The Zuckerman Law Firm is pleased to announce the withdrawal of 127 felony and misdemeanor drug charges against a client accused of manufacturing and possessing with the intent to deliver illegal mushrooms and marijuana in Washington County. Due to tainted and inconclusive drug chemistry evidence, coupled with a possible illegal property search by probation officers, the client’s case resolved with a plea to misdemeanor Possession of a Small Amount of Marijuana for personal use and Drug Paraphernalia for 12 months of Probation Without Verdict. Upon the successful completion of probation, the client will be able to pursue a full criminal record expungement.

In July of 2019, the client and his wife permitted the client’s brother to stay with them in their home temporarily. Unbeknownst to the client, his brother was on probation and was being supervised by the Washington County Adult Probation department. Just days after being sentenced to probation, the brother’s probation officer received an anonymous call alleging that there were guns and drugs at the residence. As a result, probation officers proceeded to the home without a warrant, and conducted a search of the residence they labeled as a “compliance check.” During the search, they located approximately 100 grams of marijuana, scales, bongs and several plastic containers they believed to contain psilocybin (i.e. mushrooms).

The magisterial district court proceeded to set an excessively high bond in the amount of $100,000 and proceeded to hold charges for court despite the Commonwealth’s failure to present a drug chemistry report at the preliminary hearing. Additionally, the Commonwealth extended no plea offer on the case for months.

Probation officers do not need a warrant to search a probationer’s home so long as they have reasonable suspicion to believe they will find evidence of a probation violation in the home. However, Attorney Zuckerman strongly believed that the anonymous call did not provide reasonable suspicion, as tip did not provide details about the suspects, type of narcotics, location of narcotics, or other predictive information about the offender’s future activities. Furthermore, probation officers failed to conduct any prior investigation into the validity of the anonymous tip to ensure that it was in fact reliable. See Com v. Coleman (130 A.3d 38 (Pa. Super. 2015)).

Ultimately, the Commonwealth’s laboratory report came back negative for the presence of psilocybin, severely hampering the Commonwealth’s ability to prosecute all felony manufacturing and possession charges pertaining to mushrooms. However, the Commonwealth still alleged multiple felony and misdemeanor violations for the marijuana found in the home. During Attorney Zuckerman’s investigation, the defense obtained evidence to establish that the client worked out of state for extended periods of time preceding the incident, making it harder for the Commonwealth to prove that he possessed any contraband found within the home.

On the date of the pretrial motion hearing, the District Attorney’s office extended a plea offer for 12 months of Probation Without Verdict to resolve the case. Although we were confident about the strength of our case, the client chose to accept this resolution, which will allow him to fully expunge all charges from his criminal background check.