PA Crack Cocaine Drug Case Dismissed

July 13, 2011

A Luzerne County Judge dismissed charges in a drug case after reviewing Wilkes-Barre criminal defense attorney David V. Lampman's Motion and argument to dismiss the case. Trial was set to begin July 18, 2011.

The Defendant was arrested following a traffic stop in Kingston, PA in which police said they seized 191 grams of crack cocaine worth an estimated $20,000. The Defendant was charged with:

Possession With Intent To Deliver Cocaine (PWID) (2nd degree felony - max. 10 years prison)
Conspiracy of PWID Cocaine (2nd degree felony - max. 10 yrs prison
Possession of a Controlled Substance (2nd degree misdemeanor - max. 2 yrs prison)
Possession of Drug Paraphernalia (2nd degree misdemeanor - max. 2 yrs prison)
Tampering with or Fabricating Physical Evidence (2nd degree misdemeanor - max. 2 yrs prison)

A co-defendant previously pleaded guilty in this case and was sentenced to 4-8 years in state prison.

Lampman filed the motion and requested a hearing upon learning that the police destroyed the physical evidence. The Commonwealth argued that the case should move forward to trial based upon the State Police Lab report allegedly verifying the existence and weight of the drugs. They further argued that the issue of missing evidence goes to the "weight of the evidence" and should be left for a jury to decide.

At the hearing however, Lampman's cross-examination of the police revealed that the Commonwealth could not produce any reports or documents relating to the chain of custody of the alleged narcotics. The police stated that those documents were destroyed along with the drugs. Therefore, the Commonwealth could not establish chain of custody and that the contraband seized in the traffic stop at issue were the drugs referenced in the Pennsylvania State Police Lab report.