The more I read tales like this, the less inclined I am to think that the police are any town’s “finest”.Robert James is suing in federal court, naming Deputy Daron Rhoads, wildlife officer James Tunnell and a third unknown officer in the suit. The suit says Rhoads pulled James over on a traffic stop on Nov. 13, 2007, and took him into custody after finding two unsecured firearms in the cab of his truck.Tunnell was then dispatched and began an investigation into illegal hunting activities, which led to a search of Rhoads’ home, according to the complaint.While James was handcuffed in the cruiser, the complaint says the officers spent roughly four hours searching the home.While there, the suit claims the officers seized his girlfriend’s sex toys, turned them on and left them in plain sight “for James to see that they had found them,” and did the same with pornographic video tapes they found.It also claims the officers seized James’ weapons and ammunition from secure locations in the home and “lined them up in different and insecure locations all throughout the house.”Finally, the suit claims the officers “placed a hat, Christmas lights and goggles on deer antlers that were affixed to James’ wall.”
The biggest thing I notice about this is who in the HELL is the judge who signed off on the search warrant? He ought to be included in a constitutional lawsuit too. Just because there is judicial immunity for acts done by a judge, the immunity applies only to acts reasonably within his authority. What other possible connection could these bozos state that ties guns in the car to illegality in the house? That is the test and a judge who fails to make that inquiry is acting outside the scope of his authority. Seems to me the judge just signed the warrant and never bothered to do his duty of inquiring whether there was probable cause to go into the guy’s house. The longer I live the more I fear for the future.
There certainly does seem to be a lot left out of this story. The excerpt I snipped was more than half the article; the rest was not particuarly enlightening. Nobody says how they came to the conclusion that this guy could be an illegal hunter.
As you say, it’s strange!