Hello, my name is Dustin Kay, founder of Cannabis Activist Hemp Clothing. I am writing you today not to market or advertise my brand, but to explain a heinous injustice that other Americans and I have fallen victim to. The police in my area and most everywhere else are completely out of control and the problem goes beyond the police. I will explain in detail in the following:

In July of ’08, while I was attending my cousin’s wedding in South Dakota, a man I remotely knew was arrested at his home in Utah for having over 7 pounds of marijuana in his possession. He also had guns and young children in the home. He told police that I was his drug supplier. I was not.

Subsequently, the police illegally installed a GPS tracking device to my vehicle while it was parked on my private property. In Utah the law requires officers to obtain an authorization from a judge before using one of the satellite-assisted units. The authorization is less than a warrant, simply a notice for a judge to sign that the unit is being used pursuant to a criminal investigation. If a cop goes onto a suspect’s private property to affix it to a vehicle, in Utah the officer needs a warrant. In my case, the police never obtained authorization or a warrant to plant the unconstitutional apparatus on my Oldsmobile. Furthermore, they rigged it to my car as it was parked on my private property.

According to the cop’s testimonies, they followed me around to family and friend’s homes for 6 months with assistance from the unwarranted tracker. As a result they assumed one of my dear friends, Seth Spencer, was a drug supplier. On Dec. 3 of 2008, with the justification of swabbing Seth’s door handle for marijuana residue, approximately 20 cops from the Weber-Morgan Strike Force raided Seth’s home while he was away at work, out-of-town. His girlfriend, then 7 months pregnant, was home alone. The police harassed her for several hours stating that they knew she was home alone and they wanted her to talk. She was frightened and confused and had nothing to say. The raid uncovered 12 grams of pot. Seth was charged with 2nd degree felony- possession with intent to distribute. His girlfriend, Carol, was charged with possession of paraphernalia.

About two weeks later on a Monday morning (Dec. 15 at around 11 a.m.), I was on my way to work when I was pulled over by an unmarked car. I pulled over, set my keys on the dash, rolled down my window and greeted the plain-clothed officer. “Get out of the car,” the officer demanded. I asked why I had been pulled over. “Failure to signal,” said the man. My uneasy response was, “Is this the way you’re handling traffic infractions these days?” His voice grew louder, “Get out of the car!” I got out of my car and he immediately handcuffed me, searched me, took me to a police vehicle and sat me down inside. I watched as several officers searched my car. To their dismay, they found nothing illegal, but to my surprise the sergeant pulled a black electronic device out from under the back of my car. I watched as the sergeant walked toward me. The device with several wires was wadded up in his hand.

The sergeant entered the police vehicle I was detained in. He waived the device in my face and said, “Pretty nifty little device, isn’t it? I could pinpoint you anywhere on the map! How was the weather in Salt Lake?” I was flabbergasted! I had been in Salt Lake City all weekend visiting my girlfriend. He began accusing me of things I had no idea about. “I know you’ve been making drops out in Ogden, and I know you’ve been selling pounds to a guy out in Roy!” I looked at him with confidence and said, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He began reeling off a story that his informant told him. I started to chuckle and said, “You’ve been misinformed. Look, I was just a pot smoker. I want to talk to my attorney.” With my admission to having been a pot smoker, the officers began to impound my car. I asked them if they had a warrant to detain me and take my car. They said they did. I asked to see the warrant. They wouldn’t respond. They began driving toward my house. At this point they had no warrant for my arrest, my car was being impounded, and the only thing I was guilty of was failing to use a turn signal. I didn’t even know if I had been put under arrest. They never read me my Miranda rights.

As we approached my neighborhood they pulled over to the side of the road and waited. They phoned back-and-forth on their walkie-talkies, apparently waiting for a search warrant to be signed.

An hour later, at 1:15 p.m. (over two hours after they pulled me over), a judge signed a warrant. They pulled up to my house, opened the door to the car I was in, pulled my keys from my pocket and proceeded to raid my home. Fifteen minutes after they entered my home an officer escorted me out of the car and into my house. He sat me down at my dining table and waited for the sergeant to join us. The sergeant and another flatfoot came up my staircase with the evidence they found and set it on my kitchen counter. The sergeant was carrying one of my magazines in his hand. The magazine was an old Forbes® business magazine. The cover reads “Inside Dope: The Unstoppable Economics of a Booming Business.” He sat down, opened it to the cover story and read the article. When he finished reading he closed the magazine and said something to me that I will never forget. He said, “You know, Dustin. Me and probably 99% of the cops on the force wouldn’t even care if this stuff was legal.” I stated that I believe police are terrorizing non-violent Americans. He laughed and told me that I was going to jail unless I gave him information about any drug trafficking that I may have known about. I said, “No thanks, guys. I’ll go to jail.”

The raid uncovered 3 ounces of pot in a bag, 2 old pipes, a digital scale, and the tattered Forbes magazine. I was charged with 3rd Degree Felony- possession with intent to distribute, possession of paraphernalia, and failure to use a turn signal.

Shortly after I made bail I was reading through the local newspaper and found an article about an alleged bobcat poacher that had been arrested in the same fashion. The police had used a GPS tracking device in their poaching investigation. The article noted the attorney that was representing the alleged poacher. The lawyer was quoted as saying, “The use of GPS technologies is ‘Big Brotherish’ and kind of scary.” I was impressed with the article and shortly after I read it Seth and I consulted with the attorney. I hired him a couple of days later. He appeared as my new counsel and scheduled a preliminary hearing.

