Florida man arrested with 17 pounds of pot on Kansas highway. Was the stop legal?

Landon Kerekes was traveling east on Interstate 70 from Colorado to Virginia in June when he was stopped for a minor traffic violation. Junction City, Kansas, police officer Nicholas Blake clocked Kerekes, 36, of Tampa, Florida, driving four miles per hour over the 75 mph speed limit.

It’s a tactic Blake has used before to target out-of-state drivers he suspects of transporting illegal narcotics. Initiate a traffic stop for a minor violation. Then summon his K-9 partner to perform an exterior search of the vehicle, often without consent or any evidence that a crime has been committed.

Kerekes was in possession of 17 pounds of marijuana with intent to deliver, prosecutors in Geary County, Kansas, contend. The bounty included 5 pounds of pot and 12 pounds of marijuana-infused edibles, a felony. Kerekes will have his day in court. But the crime carries serious penalties, and he’ll face a lengthy prison sentence and a fine if found guilty.

Kerekes was also charged with felony possession of drug paraphernalia with intent to cultivate or manufacture a controlled substance and not having a Kansas drug tax stamp.

The traffic stop itself is legitimate, legal experts say. But the tactics Blake used that day to conduct a search of Kerekes’ vehicle are questionable. Blake claimed in court filings that he spotted a vape pen in the console of the car Kerekes drove. Vape pens can be used to smoke tobacco, CBD oil and other legal substances. Vaping is hardly a crime. The pens and the cartridges used with them aren’t illegal, either.

While waiting on police dispatch to return information on Kerekes’ vehicle registration and driver’s license, Blake led his K-9 partner, Barney, on an exterior search of the car, according to a probable cause statement Blake filed with the Geary County Attorney’s office. Blake’s description of the dog’s behavior during the search doesn’t match what is seen on camera during the arrest, which was captured by the officer’s body and dashboard cameras, court records show.

“Barney’s behavior while detecting the odor of narcotics is referred to by me as either an alert or indication,” Blake wrote. “An alert is a change in behavior and it’s when he can smell the odor of narcotics but hasn’t yet located the strongest source of the odor and he uses his nose in a searching manner. When he alerts, his posture becomes stiff, his breathing becomes shallow and rapid and he sniffs the area very meticulously (Intense). An indication is when he has located the strongest odor source and he is trained to sit.”

None of that occurred, according to a video of the arrest. Blake is seen walking the dog around the perimeter of Kerekes’ red 2016 Lexus, which had Florida license plates. The dog stopped briefly to sniff a tire after Blake tapped on the back of the vehicle, but that was the only pause during the exterior search. Barney, the dog, didn’t stiffen and he never sat. Blake mischaracterized the dog’s behavior that day, which cast doubts on the legality of the evidence seized during the arrest.

Other drug cases involving officer thrown out of court

Blake was named Junction City’s 2019 Law Enforcement Officer of the Year, mainly because of his drug interdiction work. That year, Blake played a role in seizing more than $27 million in drug proceeds and prevented hundreds of pounds of illicit drugs from hitting the streets, his superiors boasted. His actions in the field led to more than 100 vehicles being seized and hundreds of weapons being confiscated.

But what the award citation did not say is that several drug-related cases Blake has been involved with have been thrown out of court. Blake unconstitutionally extended a traffic stop before he ran his dog around a suspect’s car, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled in 2018. That illegal stop led to the discovery and forfeiture of $50,000 in cash.

A “traffic stop extension without reasonable suspicion or consent — even by a de minimus length of time — amounts to an unreasonable seizure when the delay is based on anything but the articulated components of the stop’s mission,” the state Supreme Court wrote in its ruling.

A California man’s drug-related conviction was overturned in a case involving Blake and sheriff’s deputies from Geary and Riley counties in Kansas. Blake testified in 2017 that his training and experience led him to suspect that a vehicle driven on I-70 in Junction City by Donte Westmoreland was working in tandem with the driver of a separate vehicle to traffic drugs. Blake relayed information to a Geary County sheriff’s deputy, which led to Westmoreland’s eventual arrest in Manhattan.

No evidence tied Westmoreland to drugs and he was exonerated this year and released from prison after serving three years of a seven-year sentence.

Blake also pulled over an out-of-state driver in 2015 for following another vehicle to close. He didn’t have his dog with him that time. So he asked a fellow officer to hold the driver and his passenger at bay while Blake went home to retrieve the drug dog. The Kansas Supreme Court ruled the extended traffic stop unconstitutional, and the drug bust for marijuana and cash was vacated.

Yes, Blake’s job is to use his K-9 partner to stop the flow of illicit drugs through Kansas. But he can’t violate a person’s rights in the process. He did not respond to a request for comment.

Drivers with out-of-state plates made up 93% percent of Kansas Highway Patrol stops in 2017, according to a lawsuit filed late last year by the ACLU of Kansas.

Non-Kansans driving through Kansas on I-70 also made up 96% of all of the state patrol’s civil forfeitures in 2019. Most of those motorists were drivers of color, said Sharon Brett, legal director for the civil rights agency. State troopers in Kansas systematically engage in illegal practices during traffic stops, the suit claims.

Kerekes’ vehicle was seized during the arrest and could be up for auction before the criminal case is adjudicated — a troubling pattern the ACLU noted in its lawsuit.

The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution prevents the government from conducting unreasonable searches and seizures on its citizens. Officer Blake and the Junction City Police Department need a refresher course in basic civics.