Minor drinking near frat house

A University of Arizona Police Department officer made contact with a man on Aug. 28 as he was exiting a fraternity on campus, swaying side to side. The officer noticed the man had numerous symptoms of intoxication: he smelled of strong intoxicants, had watery bloodshot eyes and his speech was confused as he mumbled repetitively.  The officer cited him for minor in possession and released him.

Marijuana in a passenger’s backpack

As a car drove in the opposite direction down a one-way street, a UAPD officer activated the emergency lights on his patrol car to stop the vehicle at around 1:40 a.m. on Aug. 28.

The UAPD officer approached the car head-on, and the driver brought the vehicle to a stop before colliding with him. Then the car began to reverse away from the police car, going in the wrong direction.

The officer initially ordered the driver to stop using his public address system. The driver didn’t stop, and kept on reversing towards an intersection behind him.  Again, the officer used the public address system as well as several siren bursts to tell him to stop.  The driver continued until about 100 feet from of the intersection.

Two additional UAPD officers came to help. The first UAPD officer made contact with the driver at the spot he had stopped and could immediately smell marijuana coming from the inside of the car. It was masked by cigarette smoke, but the officer smelled the odor of fresh marijuana, rather than in its burning form.

The man driving the vehicle said that he had been confused about what the officer wanted him to do at the time that he turned on the police car’s emergency lights. He also said he did not know that he was traveling in the wrong direction on a one-way road and that he could not hear the officer telling him to stop the car. The officer observed no signs of impairment when he spoke to the man.

One of the four passengers was sitting in the seat directly behind the driver smoking a cigarette and rambling his words as he spoke. This man seemed to be intoxicated. A strong smell of alcohol was coming from his mouth and he had red watery eyes. He admitted to have been drinking.

The officer had everyone exit the vehicle so he could search it for contraband, due to the strong smell of fresh marijuana from the car. As the passenger slurred his words and stepped out, the officer noticed he had been sitting on two unopened beer cans and a black backpack was on the floor at his feet. Three other passengers also stepped out of the vehicle, two of which were only sixteen years old.

UAPD searched the backpack and found two more unopened beer cans, nine plastic bags of marijuana and a glass smoking pipe with marijuana residue.

The passenger who had been sitting behind the driver claimed ownership of the backpack and stated that everything inside of it was his. He told UAPD what kind of marijuana each bag contained, referring to it as hydro or regular and whether it was good or bad. All of the man’s statements were made without any officers asking him questions. The officers read him his Miranda Rights and he said he wished to speak to a lawyer before admitting to anything.  The officer’s did not ask him any further questions. The man was placed under arrest for a confirmed Tucson police warrant, minor in possession, possession of marijuana for sale due to the way each amount of marijuana was individually packaged and possession of drug paraphernalia.

The man was cited and released for the MIP charges. The officers searched for incident to arrest for the felony charges and found another plastic bag of marijuana in his front right pants pocket. They also found $64 in his front left pocket of his pants. The man was transported to Pima County Jail for booking.

Minor in possession

Three men were stopped near the Arizona-Sonora Residence Hall after a UAPD officer noticed them leaving the dorms and bumping into each other as they walked.

The officer smelled a strong odor of alcohol as he approached them. The men identified themselves with CatCards. They had their Miranda Rights read to them and were interviewed separately. One of the men said they were roommates and had been drinking together in their dorm room. He stated he drank two beers and a shot of vodka. He had a slight odor of alcohol to his breath and bloodshot eyes.

The second and third men, when interviewed individually, also said that they drank two beers and one shot of vodka each. All three of the men were cited and released for minor in possession.