I GOT RAIDED Pt. III ......... So, the NBOMe Raid is actually part of a huge murder investigation.....

So here is some information that will help you put into context just how convoluted this whole situation actually is. 

The raid, while technically being a drug raid, was actually performed by about 25 or 30 of my metropolitan area's finest as part of a murder investigation. Apparently, they feel that every person who has ever laid finger upon a particular drug that someone eventually meets a tragic, early demise upon ingesting, is guilty of murder. That is why when THIS happened back in January, this entire investigation was set into motion:

Huffington Post on the Tragic and Unfortunate Death of Tara Fitzgerald, Age 17

The key in the above linked article is the mentioning of Alexander Lee Claussen. He is the person whom I've never met, ever, not once, who was apparently used as a Confidential Informat in our case. You read that right. Ive never met him, he doesn't know me and I don't know him, and yet he was used as the person who supposedly had the inside information track to justify raiding my home...

Apparently this whole situation was kind of a big deal, because I've found news articles in nearly every language on it. One of the better, later ones was the UK's Daily Mail as seen below. The link below THAT is the actual affidavit for probable cause that was used to raid and arrest him back in May.

The Daily Mail UK's Article On IT

Affidavit For Probable Cause-Alexander Lee Claussen

One thing I didn't mention before in my previous blog posts on this subject due to the sensitivity of the entire situation, was that simultaneous to my house being raided, a close friend of mine from North Minneapolis' home was being raided simultaneously, as was a third friend of ours' truck----The friend's house who got raided apparently knew this Alex Claussen kid, via his older brother. The extent of their relationship and/or what sort of thinking was occurring in the head of my friend, who turned 40 this year, to have anything to do with a 19 year old......is unknown to me. But somehow because I happened to have been a large scale purveyor of blank and vintage blotter art, which my other friend sometimes would purchase from me, and because this Claussen fella took all the shit talking my buddy mustv've done so literally, when he somehow grew to be confused (or so I speculate, because, I don't know what else on Earth could have been the situation here) and thought that my collection of blank blotter art----which he only knew of through stories my buddy told him--was actually all laid out dipped blotter. Or so I'd guess, since I don't know any other way they would have confused me with somebody who'd have 500K doses of dipped blotter at his house.

The last little piece of this tale, which I feel better talking about here now for reasons that will be obvious in a moment, is also the other thing which I had failed to mention previously. 

My 3rd friend, mutually acquainted with the friend who got raided, had his Chevy Trailblazer confiscated. and was slated to be a forfeiture seizure on State Law....Or so we were told. The commander of the Washington County Drug task force, officer Benson, had flat out told my friend  that they were going to be taking and keeping his truck. They pulled them over leaving a Home Depot parking lot, walking out of the store with my friend who owned the house that was actually, literally being raided at that moment, unbeknownst to him. Apparently, while the investigation was about Drug A, they did find small amounts of marijuana, and also a different, unrelated, Drug B in his vehicle. This was their reasoning for the seizure.

Well, lo and behold, 60 days went by and they forgot to provide my buddy with paperwork on the forfeiture intentions, and so I began calling both of the counties involved counties' attorneys' offices and leaving messages impersonating my friend, and demanding that we please be given the vehicle back because, under our state law, if notification is not provided in 60 days about an intent to forfeit, the property must be given back. It doesn't precisely rule out a forfeiture, but they can't hold it any longer without charges being filed, and without a judge specifically signing a 30 day extension. 

We got stonewalled for over a week, and I didn't expect anything good to arise from my calls, because police usually do whatever the fuck they want to do to people anyway, and disregard any laws passed to try and create some sort of fairness and order in favor of the defendant...But after about 10 days had gone by, my buddy gets a call from Sgt Benson, begrudgingly and unhappily telling him he can come get his truck back from such-and-such person. We were already overjoyed because he had been nothing more then collateral damage in this whole situation. While they had misguided and false info for raiding me and buddy #1, our buddy #2 was had his truck raided and seized simply because he had driven from my house to buddy #2's that day right before the raids were supposed to happen, He arrived at right around the time Claussen was supposedly wrapping up his duties as a CI on buddy #1. Then buddy numbers #1 & 2# went to Home Depot in number #2s truck, and the rest is history. So,when my buddy literally was to lose his only means of transport on account of something he had zero to do with, I had felt terrible ever since, and somehow responsible for all this, just by virtue of being alive  and because he happen to have headies of 2 other drugs, including marijuana on him.....

So, the last part is the Keystone Cops icing on the cake. When he had his truck seized, he received a copy of the warrant and what they found in it a few days later. One of those things was "Drug B, in eyeglasses case, lighter." 

So we head out, and make the hour drive to the public works building in the middle of the woods for this county...We get led to his vehicle and they remove the huge "Do not return to owner" sign out of the dash, and the keys are in it. The man who brought us back there was now headed away, and as my friend is following me in my Jeep out of the gated area where his truck had been kept, and in his truck he notices something..... Up in the visor, stuck right their for him, was the eyeglasses case, with the paraphernalia, the lighter, and the bag of Drug #B that was their only supposed evidence of any wrong doing besides the pot. Thats right. They left the alleged evidence in the vehicle....Another way of looking at it, is that they returned the entirety of his property to him, including the reason justifying their desired forfeiture in the first place.... Without the leverage necessary to put my buddy under duress, they lose all of their circumstantial BS and the ability to put any pressure on anyone about anything they might want to learn about, other then the paltry personal use drugs they found, in each person's belongings during the respective 3-locale-raid.

So, at this point I've not been charged with anything, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they don't try and get me with a bunch of piddly lesser crimes.

NEXT STEP FOR  ME AT THIS POINT: I need to find out about getting my art collection back, same as they had to give my buddy's truck. Being that the art is actually supposedly part of their evidence in all this, I have no idea if its going to go as smoothly, but I will update on progress eventually.....

Lastly: As seen here, the CI, Alex Claussen, pled guilty to Murder 3, with no plea agreement whatsoever on the table. So that dude is clearly an idiot who isn't playing with a full deck. You don't just plead guilty to the worst charge they have on you, and with no assurance of leniency in writing. Here is the article on that dude: Local Radio Station Discussing A. Claussen's guilty plea.