Shortly before 8 p.m. on July 30, the FBI Mid-Michigan Safe Streets Task Force and the Bay City Public Safety Department’s VIPER Unit executed a raid at the home of a married couple in Bay City. At the time of the raid, the 46-year-old man and 40-year-old woman were at their home. Both of the accused individuals were reportedly taken into custody for drug charges without incident.
During the search, police say that they seized a combined total of 47.2 grams of cocaine packaged in multiple sandwich bags along with an unknown quantity of marijuana. Two firearms, $832 in cash and various items described as drug paraphernalia were also seized. The man reportedly spoke with police officers and admitted to selling cocaine in order to earn extra money. He told police that his wife was not involved in the drug sales.
The accused husband and wife were both arraigned on Aug. 29 for a charge of maintaining a drug house. The man was also handed a felony firearm possession charge along with two counts of second-offense possession of a controlled substance. His wife received an additional charge for possession of a narcotic or cocaine less than 25 grams. A preliminary examination for the couple was scheduled to take place on Sept. 10.
It is important that an accused person who has become the subject of a raid hears and understands their Miranda rights. If a police officer obtains information from an individual before reading them their rights, a judge might not allow this information to be used as evidence during a trial. A criminal defense attorney may be able to help an accused person to dispute their drug charges by proving that the police raid was unlawful and attempting to have evidence from the raid thrown out.
Source: MLive, “Married Bay City couple charged with operating a drug house, selling cocaine”, Cole Waterman, September 05, 2014
