Pubdate: Sun, 13 Jun 2004
Source: Jackson Sun News (TN)
Copyright: 2004 The Jackson Sun
Contact:  http://www.jacksonsun.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1482

GREYHOUND GUARDS SOMETIMES LET DRUG OFFENDERS GO

Man Going To Bonnaroo Says Bus Company Let Other Concert-Goers Carrying Pot 
Travel

NASHVILLE - Some Greyhound Bus Lines security guards here say they don't 
always turn people caught with drugs over to the police.

Security officer Dustin Doyal told the local magistrate, in the trial of a 
19-year-old accused of having psychedelic mushrooms at the bus station, 
that sometimes they just let people go if they are only carrying a small 
amount of drugs.

Another security officer at the Nashville bus station said the guards flush 
the drugs down the toilet, and let passengers continue traveling on their 
routes. A security guard records what is disposed of in a logbook.

The company, however, say people caught with drugs will always be turned 
over to police, no matter the amount confiscated.

The apparent discrepancy between company policy and actual practice came to 
light after security guards accused Samuel Martin Brown of Green Bay, Wis., 
of carrying five plastic bags with a total of 19.1 grams of mushrooms while 
traveling to the Bonnaroo festival.

Brown was nabbed as part of random screenings that the guards conduct 
routinely, and arrested by Nashville police for felony drug possession.

Both Brown and Doyal, a security guard with Nashville-based Alert Security 
& Patrol, told a judge that others with smaller amounts of marijuana were 
let go without charges.

Security guards are supposed to contact law enforcement after any screening 
that reveals an illegal item, no matter the quantity, said Kim Plaskett, a 
spokeswoman for Greyhound Bus Lines.

''We do our best to ensure that our security procedures are done according 
to the way we establish them,'' she said. ''If we are notified to the 
contrary, we will look into it and determine what actions need to be done 
at that time.''

Brown said in night court Thursday that he was tricked into turning over 
the drugs.

''I was completely honest,'' Brown said. ''They asked if we had any drugs, 
and they said they would throw them out, not prosecute, and let us go.''

Doyal told the court that the guards call police when they find enough 
drugs to warrant a felony charge.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart