Cop Plants False Evidence, Promptly Fired and Arrested

[Music] welcome to audit the audit where we sort out the who and what and the right and wrong of police interactions this episode covers vehicle searches planting evidence and roadside chemical tests and is brought to us by usa today be sure to check out the description below and give them the credit that they deserve before we dive into the interaction i want to give a big thanks to the sponsor of this episode the commuter 2 speaker from cove i've been using the commuter 2 for years now and between its amazing sound quality ease of use and small form factor there is no need for any other speaker the commuter can last for 7 hours on a single charge it has a water resistant rating of ipx7 and has a built-in microphone for taking calls but best of all the commuter splits into two speakers giving you full stereo audio while connected the commuter speakers offer a 360 surround sound effect and when separated the speakers convert into left and right stereo channels which makes it perfect for taking on a trip or connecting to your laptop at home the commuter 2 is now available in a ton of different colors to match whatever outfit or environment you're listening in right now cove is offering members of the ata community a 67 discount when you use code aa67 at checkout or click on the link in the description this discount is only valid for one month so click the link before it's too late thanks again to cove for sponsoring this episode on february 15 2018 at approximately four o'clock in the afternoon deputy zack wester of the jackson county sheriff's office pulled over 52 year old grandmother teresa odum in mariana florida because her vehicle brake lights were allegedly flickering on and off at a fast pace at the time of the stop ms odum was on felony probation for dealing in stolen property after ms odam was pulled over deputy wester approached the driver's side window of ms odum's vehicle hi how are you i'm good should i turn in here to get off you're fine you're fine stephanie westwood jackson sheriff's office reason for my stop is um your brake lights they work one minute and the next minute they don't work and then a few seconds later they just flash okay so it's probably caused the rain okay that's fine you got your driver's license on you ma'am i just got secretly i'll be glad no you're fine all right thank you i'll be right back my truck may or may not start when i turn it off you meant to push me off so i'm gonna go ahead and see okay do you need to turn it off do you have to turn it off it'd be probably better okay hard time with it as it is i'll tell that straw right there this is not sure it's an ink pen oh okay it was connected it looked like it was connected to that art okay [Applause] you see my hip give out right then good in that lord all day long for three days okay that would be yeah i hope everything turns out good with that all right it did oh lord humber sounds sorry and i'm waiting on doctor all yeah that ain't no problem i don't care yeah i'm not gonna keep you from talking on the phone okay um anything the vehicle need to be concerned about bombs hand grenades rocket launchers okay okay all right um here's what i do probably 10 or 15 times a shift okay um there's gonna be a canine coming a minute and she's gonna walk around the car okay but instead of doing that would you consent to a search of your vehicle you're fine with that okay mark you mind stepping out just hanging out with this deputy right back here no i don't i'm scared to be in this traffic no deputy hey k will take care of you deputy wester informs ms odum that a k-9 unit is on the way and requests that she consent to a search of her vehicle instead of waiting for the canine despite the fact that she was under no legal obligation to do so ms odum readily agrees to allow deputy wester to search her vehicle in general while officers are not prohibited from requesting to search a citizen's home vehicle or person individuals have the right to refuse to consent however if an individual consents officers have the authority to conduct a search even if there is no probable cause reasonable suspicion or any justification whatsoever for the search for this reason criminal defense attorneys recommend that individuals refuse to consent to any search that an officer requests permission to conduct because if an officer asks for consent to search they typically do not have the legal authority to conduct the search without permission it is also important to note that a court would almost certainly conclude that deputy wester did not have the reasonable suspicion necessary to detain ms odum to wait for the k-9 unit to arrive in the 2015 case of rodriguez vs united states the supreme court held that extending the duration of a traffic stop beyond the time reasonably required to complete the mission of the stop to wait for a k-9 unit to arrive and complete a dog sniff of the vehicle violated the fourth amendment the court explained that quote an officer may conduct certain unrelated checks during an otherwise lawful traffic stop but he may not do so in a way that prolongs the stop absent the reasonable suspicion ordinarily demanded to justify detaining an individual here deputy wester had absolutely no evidence that ms odum was involved in criminal drug activity so a court would likely decide that there was no reasonable suspicion to warrant detaining ms odum to wait for the canine unit i got [Applause] all right deputy hey kevin make sure you don't get run over okay um because i have faith but he would prefer to get over it all right just hang tight myself [Applause] here the body cam footage video shows what appears to be a small baggie in deputy wester's hand as he puts on his gloves it was later proven that deputy wester planted methamphetamine in miss odom's vehicle although there are no statutes in florida that explicitly prohibit police officers from planting drugs doing so in order to falsify charges against an individual violates many different state laws for instance section 838.0 of the florida statutes which defines the offense of official misconduct states that quote it is unlawful for a public servant to knowingly and intentionally obtain a benefit for any person or to cause unlawful harm to another by falsifying any official record or official document so if deputy wester included information about planted drugs in a police report or another official document he could be found guilty of official misconduct similarly section 918.13 of the florida statutes which outlines the crime of fabricating evidence states that quote no person knowing that an investigation by a duly constituted law enforcement agency of this state is pending or is about to be instituted shall make present or use any record document or thing knowing it to be false therefore deputy wester could violate this statute by presenting planted drugs as evidence against mizodum or including a false narrative in a police report and of course deputy wester also likely illegally possessed the drugs that he planted in violation of section 893-13 of the florida statutes although planting drugs or other evidence is highly unethical and illegal behavior some police officers do engage in such conduct and individuals who are the victims of planted evidence often feel powerless to fight the charges against them when it's their word against corrupt officers however public defenders and criminal