Couple Sue Police Who Mistook Their Plant for Marijuana

A couple who say not only were they arrested on wrongful charges but that they were mishandled by the police authorities who arrested them are filing a lawsuit against the police and an insurance company.

The couple Edward and Cramer state in their lawsuit that the authorities mistook their hibiscus plants for marijuana, confiscated the plants and then arrested them. They further claim that their arrest was not handled appropriately and did not accord them with respect and dignity. The couple says they were handcuffed for hours in a police patrol car.

The couple also says that the root cause of all their troubles is an insurance agent who first mistook their plants for marijuana. The lawsuit says a Nationwide Insurance Co. Agent investigating a fallen tree at their Buffalo Township home sent photos of their flowering plant to police. After the “tip”’, police officers went to their home with assault rifles to investigate.

66-year-old Audrey Cramer said she was partially dressed when she went to the door and police would not even allow her to decently put on pants before she was handcuffed.

The elderly wife says: “I was not treated as though I was a human being. I was just something they were going to push aside.”

The husband, 69-year-old Edward Cramer says he returned home 30 minutes after the officers arrived at their home to find his wife in the back of a police cruiser. Officers also immediately pointed guns at him even when he was not doing anything to provoke them. He was also placed in the police cruiser despite his pleas that the plants are actually hibiscus and not marijuana.

The elderly husband says he was ignored, and the officers wouldn’t even listen to him. At one point, he even tried to convince them by saying, “I can show you pictures on the internet.”’

The couple was eventually released without charges. The Cramers, however, are not letting the incident go without putting up a legal battle. They are seeking financial and compensatory damages and court costs from the police and the insurance company.

Source:

http://www.fox29.com/news/lawsuit-couple-detained-after-hibiscus-mistaken-for-marijuan