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DENVER (AP) — A Colorado man is suing Idaho police, accusing a trooper of presuming he had marijuana simply because his license plates marked him as being from a state where medical post was legal, The Denver Post reported Sunday.
The Post, quoting an attorney for Darien Roseen, reported (https://tinyurl.com/pjrqjw8 ) that the trooper stopped Roseen at a rest stop just past Idaho's border with Oregon on Jan. 25, 2013, when medical marijuana was legal in Colorado. Now, recreational marijuana also can be sold legally in Colorado under the state's law, raising concern among law enforcement authorities at the federal level and in states in the region where marijuana remains illegal.
Roseen, a retired executive who was on the way home from his daughter's baby shower in Washington, another state where marijuana has been legalized, said he was detained for hours in Idaho as his truck was searched. According to the suit filed last week in the District of Idaho, no illegal substance was found.
The suit was first reported by Fox31 (https://tinyurl.com/p4aw2wj ), which quoted Roseen's Idaho-based attorney Mark Coonts as saying the video taken by a law enforcement dash cam shows the conversation turning "quickly from a lane change violation to, 'Where is your marijuana?'"
"Just because you're from Colorado doesn't mean that you're automatically carrying marijuana into our state," Coonts told Fox31. "This isn't a pro-marijuana case or an anti-marijuana case, this is a civil rights case."
The Post reported that Idaho State Police would not comment over the weekend, but planned to issue a statement on the litigation later this week.
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