defense lawyers can help citizens who are charged with crimes based on planet evidence defend themselves so individuals should never plead guilty to criminal charges without first consulting an attorney after planting the evidence in ms odom's vehicle deputy wester confronts her about the substance [Applause] that's bad [Applause] [Music] [Applause] neither he nor his brother miss how about this that is not mine no sir okay i'm not gonna ask you anything no sir i'm not gonna ask you any great questions i'm gonna read you your rights first okay so just hang out with deputy hey kkk here i have an idea we're going to test it though okay [Applause] i don't know oh no theresa yeah thank you ah do you have anything on your misogyny i said i didn't have anything on me in the truck oh okay oh okay but do you have anything on your person nothing on me to my knowledge thank you we're good okay all right it did return for something positive for methamphetamine okay i'm just letting you know okay deputy wester conducts a field chemical test on the planet's substance and informs ms odum that the test was presumptive positive for methamphetamine according to a feature in the new york times there are many factors that can impact the results of a roadside field test for instance the florida department of law enforcement reports that 21 of substances submitted to its labs as methamphetamine were not methamphetamine and half of the false positives were not even illegal drugs in fact in the first seven months of 2014 alone the hillsborough county sheriff's office in florida reported 15 false positives from methamphetamine after deputies misunderstood which colors indicated a positive result environmental factors can also interfere with the field test with cold weather slowing the development of color results and heat speeding it up and lighting conditions on the street can prevent officers from accurately determining the color of the result strip these issues are not limited to methamphetamine tests as a common field test for cocaine uses a chemical called cobalt thiocyanate which turns blue when exposed to cocaine as well as over 80 other chemical compounds including acne medications common household cleaners and methadone although field chemical testing is too unreliable to be used as evidence in court it can be used to obtain probable cause to arrest individuals found with substances in their possession however because the vast majority of drug cases in the united states are resolved through plea bargains prosecutors often accept guilty or no contest please before more accurate lab testing is conducted on the purportedly illegal substances in other words despite the fact that field drug tests are not admissible as evidence a large proportion of drug convictions are based solely on the results of these tests however it should be noted that the results of the test deputy webster conducted were not a false positive since deputy wester actually did plant methamphetamine in miss odom's vehicle [Applause] um what about my truck i'm gonna have to tow it okay since it's a narcotics felony arrest okay they saying they gonna tow my toilet baby all right here you just want to put your phone and your sunglasses in your purse here we'll make sure all this gets to the jail ms odum was placed under arrest and charged with felony counts of methamphetamine possession and drug paraphernalia she was held in jail for 19 days and then pled no contest to the charges ms odum later explained why she didn't fight the charges stating the quote i just didn't think i'd be able to beat anything being as it was law enforcement and i wanted to get home and take care of my grandbaby she was about to be three months old in august 2018 the florida department of law enforcement initiated an investigation into deputy wester's conduct at the request of the jackson county sheriff's office deputy wester was placed on administrative leave on august 1 2018 and fired on september 10th the department of law enforcement's investigation found that deputy wester routinely pulled over citizens for minor traffic infractions planted drugs inside their vehicles and arrested them in response to these allegations prosecutors reviewed almost 300 cases in which former deputy wester was involved and dropped charges and vacated convictions in over 100 of those cases ms odum was among those found to be affected and on september 18 2018 her convictions were vacated and the charges against her were dismissed on july 10 2019 mr wester was arrested on numerous felony and misdemeanor charges and on may 18 2021 a jury found mr wester guilty of 19 out of the 67 charges against him and he was eventually convicted of 12 felonies on july 13 2021 mr wester was sentenced to 12 and a half years in state prison for these convictions mr wester has since filed an appeal and as of the date of this episode the appellate case is still pending over a dozen of mr wester's victims have filed civil rights lawsuits over his misconduct and on july 25 2019 ms odum filed a federal lawsuit against mr wester as of the date of this episode her case is also still pending overall former deputy wester gets an f for displaying a total lack of compassion and empathy for ms odom and his other victims maliciously neglecting his duty as a member of law enforcement and for abusing his policing authority and intentionally jailing innocent citizens this interaction largely speaks for itself and it goes without saying that mr wester's conduct was nothing short of cruel and criminal although an exact motive was never established evidence was presented that suggested that mr wester wanted to secure a position on his department's drug task force which his father robert wester had ran for approximately 15 years again this motive has not been proven beyond a reasonable doubt but if true it demonstrates the lengths that mr wester was willing to go in an effort to advance his own career at the expense of innocent citizens ironically enough several of mr wester's victims reported him telling them to quote be careful who you have around and quote a lot of people you think you can trust you can't this is yet another officer that deserves a grade lower than an f and this interaction highlights the important role that independent verification plays in police encounters as for ms odom it would not be appropriate to assign a grade to an individual who was purely a victim of misconduct and not in control of any aspect of the encounter there is no doubt that ms odom should not have given the deputy permission to search her vehicle but considering that mr wester demonstrated a complete disregard for the law it's difficult to see how the interaction would have been any different otherwise if ms odum had refused consent then mr wester would have likely waited for a canine unit despite the rodriguez ruling and then planted false evidence anyway ms odum was faced with an impossibly difficult and emotionally traumatizing situation as were the rest of mr wester's victims but she somehow managed to stay calm compliant and respectful while being falsely accused of felony crimes i commend ms odom for maintaining her composure and for following up this encounter with the proper legal action let us know if there is an interaction or legal topic you would like us to discuss in the comments below thank you for watching and don't forget to check out my second channel for even more police interaction content [Music] you

