NORMAN — Accused of profiting from illegal drug activity at the
smoking accessories shop he once managed near the University of Oklahoma
campus, Norman City Councilman Stephen Holman was ordered to stand
trial after a judge Monday was unmoved by the defense mounted by the
elected official's attorneys during a lengthy preliminary hearing in
Cleveland County District Court.
Holman, who has said
he believes the case against him is “politically motivated,” seemed calm
and confident after the ruling of Special Judge Michael Tupper, himself
a former prosecutor.
“I'm not real surprised,” Holman
said outside the courtroom Monday afternoon. “Our attorneys prepared us
for this — that it would most likely be punted from this court to the
next. This court was probably not going to make a determination on the
case because, as the judge mentioned, there's a lot of important aspects
to it, there's a lot of vagueness to it. So, they kind of prepared us
(for an unfavorable outcome).”
Holman, 31, and shop
owner Robert Cox were arrested in December after two police raids at The
Friendly Market, which sold smoking accessories, furniture and other
items before it closed April 30.
Both men were charged
with acquiring proceeds from drug activity, a felony, and several
misdemeanor counts of possession of drug paraphernalia.
Both have pleaded not guilty to each count against them.
Investigators
seized dozens of glass pipes and "water bongs" from the shop during the
raids and also confiscated more than $4,000 in cash, court records
show.
The Friendly Market is the third shop that
attempted to sell water pipes and other smoking accessories in Norman
over the past 18 months. All three are now closed.
Cox, 62, declined to speak to reporters following Monday's hearing.
Holman,
who represents Ward 7, said the criminal case against him has not
affected his work on the city council. If anything, he said Monday, it's
made him “more popular than ever.”
“The other council
members have been very supportive,” Holman said. “It is a nonissue on
the city council. My work on the council is the same as before, (as is)
my relationship with city staff (and) police.”
‘Law is foggy'
In
a lengthy statement at the close of Monday's proceedings, Tupper told
the courtroom he had “reviewed state and federal cases from across the
country,” rattling off “Oklahoma, Hawaii, Maine, Minnesota, North
Dakota, South Dakota, the District of Columbia, Idaho, Pennsylvania,
Louisiana, Virginia, Kansas and Ohio” as examples.
“My
review of the cases indicates to me that … the law is foggy, ironically
enough,” said Tupper, quietly chuckling at his own joke before moving
on. “Some courts held that an object cannot be paraphernalia unless the
defendant intends for it to be used with illegal drugs, while other
courts have held that under certain circumstances an object can be drug
paraphernalia regardless of the defendant's intent.”
Tupper
said he believed the glass pipes seized at The Friendly Market were
manufactured to be used to smoke illicit drugs, primarily marijuana. The
judge repeatedly alluded to the “50 years” of collective law
enforcement experience shared by the Norman officers involved in the
case, including the so-called “Glass Guru,” Detective Rick Newell.
“Three
detectives testified … that they had seen pipes and bongs similar to
those seized (at The Friendly Market) used to smoke marijuana on
virtually thousands of occasions, and none of them had ever seen nor
heard these things used to smoke tobacco,” Tupper said.
“There's been testimony from these officers that smoking tobacco out of these products would be unusual and impractical.”
“In
fact, there has been zero evidence presented that these devices are
used, intended for use or fashioned specifically for use with tobacco,”
Tupper added.
Tupper also thought it was damning that The Friendly Market closed its doors April 30.
“Of
additional relevance to the court are the statements made by Mr. Cox,
advising that the sales of these glass pipes make up approximately 90
percent of his store's total sales,” Tupper said. “Based upon the ratio
of sales of the pipes and bongs to the total sales of the business
enterprise, as well as the apparent lack of profitability of the
enterprise without these sales, these sales were going toward an illicit
use.
“In my opinion, the objects' primary use is
drug-related,” Tupper said of the scores of items seized from the shop
in December. “The defendants cannot escape liability by pretending to
ignore the most common use of these objects.”
Blake
Lynch, one of the attorneys representing Holman and Cox, wasn't fazed by
Monday's apparent setback. Instead, he was encouraged by some of the
things Tupper said before he bound his clients over for trial.
“This
was a close call, even giving the state all the benefit of the doubt,
which is what they get in a preliminary hearing,” Lynch said. So, if in a
preliminary hearing, where everything is in their favor, it still was a
close call. I think if we get 12 non-former prosecutor jurors to hear
this, then all of a sudden, maybe their minds are a little more open
than somebody who spent their life prosecuting before he got to the
bench.”
A trial date has not been set, though Holman and Cox are due back in court June 22 for a formal arraignment.
Resource: http://newsok.com/article/5499939
No comments:
Post a Comment