Police arrested an elderly couple, mix hibiscus with marijuana

Police arrested an elderly couple, mix hibiscus with marijuana

The couple from Buffalo Township – a 69-year-old Edward Kramer and his wife 66-year-old Audrey Kramer, sued the local police and the national insurance company after they were arrested for hibiscus plants that were mistakenly taken for cannabis.

The story begins with the fact that in September of this year on the territory of the Kramers dropped a neighbor’s tree. Insurance agent Jonathan Lemens arrived on 5 October for the investigation of the insured event.

Police arrested an elderly couple, mix hibiscus with marijuana

But in a lawsuit filed by the couple, States that, Yemens secretly took a picture of them blooming in the back yard, a hibiscus, and sent the images to police as evidence of marijuana cultivation.

According to spouses, on the basis of these photos, police officer Jeffrey Sneddon got a warrant to search the possessions of the Kramers. When the police knocked on the door, Audrey Kramer was on the second floor and did not have time to fully change.

When she opened the front door, about a dozen officers sent on her rifle. According to the complaint, Sergeant Scott Hess demanded that the woman hand went up.

According to Ms. Kramer, after this, she was handcuffed and not even allowed to pull the pants. Next, the police brought the woman into the street, where she had to stand in underwear and without shoes for 10 minutes.

The lawsuit says that after she was put in a «very hot» a patrol car, where she spent four and a half hours. Half an hour after the detention of Ms. Kramer drove up to the house of her husband, who was also arrested and sent to the car to his wife.

Despite the arguments of both spouses about what they grow flowers of hibiscus, not marijuana, the police refused to believe them without confirmation examination.

But after a few hours, the guards let go of the elderly, because the illegal plant has not been discovered by the experts.

Kramer’s attorney, al Lindsay, insisted on the incompetence of the police: «For people who had no criminal record and no experience with law enforcement, the arrest is an incredibly traumatic experience.»

The couple accused the police and insurance companies in the use of excessive force, illegal arrest, illegal detention, intentional incitement to breakdown and the invasion of private property.

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