cannabisnews.com: Blue Tea Leads To Red Faces





Blue Tea Leads To Red Faces
Posted by FoM on October 31, 1999 at 05:37:23 PT
Hub police are humbled by mistaken drug sting
Source: Boston Herald
At the age of 73, Evelyn A. Davis is blessed with a strong heart and a gracious Jamaican spirit. We should thank God. Otherwise, what was a police screwup could easily have turned into a full-blown tragedy.
On Aug. 6, this city came uncomfortably close to revisiting the fiasco that stopped the frail heart of the Rev. Accelyne Williams . . . and cost the taxpayers about a million bucks.No, the cops did not come crashing through Evelyn Davis' front door in Dorchester, wrapped in body armor and carrying shields. But the technical term for their visit to 15 Moody St. on that steamy Friday afternoon is ``drug sting.''You see, the combined forces of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Boston Housing Authority, the Boston Police Drug Control Squad and the state police K-9 unit were all convinced that Evelyn Davis, a retired laundry supervisor at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, was awaiting a shipment of marijuana.``It's called blue vervine tea, dear,'' Evelyn recently explained, in the lilting tones of her native island. ``I had been home in Jamaica for a visit, back in the spring and early summer, you see. While I was there, I developed such a terrible pain in my knee, don't you know.`` `Evelyn, do you drink the vervine?' my friend asked me. Now, I have been drinking herb tea practically all my life,'' Evelyn said, ``but never vervine. My friend, she had the herbs growing right there in her yard. She ground up the leaves and made me some tea. All I can tell you, dear, is that a miraculous change took place in my knee. The pain was gone.''When she returns home, Evelyn heads straight for Bread & Circus in Cambridge. No blue vervine. So, she phones her niece in Georgia. ``Auntie, I've found the vervine!'' Evelyn's niece happily responds. ``It's in the mail.''This is where Michelle Douglas, part-time flexible mail carrier at the Dorchester Post Office, enters the picture. She believes the aroma wafting from an 8-by-11 inch manila envelope smells just like dope. Michelle tells her boss, Thomas McKenna, who kicks it up to Ernie Carson, who ultimately calls in Postal Inspector John J. Stassi.Eventually, we get to Sgt. Detective William J. Robertson, of the BPD drug control unit, who writes in his affidavit for a warrant that he has ``effected over 1,000 arrests for violation of the drug laws,'' and based on his 20 years of experience, ``I believe the package being sent to 15 Moody St. contains marijuana. . . .''Turns out, Sgt. Robertson never actually laid eyes on what was inside the envelope. He went along with a state police German shepherd named Shane. Aside from being a highly decorated four-legged investigator, Shane may also be the most controversial.Almost a year ago, Shane tracked a scent from Irene Kennedy's mutilated body in a Walpole park for almost a mile in a twisting route that ended at front door of a man who kept dead cats in his freezer. Ed Burke spent a month in jail, until DNA tests failed to establish a link to the dead woman. Upon his release, he blamed his trouble ``on a dog.''This time, Shane picked out, or ``hit on,'' the envelope sent from Georgia from among six others stuffed with paper.So, on Aug. 6, assuming the role of a mailman, Boston police officer Terry Cotton pressed Evelyn Davis' doorbell. ``Finally,'' Evelyn sighed. ``I was wondering why it took so long for my tea to get here.''At that moment, according to a Boston Police Department source, the cops realized they could be headed for blunder territory, but thought that Evelyn might be the unwitting foil of a dubious grandchild.``Sign here, ma'am,'' Cotton said. After she did, Cotton flashed his badge, served a warrant and asked if he could come in.``Of course,'' Evelyn said. ``What's the matter?'' When she climbed the stairs and opened her front door, Evelyn recalled, ``I was stunned to see my living room fill up with police.''``Would you open the package, ma'am?'' Cotton asked. But when she reached for a steel letter opener, several cops ordered Evelyn to ``put that down, ma'am.''``I suppose they thought I was going to stab them.''Soon as the two plastic bags came out of the envelope, one cop immediately groaned: ``That's not marijuana.''``I told you it was tea,'' Evelyn said.``Oh, bleep!'' thought the trooper who handled Shane. Under the circumstances, he recalled, Evelyn couldn't have been nicer. Before he followed his red-faced brothers in blue out of Evelyn's living room, Shane's handler asked if he could take a sample of the blue vervine tea to test on other dogs.``Be my guest,'' said Evelyn.In retrospect, Shane's handler thinks a ton of embarrassment could've been avoided had the BPD warrant called for the package to be visually inspected before it was delivered to Evelyn.Two other state police dogs - a black Lab and another German shepherd - would also hit on the blue vervine in separate tests. Still, the state police lab found no traces of contraband.True, the cops apologized profusely. No doors were kicked in and Evelyn's 73-year-old heart didn't stop. But that's hardly the end of the story.``The problem is you've got a lady - who's worked all her life, owns her own home - and now she has to deal with the suspicions of people on her street who think she's a drug queen,'' said Glen Hannington, the lawyer Evelyn came to with her bags of blue vervine.``I realize that, technically, the police had probable cause,'' Hannington said. ``Who knows, maybe the dog had a cold that day. Or possibly, they were profiling packages at the post office, I don't know. But after the neighbors see a half-dozen police cars roll down the street, and a dozen cops going in her house, where does this 73-year-old lady go to get her good name and reputation back?''Sunday, October 31, 1999
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Comment #3 posted by Catine E. Perkins on December 02, 2000 at 15:46:32 PT:
Blue tea
this is quite extraordianry, since I was given somethingby a fellow from the Rio Grande Valey...and the woodproduced an iredescent blueness...It is extraordinary...but is this vervain? It gives an overall goo feelingin the bones...
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Comment #2 posted by observer on October 31, 1999 at 17:35:49 PT
Sgt. Detective's little `story'...
> Sgt. Detective William J. Robertson, of the BPD drug control unit, who writes in his affidavit for a warrant that he has ``effected over 1,000 arrests for violation of the drug laws,'' and based on his 20 years of experience, ``I believe the package being sent to 15 Moody St. containsmarijuana. . . .''That's what he SWORE to, before a magistrate?> Turns out, Sgt. Robertson never actually laid eyes on what was inside the envelope. Oh ... in other words, the POLICE LIED, again. I'm not sure why article even mentions this detail. Is the fact that the police regularly lie to imprison and steal from victims supposed to be news? (lame CYA:)> Two other state police dogs - a black Lab and another German shepherd - would also hit on the blue vervine in separate tests. Still, the state police lab found no traces of contraband.Aw shucks! They'll "hit" on whatever it is expedient for their masters to say that they "hit" on. (And guess who's word the Federal (ex-prosecutor) Judge will take, yours or the nice detective's?)Well, at least the nice career-minded detectives did not shoot the lady ... or plant some "drugs" in her house. Now, *that's* news!
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Comment #1 posted by Mungojelly on October 31, 1999 at 10:43:26 PT:
how many mistakes? 
of course, if it had been a different herb that was mailed to Evelyn, there wouldn't have been any "mistake" -- or would there? the cops may have been wrong about what herb Evelyn was using to treat her pains, but there was no mistaking that what they were attempting to do was invade the home of a peaceful citizen in order to arrest her for the possession of a harmless & beautiful herb. the error here runs deep. 
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