Some drug charges come about after a long investigation. These cases often involve multiple law enforcement agencies, numerous suspects and large amounts of illegal drugs.
Other drug cases arise as byproducts of unrelated encounters between a person and a police officer. A common scenario involves a police officer who pulls over a driver for a minor traffic violation and then discovers illegal drugs in the driver’s possession.
And then there are encounters that seem even more random than that.
Drug arrest at casino
In August, the Grammy-winning rapper and singer Nelly (real name Cornell Haynes II) was arrested at a casino in the St. Louis area after police said they found four pills of the drug MDMA (also knows as “ecstasy” or “molly”) in his possession during an arrest. According to recent news reports, prosecutors have dropped the drug charges related to that arrest, but it’s easy to see how the case could have turned out much harder on someone else in Nelly’s position.
News reports said that the trouble started when Nelly, who grew up in the St. Louis area, was cashing out his winnings at the casino. A police officer at the facility told him — falsely — that the law required him to search people who cash out more than a specified amount at a casino.
The officer found an outstanding warrant from 2018 in which Nelly was cited for driving a car without proof of insurance. The officer then used this warrant as justification to arrest and search Nelly. During the search, the officer reportedly found the small quantity of drugs.
Prosecutors dropped the charges after Nelly’s lawyers showed that — among other problems with the case — Nelly actually did have insurance at the time of the 2018 citation.
From a criminal defense perspective, the outcome of this case is good. But with a slightly different set of facts, things might have turned out very differently. The case also shows how important it is for the accused to have capable legal representation.