Plot Twist: The Small Baggies of White Powder in a Chicago Police Recruit's Pants Were Not Actually Filled With Anything Illegal, After All
CWBChicago — Prosecutors on Tuesday dropped drug possession charges filed against a Chicago police recruitduring the cadet’s first court appearance. Why? According to the Sun-Times, his attorney said tests showed that the material in a small baggie found in Alfredo Saldana’s pants pocket was not illegal.
Now, the president of the union representing the city’s front-line cops is calling out a CPD internal affairs detective who allegedly handled the case, saying the cop “is bad news.”
On April 21, an academy trainer gave Saldana a small baggie decorated with blue stars that contained simulated heroin for “scenario based training involving narcotics related offenses,” a CPD arrest report said. Another recruit was instructed to perform a custodial search while the trainer observed and critiqued his performance.
While searching Saldana’s cargo pants, the second recruit found a clear knotted baggie containing four small zip baggies decorated with green dollar signs, each containing suspected crack cocaine, according to the report. Knowing that the phony drugs provided for training were in a blue-starred baggie, the trainer asked Saldana what the knotted baggie contained.
“That’s nothing, that’s just garbage,” Saldana allegedly replied. Pressed for an answer, Saldana allegedly claimed, “These aren’t my pants. They belong to my brother, he’s the police.”
Routine testing of the material determined that it was not crack cocaine or any other illegal substance, according to Saldana’s attorney, Tim Grace.
Grace told the Sun-Times that Saldana’s pants really did belong to his brother and Saldana didn’t realize the fake drugs were in the cargo pants pocket.
This has to be the upset of the century. The Chicago police recruit who seemingly brought his own real drugs to Fake Drug Search Day at the academy now appears to have been completely cleared.
I said when we discussed this story on Macrodosing that this guy was either the dumbest or unluckiest person alive. Somehow, it seems it was the latter. I guess there might be room for a few people beneath him on the luck scale now that he got off, but it doesn't get much more unlucky than wearing your brother's pants with baggies of white powder in them on the day you're doing drug searches at the police academy.
Do you show back up and still try to become a cop now? I don't know what other professions this fella had in mind before going to the police academy, but I'm not sure I'd be ready for another go at it after the first time ended in my mistaken arrest. This particular situation could be avoided by simply wearing your own pants next time, but you're not ever shaking the Fake Drug Guy stigma.
Anything beats being in jail, though. I can't believe it wasn't actually cocaine. What a twist.