Oklahoma: Cocaine Bust Was Really Only Powdered Milk
by Ed Lyon
Cody Gregg of Oklahoma is a member of a growing segment of America’s population—he is a homeless person and also receives food from a community pantry. On August 12, 2019, Gregg was doing a probated sentence for a drug conviction. He had been to a food pantry earlier and had a plastic bag containing powdered milk inside a coffee can in a backpack that he was wearing.
Around 10:30 p.m., Gregg was riding his bicycle when a cop signaled him to stop. The cop was concerned that Gregg had no light on the rear of his bike.
Gregg, being on probation, was afraid of being arrested, so he began to pedal faster in a futile attempt to get away from the squad car. He finally got off of his bicycle and ran. The cop quickly caught him.
Regarding Gregg’s powdered milk, the cop who arrested him stated, “Inside the baggie was a large amount of white powder substance that I believed to be cocaine based on my training and experience.”
Based on this and his haste to leave the Oklahoma county jail, Gregg agreed to plead guilty to a 15-year prison sentence for possession of cocaine with the intent to distribute the substance.
Apparently, the state crime lab training and experience is vastly different, not to mention superior, than the arresting cop’s. The 45.91 grams of white powder believed to be cocaine turned out to be nothing more than a bit over 1.6 ounces of exactly what the food pantry said it was, namely powdered milk. So much for narcotics field testing kits and cops’ “training and experience.”
Oklahoma County District Judge Timothy R. Henderson allowed Gregg’s attorney’s motion to withdraw the guilty plea when the lab report was released. Gregg told the judge his primary motivation for the guilty plea was to get out of Oklahoma County’s county jail. He was released the next day on October 11, 2019.
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Sources: cnn.com, Oklahoman.com
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