J.J. was charged with felony Possession of Oxcodone, a third-degree felony per Ch. 893.13(6)(a), Fla. Stat. While traveling home from work, he was stopped by a Sebastian Police Department K-9 officer in Indian River County for failing to come to a “full and complete stop” at a stop sign.
The K-9 officer had his drug dog conduct a “perimeter sniff” of J.J.’s truck, and claimed the animal had “alerted” to the driver’s door, thus justifying the officer’s search of J.J.’s truck.
Under the driver’s floormat were three (3) 30 milligram opiate pain killers, and J.J. was arrested and brought to jail.
Attorney Kirschner retained K-9 Barry Cooper (please see: www.nevergetbusted.com,) and learned that when such dogs are trained to identify and alert to drugs, they are only trained relative to certain drugs, e.g., heroin, cocaine, cannabis, etc. They are not however trained to identify opiate pain killers in pill form. CASE DISMISSED.
