Dashcam video shared by a Fort Worth criminal defense lawyer purports to show a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper taking a hit from a cannabis vape pen he confiscated from a suspect.
The clip is originally from 2019 but recently posted to YouTube by attorney David Sloane, whose website URL is The420Lawyer.com. Sloane told the New York Post he’s representing drivers who were stopped by the same — and now former — trooper near Wichita Falls and wants to ensure others know about the incident.
“The public should find it abhorrent any time there’s a breach of public trust,” Sloane told the paper. “We place people in a position of trust when they enforce the law.”
The Trooper, Chad Harden, resigned from DPS in 2019. Last August, he pleaded guilty to tampering with drug evidence and was ordered to serve two years’ probation as part of a deal with prosecutors, the Wichita Falls Times Record reported. Evidence tampering is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, according to that report.
“I accidentally inhaled THC, as stupidly as that sounds,” Harden told investigators in an audio clip Sloane included in his YouTube video.
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This article appears in Feb 9-22, 2022.
