Seattle Prosecutor Drops All Pot Tickets in Response to Weed-Hating Cop
Pete Holmes, Seattle's city attorney, announced yesterday that his office would dismiss all public use of marijuana tickets issued through July of this year, the Associated Press reports. Nearly all of those tickets were issued by a single, weed-hating cop.
Holmes (that's him in the suit above) also said he hoped to give a refund to all the Seattleites who have already paid the $27 fine. Randy Jokela, the Seattle cop who wrote 80 percent of the city's pot tickets as of July, is being investigated by the police department's office of professional accountability, according to the AP. The tickets he wrote made clear his feelings on legalization:
In one ticket, the officer wrote that he found two people smoking marijuana and made them flip a coin to decide which person would be cited.
"(Suspect) lost the coin flip so he got the ticket while the other person walked. (Suspect) was allowed to keep his pipe," the ticket reads.
In another ticket, the officer referred to Washington's voter-enacted changes to marijuana laws as "silly," according to Seattle Police Chief Kathleen O'Toole.
For now, Jokela is still on patrol.
[Image via AP]