Castro (SF) Pot Bust Goes Awry and a Law Professor Threatens to Sue

[Newsjock]

Source: SF Weekly

When narcotics officers appeared at a Castro home shortly after 7 a.m. on Jan. 11, they had permission from a judge to search for "proceeds" from an illegal marijuana grow.

The SFPD and DEA found no piles of marijuana money at 243 Diamond St., one of six addresses raided simultaneously in San Francisco that morning. Instead, they found Clark Freshman, who rents the penthouse at the two-unit building. Freshman, a UC Hastings law professor and the main consultant to the television show Lie to Me, was put into handcuffs while in his bathrobe as agents searched, despite Freshman's insistence that they had the wrong place and were breaking the law. "I told them to call the judge and get their warrant updated," he says. "They just laughed at me — I guess that's why they're called pigs."

Soon they may be called defendants in a lawsuit. A furious Freshman has pledged to sue the DEA and the SFPD for unlawful search and seizure of his home.

... "I've been on the fence for years about the legalization of drugs ... and now I'm a victim of this crazy war on drugs," says Freshman, who pledged to sue until "I see (the agents') houses sold at auction and their kids' college tuitions taken away from them. There will not be a better litigated case this century."

Read more: http://www.sfweekly.com/2011-02-16/news/pot-raid-sfpd-castro-law-professor-clark-freshman-sue/

[Jackpine Radical]

1. There are certain people it just doesn't pay to piss off.

I suspect law professors are in that class.

[xchrom]

2. from your lips to gods ears, mr freshman. nt

[WhiteTara]

3. Go Professor Freshman

You know he has a whole group of interns and students who are going to be digging into the law on this!
Oh, sometimes the police are so stupid.

[Warpy]

4. Good, it's high fucking time somebody did this

The whole drug war is a shaky artificial structure built on tax law since it's unconstitutional at its foundation.

I hope he argues it all the way and that it gets there after Scalia and Thomas are off the court.

[provis99]

5. "I guess that's why they're called pigs"

Love it when a law professor tells the truth about law enforcement!

[mulsh]

6. A professor at one of the top 10 law schools? "get out the checkbook"

If he's anything like the other guys I've known who taught there he's a damn fine lawyer. here's his bio

http://www.uchastings.edu/faculty-administration/faculty/freshman/index.html

[ProgressiveProfessor]

7. They will be given qualified immunity and the tax payer will cover any and all judgements

Once that is given, the bill goes to the city. Great bluster but its a safe bet nothing will come of this.

[Sonoman]

8. Unfortunately, you are spot-on. eom