Updated: Meggs says he won’t prosecute DEA cases because of Hoffman case | tallahassee.com | Tallahassee Democrat
Willie Meggs, state attorney for the 2nd Judicial Circuit, has written a letter to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement saying he will no longer prosecute federal Drug Enforcement Administration cases in state court.Meggs, in the letter dated Wednesday to FDLE Commissioner Gerald Bailey, said, “Due to recent events, please be advised the State Attorney’s Office for the Second Judicial Circuit will no longer prosecute cases in State Court when agents from the DEA are involved. Should your agency join a task force or use federal DEA agents during your investigation you should first contact the U.S. Attorney to make certain that the U.S. Attorney will take your case.”
Meggs is seething mad that three agents from the DEA were not allowed by the agency to testify to a grand jury investigating the botched police drug war sting leading to the murder of Rachel Hoffman. So if DEA won’t cooperate in a Florida investigation, Meggs has decided Florida won’t cooperate in any DEA investigations.
It’s rare to see two drug war agencies battling each other. As the accountability for this massive drug war failure is sought, look for all these police agencies to play a mammoth game of CYA. Unfortunately, it is not one agency or cop to blame, it is the entire structure of federal prohibition of marijuana that is to blame, a system that provides incentive to law enforcement to use young innocent responsible cannabis users as bait for the larger bust.
