Our readers may have heard about the Chicago woman, formerly from a South Side housing development, who is suing three police officers for allegedly kicking her apartment door in and placing bags of crack cocaine outside her window back in 2009. The woman was acquitted of drug charged at trial after the incident, but she took the matter further by pursuing the officers.
According to the women, the police did not have probable cause to enter her apartment, and framed her, claiming she had dropped the bags of cocaine in an attempt to hide them. At her trial, she has accused the officers of participating in the drug trade.
The attorney representing the officers claims that the officers did indeed have probable cause to enter the woman’s apartment, and that she refused to let them enter. She was allegedly known by officers as being a drug abuser who knew how to frustrate police investigations.
Sources said that several years after the 2009 incident, the woman was arrested in an FBI sting operation and hit with federal drug charges. She pleaded guilty just last month and is now awaiting sentencing. The defense attorney handling the officer’s case was reportedly told that he could mention the conviction, but cannot go into details about it.
Sources said that the woman is representing herself. This, as should be obvious to our regular readers, is not something experienced attorneys would recommend, particularly in criminal cases, especially those where the defendant’s credibility is questionable One of the major benefits of having an attorney in a criminal case is that he or she can help a defendant take advantage of legal protections that would otherwise go by the wayside. Many of the system’s protections are not applied until they are claimed. For this, a knowledgeable and zealous attorney is indispensible.
Source: Chicago Tribune, “Trial begins for woman who alleges police framed her in drug possession case,” August 8, 2013.
