Illinois judge rules police entitled to Swat raid over parody Twitter account

[Mitch Rapp]

The mayor of Peoria was offended by a parody Twitter account, so he called on the SWAT team to defend his honor. The SWAT team finds marijuana in the bedroom of the target suspect's bedroom, so now he faces a felony possession charge. It was later ruled that creating a Twitter parody account does not qualify as a crime of impersonating a public official.

 

Illinois judge rules police entitled to Swat raid over parody Twitter account

 

Swat team burst into Peoria house looking for source of parody Twitter account that had upset town’s mayor

 

The police hadn’t even come for him. When four fully-armed officers of a Swat team burst into Jacob Elliott’s house in Peoria, Illinois in April they were looking for the source of a parody Twitter feed that had upset the town’s mayor by poking fun at him.

 

It transpired that one of Elliott’s housemates, Jon Daniel, had created the fake Twitter account, @peoriamayor, and so incensed the real-life official, Jim Ardis, with his make-believe account of drug binges and sex orgies that the police were dispatched. Elliott was just a bystander in the affair, but that didn’t stop the Swat team searching his bedroom, looking under his pillow and in a closet where they discovered a bag of marijuana and dope-smoking paraphernalia.

 

Elliott now faces charges of felony marijuana possession. He has also become the subject of one of the more paradoxical – if not parody – questions in American jurisprudence: can a citizen be prosecuted for dope possession when the police were raiding his home looking for a fake Twitter account?

[capt278]

If there was a search warrant signed by a judge and the marijuana was in plain view, then the charge sticks.

 

His best chance of having the charges dropped would be to get the search warrant ruled illegal.

[LIPTON BASH]

I would love to know the grounds for the warrant.

[SportsGuy41017]

I would love to know the grounds for the warrant.

The mayors feelings were hurt

[SportsGuy41017]

I would love to know the grounds for the warrant.

Me too.

 

I can't imagine a mayor, or any other city official doing this. Doesn't a judge need to sign off on this first?

 

I

[AverageJoesGym]

If they had a legal search warrant and the marijuana was found within the area in the scope of the warrant I don't have a problem with the possession charge. I have a big problem, however, that a SWAT team was used to serve a search warrant to find the owner of a parody Twitter account because the mayor got his feelings hurt. I can't believe that a judge was so out of touch that they wouldn't understand what a parody account was and still signed that warrant. Even worse that the police used the SWAT team. Kudos to the prosecutor for deciding not to pursue the case against the Twitter account holder.

[AverageJoesGym]

If there was a search warrant signed by a judge and the marijuana was in plain view, then the charge sticks.

 

His best chance of having the charges dropped would be to get the search warrant ruled illegal.

 

According to the article the marijuana was in a closet and under a pillow. Doesn't sound like it was in plain sight. The warrant might well have been for pretty much the whole apartment though. Like I Darius I don't have a problem with the possession charge but I do have a problem with using SWAT to serve a warrant like this. It reeks of an abuse of power because it was the mayor being lampooned. If that were you or me being parodied we'd have been lucky if they'd have even listened to our complaint.

[AverageJoesGym]

This ended up being settled out of court for $125,000 plus legal fees which ended up costing Peoria $250,000. I hope it was worth it.