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Seattle Prosecutor Drops All Weed Tickets Thanks to One Cop
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On Monday, Seattle's top elected attorney issued a blanket dismissal of approximately 100 tickets issued by the city's police department between Jan.1 and July 31 of this year.
City Attorney Pete Holmes stated that the reason for his actions stems from a report that one police officer, Randy Jokela, had issued roughly 80% of the citations due to his disagreement over Washington's new marijuana laws, which allows for the legal possession of up to one ounce of weed.
Jokela made no attempt to hide his ill feelings toward the law and more often than not wrote them in the tickets that he issued. In one case, Jokela discovered two people smoking pot and forced them to flip a coin in order to decide who would receive a ticket.
"(Suspect) lost the coin flip so he got the ticket while the other person walked. (Suspect) was allowed to keep his pipe," Jokela wrote on the ticket.
Jokela also made note in another ticket that the state's new marijuana laws were "silly" and often condescendingly addressed citations to the attention of city attorney "Petey Holmes."
According to KOMO News, Jokela was temporarily reassigned, but is now back on his regular patrol. "Chief O’Toole and (Office of Professional Accountability) Director Pierce Murphy conferred and believed that nothing in the ongoing investigation precluded him from returning to his patrol duties," said SPD spokesman Drew Fowler.
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Shawn Dwyer is a writer, editor and content producer living in Los Angeles. You can find him on Linkedin.
