Unedited Video With Audio Clearly Shows Cops Eating Marijuana Edibles During Dispensary Raid
Those ain't protein bars.
Last month Ed Krayewski posted surveillance-camera footage that seemed to show Santa Ana cops munching on cannabis-infused treats while raiding Sky High Holistic, an unlicensed medical marijuana dispensary, on May 26. Some defenders of the police department have argued that the widely viewed video, which was recorded by the one camera the cops neglected to disable and was released by the dispensary's lawyer, may have been edited to leave a misleading impression. Santa Ana Police Chief Carlos Rojas suggested that the cops may have actually been eating protein bars they brought with them. But four minutes and 41 seconds of unedited video with sound posted this week by Nick Schou at the O.C. Weekly makes it pretty clear what's going on. Some of the more incriminating dialogue transcribed by Schou:
Female officer: What is it? Butter?
Male officer: Take a bite.
Female officer: I know, right?
Officer in yellow shirt: There are some good-looking chocolate bars back there.
Bald officer: Bombs away, homie.
Officer in yellow shirt: Yeah, do it…
Bearded officer, to female officer: Are you eating that?
Female officer: Yeah.
As Alex Sanchez, a police supervisor, enters, followed by five firefighters, he announces, "Fire department, watch your mouths. Watch your mouths. You watch your mouth!" The scene continues:
Bald officer, chewing: These bars are pretty good. I kinda feel light-headed, though.
Officer in yellow shirt, patting his stomach: I haven't eaten anything.
The female officer responds by handing him a bar, which he begins eating. The bearded officer unwraps a bar, takes a bite, and hands the treat to the bald officer.
The female officer tosses a bar to a cop sitting at a desk. A firefighter enters and says to the female officer, "You guys got that munchies now, huh?" She replies, "Mmm-hmm."
As Schou notes, only three officers were suspended pending an investigation of the incident, but at least four can be seen eating chocolate bars in the video.
[Via Smell the Truth; thanks to Marc Sandhaus for the tip.]
Update: Three of the officers in the video—Matthew Sontag, Nicole Lynn Quijas, and Jorge Arroyo—have been charged with petty theft for taking snacks from the dispensary's break room. Sontag was also charged with misdemeanor vandalism for damaging five surveillance cameras. The Orange County District Attorney's Office says it found "no evidence that any SAPD personnel consumed any edible marijuana items available at the dispensary."