Reputed underworld figure Brian Brown and one of his housemates 20 year old Shamera Reneau beat a drug trafficking rap today in court on a technicality, a slipup by police investigators and their forensic specialists.
When Brown and Reneau were arrested for drug trafficking last December after 175 grams of weed were alleged to have been found hidden in a room at his Jimmy Dyer street home, Brown offered to plea down to possession. But, confident they had the crew captain nailed, prosecutors turned down the plea deal and proceeded with the trafficking charge, which usually carries a prison sentence.
But that fell apart today in court when Brown's attorney Ellis Arnold pointed out to the court several slip-ups by Police in the handling of evidence. And one of the main slip-ups was that police placed the weed they allegedly seized from Brown's home in a black Ziploc bag instead of the usual envelopes. Then it is alleged that once it got to the forensic lab for testing, a forensic analyst removed it from the Ziploc bag and placed in one of the regular brown envelopes.
In court the prosecution couldn't clearly show a chain of custody tracing back to the original bag and so Magistrate Harry Hulett threw out the case.