Police raid home of newsman who wrote critical stories, find $0.60 worth of meth

[Newsjock]

Source: San Francisco Peninsula Press Club

The San Mateo County District Attorney's Office has decided against filing drug charges against former newsman Brian Bothun, whose Atherton home was raided by 11 police officers and a drug-sniffing dog in October, according to reports in the Palo Alto Daily Post (not online) and the Menlo Park Almanac.

In the raid, probation officers, Atherton police and members of the computer crime task force combed Bothun's home and found 0.01 gram of methamphetamine, which has a street value of 60 cents, according to the Post. The search was permitted because Bothun, 48, was on probation in a 2008 misdemeanor drug case out of Menlo Park — a conviction San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Richard Livermore cleared from Bothun's record this month.

The search was conducted at the end of Bothun's probation period and authorities would not say why they decided to raid the former newsman's home.

Bothun, who was with the Palo Alto Daily News from 1996 to 2005, wrote a series of stories that cost then Atherton Police Chief Steve Cader his job. Bothun discovered that Cader had voted illegally in an Atherton tax election.

Read more: http://sfppc.blogspot.com/2011/01/no-charges-in-unusual-raid-of-ex.html

[Tripod]

1. Under the magnifying glass?

I expect he pissed the police off. Don't really know any thing about this case, other then what was posted here, but it seems a little suspicious.

[Jokinomx]

2. I would not trust the police in this case... they could have planted the drug..

I am one to try not to judge... and generally give our police the benefit of doubt...but this really looks fishy.

[Johonny]

3. I think if they planted the drug

they would have planted a non-laughable amount.

[Jokinomx]

4. Saving the rest for future use ... who knows..? n/t

[MrCoffee]

5. Smart DA...that would have been laughed out of court

[Canuckistanian]

6. 0.01 grams - about the weight of FOUR grains of sand

Sounds like somebody had an enemy in the police department, if they went to all that trouble.

[beevul]

7. Contempt of cop, nothing more. N/T

[jmowreader]

8. How do you FIND 0.01 gram of anything?

[Electric Monk]

9. Totally anecdotal here, but I know someone who said he knows someone who

has made a gram of meth last them over a year so far. He uses just a tiny tiny tiny bit a day, and thinks it helps with his day to day life.

I think he'd be better off quitting entirely. Just flush it.