Police executed a felony arrest warrant on 3101 Queen Ave. N. and didn't find they guy they were looking for, but they allegedly found Drew Lathon and a whole lot of weed, as well as drug scales and a stolen Ruger .380 with extended magazine, determined to be stolen.
Click here for the criminal complaint.
The property at 3101 Queen Ave. N. is a rental owned by Jim F. Thomas of 855 Hallam Ave. N. in Mahtomedia, MN.
When the North Minneapolis tenants of absentee landlords are named in criminal complaints, expect the names and home addresses of their landlords to appear right here on Johnny Northside Dot Com. Don't like it? Pick better tenants and you won't see your name here OR your home address.
Why aren't these properties involved in drug sales subject to forfeiture actions? This blog would love to see a lot more of that. I think a lot of decent people who live on the Northside would be quite alright with that.
Why aren't the properties involved in drug sales subject to forfeiture? Because the landlords may not have any knowledge of the illegal activities of their tenants. Tenants have a certain degree of expectation of privacy, so landlords can't have surveillance cameras in every room. Landlords should lose their rental licenses, but only if it can be demonstrated that they knowingly allowed criminal activity or recklessly disregarded evidence that their property was/is being used for illegal purposes.
ReplyDeleteI agree that landlords should only rent to decent people. Landlords can use criminal background checks and establish minimum credit scores, but only if they stick to their tenant standards without the slightest deviation. So if a landlord requires a 640 minimum credit score, they have to turn away an applicant with a 639 score, no matter how well qualified the would-be tenant otherwise is. Lastly, while landlords can't discriminate based upon the source of income, they can discriminate based upon the amount of income. If the minimum income for a particular rental unit just happens to be slightly above the amount of welfare income a tenant could have (given maximum legal occupancy for that unit), that's a de facto way to discriminate against welfare recipients without breaking the law, but only if NO deviation from that minimum income standard is ever granted to any rental applicant.
At $10/gram, that's only $3,400 worth of weed. Well more than enough to be a felony and potentially warrant serious prison time, yet still only enough to pay for one major car repair. Man, drug dealers are stupid. They should get into more profitable crime, like banking or politics.
ReplyDeleteI was arrested for marijuana – half a blunt to be exact. It’s a felony because it was within 1000 feet of a school. It’s a felony no matter the amount or if it’s your first charge, any drug within 2000 feet of a school is a felony. This is my first offense ever. I have no criminal record, and I have an attorney. The state already offered me two years deferred, felony charge. I didn’t want it because it’s a felony; I told the state I won’t take a plea unless it’s a misdemeanor. I also offered the state twenty days in jail, two year deferred misdemeanor charge, if the DA would lower the charge. He said no and that if I didn’t take the felony two years deferred, he’d have the judge sentence me to more then two years deferred. My question is, if I don’t take the deal and say I want to go to trial, would the DA really want to go to trial over half a blunt of marijuana? If I bluff him, will the state be more likely to drop it down to a lower misdemeanor possession charge? I need advice.
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Trey
Felony charge?
ReplyDelete"I need advice."
Get a lawyer. For real.