Channel: Audit the Audit

Views: 3,530,162

Keywords: amagansett press, first amendment audit, 1st amendment audit, auditing america, news now california, sgv news first, high desert community watch, anselmo morales, photography is not a crime, san joaquin valley transparency, first amendment audit fail, walk of shame, news now houston, police fail, 1st amendment audit fail, public photography, auditor arrested, police brutality, highdesert community watch, pinac news, cops triggered, news now patrick, east hampton

Id: LK2uUMMCGLM

Length: 16min 38sec (998 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 24 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

Man, any cop who does this should get an automatic life in prison sentence.

[u/wastelandho]

Being a law enforcement officer should have tripled his sentence.

[u/Icy_Apple_9427]

Fucking love Audit The Audit🤘

[u/TiredHappyDad]

I'm not a big fan of many auditors, but I've watched a ton of audit the audit.

[u/Comfortable_Area3910]

Where are the just comply and thin blue liners? They usually have tons of opinions on these kinds of vids.

[u/quirkycurlygirly]

That woman had the patience of Job.

[u/1onnude]

The right “and he was the only one”

[u/toxcrusadr]

What makes a seemingly friendly person do shit like this? What goes through his head? Does he think he's got a divinely inspired mission to put Those People in their place and keep them there? Is he getting revenge against some class of people he thinks did him or his family wrong? What makes a person act so sociopathic?