Feb 3 2009, 11:42 pm
EvilSven
Feb 3 2009, 11:40 pm
umm
Feb 3 2009, 11:40 pm
Now see - the hater would just love us to start killing, so then they would have an excuse to shut down this site, and kill us. Use you brain.
EvilSven
Feb 3 2009, 11:32 pm
delta_nine
Feb 3 2009, 10:42 pm
bob
Feb 3 2009, 10:04 pm
This Sheriff Lott guy is going to go Bulldog Drummond on Phelp's ass for a fucking misdemeanor?
Bwaaaahaaaahaaaahaaaahaaaaaa!
What a dick head!
A norml citizen
Feb 3 2009, 9:30 pm
If it could be proven... gee a few dollars fine.
But no, the cost of investigating and prosecuting not only takes away from catching real criminals, it costs the taxpayers far more than any fine that could be levied and potentially damages Mr.Phelps otherwise good reputaion. For what...smaking a bowl of cannabis?
The people who elected this jackass needs to get him out of office as soon as possible. How much of the taxpayers money has he wasted on other 'projects'.
I guess he has nothing to do but dream up ways and waste time and taxpayer money to destroy people smoking a little cannabis instead of concentrating his efforts in fighting real crime. Mr. Mayor, what do you think?
Come on and wake up and smell the ....coffee.
LOL
Feb 3 2009, 8:59 pm
Didn't they teach you about dictionaries, punctuation ,spell check and all that shit ? Should you be making up stupid shit and post it like that ? The point being , I don't think you made the impression you think you did .
dumbcops
Feb 3 2009, 8:22 pm
hmmm....
Feb 3 2009, 7:31 pm
Massachusetts Cop
Feb 3 2009, 7:23 pm
T-Beezy
Feb 3 2009, 6:56 pm
wtf
Feb 3 2009, 6:04 pm
to below
Feb 3 2009, 6:02 pm
I don't doubt it .
rasta
Feb 3 2009, 4:44 pm
This don't make any sence to me.
tits
Feb 3 2009, 4:42 pm
Mass Cop
Feb 3 2009, 4:26 pm
John Doe
Feb 3 2009, 4:11 pm
evidence . Not even enough for a circumstantial case . There isn't a prosecutor in the country that would see it any different . Sheriff Lott was just looking to exploit Phelps fame . Looks like he got is name in the news . Sad really .
anonymous
Feb 3 2009, 4:05 pm
hmm
Feb 3 2009, 3:33 pm
drkrunkfairy
Feb 3 2009, 2:43 pm
Blazin Buddha
Feb 3 2009, 2:32 pm
Bundusath
Feb 3 2009, 2:19 pm
Who fucking cares what Micheal Phelps does, he obviously has smoked before (he knew how to hit the bong) and it apparently doesn't hurt him. I wish people like that wouldn't be a bitch like he did, he's the best fucking swimmer in the world for Christ's sake, leave him alone. If people like him stood up to the unjust drug laws in this country, prohibition would end in a week.
420Viper
Feb 3 2009, 2:11 pm
umm
Feb 3 2009, 2:10 pm
umm
Feb 3 2009, 1:56 pm
Mark
Feb 3 2009, 1:43 pm
To MASS COP: You are only on this website to learn more about our great culture, and to look for weaknesses that you can pounce on and exploit at the expense of a non violent pot smoker, rather than doing your fucking job, which is to PROTECT us by going after dangerous, violent criminals.
BLZME
Feb 3 2009, 1:15 pm
said it not a crime to smoke the sweet leaf
is this true?
Moody
Feb 3 2009, 12:55 pm
MA VOTER
Feb 3 2009, 12:54 pm
Are you that brain dead or just misinformed. Personal use of marijuana is now a civil infraction or traffic violation for personal use in MA. Check the laws...oh let me guess, you failed the state trooper test didn't you and by the way, what the hell are you doing on the high times website?
mish
Feb 3 2009, 12:35 pm
to MA pig
Feb 3 2009, 12:32 pm
fortwentydaze
Feb 3 2009, 12:24 pm
CaliForniaBoy
Feb 3 2009, 12:17 pm
al
Feb 3 2009, 12:13 pm
Dex
Feb 3 2009, 12:08 pm
Everyone Equal
Feb 3 2009, 11:58 am
Prosecuting people for pot is a waste of money and this sheriff just wants publicity.
super cereal
Feb 3 2009, 11:58 am
Reallity
Feb 3 2009, 11:44 am
tosh marley
Feb 3 2009, 11:17 am
bigdaddy bong toker
Feb 3 2009, 11:14 am
Massachusetts Cop
Feb 3 2009, 11:08 am
Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Michael.
john
Feb 3 2009, 10:59 am
vermonttoker
Feb 3 2009, 10:53 am
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