/ 10 May 2007

‘We made brownies and I think we’re dead’

A police officer who admitted taking marijuana from criminal suspects and baking it into brownies will avoid criminal charges.

The police department’s decision not to pursue a case against former police officer Edward Sanchez left a bad taste in the mouth of at least one city official, who vowed to investigate.

”If you’re a cop and you’re arresting people and you’re confiscating the marijuana and keeping it yourself, that’s bad. That’s real bad,” said city councillor Doug Thomas.

Sanchez, who resigned last year from the department in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, declined to comment on Wednesday. Police Commander Jeff Geisinger did not return calls seeking comment.

The department’s investigation began with an emergency call from Sanchez’s home on April 21 this year. On a five-minute tape of the call, obtained by the Detroit Free Press, Sanchez told an emergency dispatcher he thought he and his wife were overdosing on marijuana.

”I think we’re dying,” he said. ”We made brownies and I think we’re dead, I really do.”

Sanchez later told police investigators that his wife took the marijuana out of his police vehicle while he was sleeping. In a subsequent interview, he admitted he got the marijuana out of the car himself and put it in the brownie mix, police said.

His wife was also not charged. — Sapa-AP