May 15, 2006
The police pull over a car, and a search finds enough drugs to keep Robert Downey happy on his next movie set. The defendants are indicted for several drug offenses and work out plea deals, one defendant copping to a fifth degree felony and the other to a first degree misdemeanor. A few weeks later, the grand jury indicts the defendants for several more drug offenses arising out of the same stop. The prosecution argues that the indictments were delayed because the BCI took so long in analyzing the drugs that were sent to them.
Too bad, says the court in State v. Lloyd, not only agreeing with the trial judge that the second prosecution violated the collateral estoppel principles of double jeopardy, but the defendants' speedy trial rights as well.
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