Traffic stop leads to narcotics charge
Darrin T. Young, 23, New London, and David J. Puffe, 20, Menasha, were each charged with felony narcotics possession and possession of drug paraphernalia.
On Thursday, April 5, New London Police officers Nick Kamba and Ryan Denu were patrolling along Wisconsin Street when they saw a red Dodge Dakota traveling westbound on North Water Street.
According to the criminal complaint, the front passenger stared at the officers as the truck went by and Kamba turned onto Water Street and followed the vehicle. The officers noticed an arm sticking out from the truck's back cargo area and pulled it over. Two passengers in the cab fled from the truck and Denu pursued them on foot.
Kamba remained with the truck and found Puffe and Young in the cargo area. He also reported finding three wrappers for cigarette packs in the cargo box. Inside the wrappers were 14 tablets of morphine sulphate and 15 tablets of Oxycodone. He also found a syringe, the complaint says.
The two men face up to three years in prison if convicted of narcotics possession.
On Thursday, April 5, New London Police officers Nick Kamba and Ryan Denu were patrolling along Wisconsin Street when they saw a red Dodge Dakota traveling westbound on North Water Street.
According to the criminal complaint, the front passenger stared at the officers as the truck went by and Kamba turned onto Water Street and followed the vehicle. The officers noticed an arm sticking out from the truck's back cargo area and pulled it over. Two passengers in the cab fled from the truck and Denu pursued them on foot.
Kamba remained with the truck and found Puffe and Young in the cargo area. He also reported finding three wrappers for cigarette packs in the cargo box. Inside the wrappers were 14 tablets of morphine sulphate and 15 tablets of Oxycodone. He also found a syringe, the complaint says.
The two men face up to three years in prison if convicted of narcotics possession.
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7 Comments for "Traffic stop leads to narcotics charge
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In the context of Waupaca, WI:
1) How can we afford to have 2 police officers driving around on "patrol"?
2) "Staring" at a police car is probable cause?
How slow is the crime world, when police will start an investigation because somebody stared at them.
I would have stared just because I saw 2 cops driving around town.
And these guys weren't on a drug run that afternoon. Chances are, they have 30 tabs on them, or in the truck - 24/7/365. In fact, they probably had 100 tabs in the truck the day before, and 250 tabs the week before.
If it wasn't for "bonus" traffic stops (and bumbling embezzlers), it seems like there wouldn't be a felony charge in the county.
lastpercentile Apr 12, 2012 9:28 AM
How can we afford NOT to?
[quote=lastpercentile] "Staring" at a police car is probable cause?[/quote]
The legal standard for stopping someone is "reasonable suspicion", not "probable cause". The act of looking in one direction or another does not rise to the level of reasonable suspicion, however, when you consider the other actions of the driver and passengers, it does.
To the officers: Thanks for staying alert and getting dangerous drugs off out streets and for doing a job 95% of the population wouldn't do.
chesteroowi Apr 13, 2012 8:34 AM
[u]Here's what is going on: [/u]
With the price of gas what it is, the police chief is trying to stay within budget by sending out half as many patrol cars each shift = half the gas. But he still has the same number of officers on duty, so he sends out 2 officers per car. It's a huge waste of money, but he's not going to lay off an officer, is he?
He's able to report to our uber-diligent city council that he's at "98% of budget", and nobody is the wiser - that's he's squandering human resources to save on gas.
AND, with twice the number of officers - the driver and the "criminally staring" passenger apparently escaped.
By the way, both these guys were on the streets - despite being convicted of several crimes in the past year. One of them had an open felony charge - and was out on the street. Other than murderers, does anybody go to jail?
lastpercentile Apr 13, 2012 10:40 PM
independenthinker Apr 16, 2012 3:29 PM
So, they were in 2 separate squad cars patrolling the same street at the same time?
They were in the same car - and for the same budgeting strategy that I described. Just visualize TWO Barney Fife's driving through an even smaller town.
lastpercentile Apr 17, 2012 12:29 AM
It seems very impractical to compare patrol strategies of New London to Mayberry, NC. Just based on population alone, New London's population as of 2010 was 7,295. Mayberry, NC's population as of 1968 was a fictitious 1,623 in the town itself. It was implied that since Andy was a Sheriff and Barney was a Deputy that their jurisdiction actually covered the entire county of Mayberry but that population is unknown. According to fictitious statistics, as most are, the "County" of Mayberry had the lowest crime rate in the State! So it would seem logical then that any reference to "Barney Fife's" would be a compliment as that law enforcement agency obviously established a model for the law enforcement community.
chesteroowi Apr 18, 2012 6:33 AM
Actually, it's quite "practical" - all you had to do was bang on your keyboard. But, to actually compare a real life police force to a fictional police force - now that would be nonsensical.
The Barney Fife character did establish the model of a rural law enforcement officer, in this we agree.
lastpercentile Apr 18, 2012 9:26 AM