NOT THE SHARPEST KNIFE IN THE DRAWER: A Night Of Passion, 10 Years In Prison
Brian McGacken's neighbor heard a woman scream, and called 9-1-1. When a trooper knocked, McGacken answered the door wearing a bathrobe and explained that his girlfriend had been in the throes of passion when she screamed, reports New Jersey Law Journal. When the trooper questioned the girlfriend - clad only in a towel - she corroborated McGacken’s account. Now, here’s where the story really gets interesting:
[T]he troopers asked McGacken for identification. He went upstairs to retrieve it and did not object when a trooper followed him.
On the second floor, the trooper smelled raw marijuana … In the bedroom, the trooper saw bagged and loose marijuana as well as growing plants. Arrested, McGacken consented to a search of his home, resulting in the seizure of 12.5 ounces of loose and bagged marijuana, 15 plants and marijuana-related equipment and paraphernalia.
The police did not have a warrant and McGacken unsuccessfully moved to suppress the drug evidence, contending that no further investigation of the circumstances that prompted the 9-1-1 call was necessary since the troopers had a plausible explanation for the screaming.
An appeals court affirmed the ruling on the grounds that "The potential for harm was too severe for the police to accept an explanation for loud screaming that could have been a cover-up of its true source."
McGacken pleaded guilty to first-degree maintaining or operating a facility for the production of a controlled dangerous substance and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
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