in my state there was just a big trial.It proved that cops can't smell it like they claim.Grower got charges dismissed after a long drawn out spendy as fawk legal battle
Unfortunately LE has the IRS in its pocket for backup.
Feds Drop 'Magic Odor' Case
Thursday, October 31, 2013 11:58 am | Updated: 12:18 pm, Thu Oct 31, 2013.
By Scott Christiansen
Federal prosecutors in Anchorage have dropped their appeals in the marijuana case nicknamed the magic odor case after just one week earlier filing for an appeal to the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The government had signaled its intention to appeal a decision by U.S. District Court Judge Ralph Beistline to throw out evidence including about 500 marijuana plants and some sophisticated growing equipment that was the result of a contested search warrant. Judge Beistline was the second federal judge to toss out the evidence.
The one-sentence filing to the appellate court says: The United States, with the concurrence of the United States Solicitor General, moves to dismiss the appeal filed in this case. It appears prosecutors only filed the appeal in order to meet a Ninth Circuit deadline. It looks as if they filed the appeal as a placeholder, Anchorage defense attorney Vikram Chaobal said. Washington D.C. clearly made the decision that they should not go forward.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephan Collins, in an email sent Wednesday, confirmed that the prosecution for the marijuana grow is over. As far as the charges related to the 500+ marijuana plants that [Alaska State Troopers] found on Trace Rae and Jennifer Anne Thoms property in February, 2010, the motion to dismiss ends that prosecution, Collins wrote.
The email was terse and did not mention or rule out a tax evasion prosecution, but the government has sent strong signals that one is in the works. In addition to the plants and indoor gardening equipment, the troopers seized about $88,000 in the search as well as three vehicles, including one front-end loader.
The case began in early 2010 and took a circuitous path through the court system that led from state courts, to the U.S. District Court for Alaska and to the Ninth Circuit appellate court and then back to U.S. District Court where Judge Beistline became the second federal judge to preside over the case. There could be a third. Defense attorneys say the IRS now claims the couple owes thousands of dollars in back taxes. The government also seized a pick-up truck, a front-end loader Chaobal said was used for snow removal contracting and other property, all of which the family is trying to recover.
After the judge ruled our way, suddenly they got a message from the IRS saying they owed the government thousands of dollars, Chaobal said. The collateral damage to the family caused by the case, so far almost three years long, has been heavy, Chaobal said. The truck they seized is their sons truck and he is 18-years-old and just starting out, Chaobal said. He lost his truck. They lost their livelihood and their name has been damaged.
The case began when Alaska State Troopers Kyle Young was investigating his suspicions there was a marijuana operation on the property where the Thomses have their family home. Young applied for a search warrant in state courts. Young told a magistrate he had researched electricity use at the property and knew about a marijuana conviction in Trace Rae Thoms past. The case became known as the magic odor case because Trooper Young also swore he smelled a commercial grow operation while sitting on a road inside his patrol car. The search warrant was granted partly because Young testified to his own experience.
Young claimed he could make a distinction between the smell of a small marijuana operations for personal use which Alaska rights to privacy protect and the smell of a commercial growing operation.
http://www.anchoragepress.com/news/...cle_cc559286-4266-11e3-a2bd-001a4bcf887a.html