Two weeks before my preliminary hearing my roommate’s girlfriend came to talk to me about something interesting that happened at her work. She worked at a retail store that sold police gear to cops. She said, “I met an older gentleman at work today. All the officers that were there gathered around the man and treated him with the utmost respect. He came to the counter where I was working and we had a good conversation. Then he gave me this card.” I looked at the card. Strangely enough, the man shared the same last name as my attorney and the card had an Ogden Police Department pin attached to it. I said to myself it was just a coincidence and I went back to working on my computer.

At the preliminary hearing my lawyer questioned the cops. Even though there was no reference to a GPS device being used in my case, three cops admitted to using it. On our way out of the courtroom the sergeant tapped my lawyer on the shoulder and said, “Is your father A.K.?” I was dumbfounded. That was the same name that was on the card my friend showed me! My attorney responded to the sergeant, “Yes he is.” The sergeant smiled and said, “Well I have a tremendous amount of respect for that man.” My lawyer and I left the courtroom. I said to my lawyer, “So your dad is A.K., huh?” He said, “Yeah, how do you know my dad?” I told him about the conversation I had with my friend two weeks prior.

Later I phoned a friend who is an ex-cop for Ogden City. I asked him if he knew the man from the card. He said, “Yes I do. He’s the old Assistant Chief of Ogden City Police. He’s retired now.” I thought to myself, my attorney’s father is a former Chief of Police in the county I’m being charged in? All this created a significant conflict of interest, but I had already paid this attorney over $4,000.

In the following months, my attorney filed a few motions in my case. In November of ’09 we went to the motions hearing. The judge denied my motions and said this to me, “On the issue of the GPS. The placement of the GPS tracking device on your vehicle without authorization or warrant was unlawful, but that didn’t violate your 4th amendment rights.“ What the police did to me was unlawful, but it didn’t violate my rights!!?? I was rendered speechless. My family watched with their jaws dropped. If what the police did to me was unlawful, who takes responsibility for their illegal conduct? Obviously not the cops, I gather. I am the only one that is being held accountable for these lawmen’s unlawful actions. I quickly told the attorney to withdraw from my case. Something just wasn’t adding up. I went out to find an effective attorney.

Following the motions hearing I found a defense attorney with a good reputation and track record. While consulting with her she seemed to be a real person so I hired her. She immediately went to work on my case. After reviewing the case, she told me that she didn’t have all the evidence for a complete case. I was shocked! I had been told that all the evidence had been brought forth and that my previous attorney had argued everything there was to argue. She explained that my former attorney did a lot of work on my case, but he didn’t do it all. She articulated that if the cops followed me around for 6 months with a tracking device they have to have GPS records that detail where they were following me. Secondly, she needs to know of other court cases that stemmed from this GPS tracking. She said it is standard procedure to get these records. Then, suddenly, it hit me.

Months before, I was at my former attorney’s office making small talk with him. I asked him how his animal poaching GPS case was going. He said that it was going well and that he was preparing to argue his client’s GPS track records to see if they are legal and viable in court. It never dawned on me to ask him for my GPS track records, nor did he ever give me the option. According to my new attorney, it is standard procedure to get track records and info on cases that stem from the tracking. My former attorney knew of a case that stemmed from my GPS tracking. Seth and Carol were with me the second time I consulted with him. Seth’s warrant says they followed me to his house. We told him all about their case. He attained the GPS records in the animal poaching case, but not in mine.. Why?? Did it have anything to do with his father having ties with the police department and strike force? It certainly threw up a “red flag” to me.

Shortly after the first court hearing with my new attorney she subpoenaed the strike force to provide the GPS track records and any other evidence that hadn’t been provided. She called me the next day with a baffled tone in her voice. She said something strange had happened with the subpoena she sent to the strike force. She explained that the prosecutor called the strike force and told them to disobey her commands to send her the evidence. She told me that this is the first time in her 20+ year career that a prosecutor has refused to give her evidence that she is entitled to. This bewildered me. I share the same prosecuting attorney that is assigned to the animal poaching case. He provided the GPS records in that case. Why won’t he provide them in mine?

Since then, my attorney has filed several more motions in my defense and the judge has denied them all. The judge is rigorously pushing for trial before I can get my rightful opportunity to appeal his ruling. I am quickly running out of resources to fight for our rights. I need your help.

To date, I have spent $18,000 on this case. I have lost my home of seven years and most of my possessions. The informant that was caught with several pounds of marijuana, guns, and young children in his home was given a deal and only charged with minor possession. I don’t know what to think about America and it’s legal system anymore. The one thing I do know is this: MY rights are YOUR rights. As Americans we all share the same rights, and when the rights of one person are endangered the rights of everyone are endangered. You can contribute to this fight for our rights by simply purchasing an article of Cannabis Activist Hemp Clothing from our web store. Do your part and join the fight with Cannabis Activist® and Be Heard Without Saying A Word. Find us on FaceBook at CannabisActivist Hemp Clothing and on Twitter at usernames: CannabisActivst, HempClothes, CannabisClothes, and HempThreadz. Thank you very much for your continued support. Please remember to share us with your friends!

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