Below the belt

Great moments in judicial history. A North Carolina appellate court has held as follows, and I quote: "We conclude that a reasonable person in defendant's circumstances would not have understood that he would be subjected to an inspection of his genitals."

Say what?

According to the news account, an officer, having received a tip that Stone, the defendant, was a drug dealer, pulled up next to a car, in which Stone was the passenger. Stone, wearing a jacket and "drawstring pants," got out of the car, and told the officer he had no drugs or weapons. The officer asked Stone if he could search him, and Stone agreed. The officer found a bunch of cash in Stone's pants pocket and asked if he had any drugs. Stone said no but allowed the search to continue.

Now, the beauty part: "With another officer now at the scene, Correa pulled the pants away from Stone's body and aimed his flashlight at his groin area. Stone objected, but the two officers already had viewed the white cap of what appeared to be a pill bottle along his groin, the opinion said. The officers handcuffed Stone before Correa retrieved the bottle, which contained 26 grams of crack."

And speaking of crack, four gang members in an El Salvador jail "hid cellphones, a phone charger and spare chips in their bowels so they could coordinate crimes from their cells, prison officials said on Wednesday." They "wrapped their phones and accessories in plastic and inserted them into their rectums 'far enough to reach their intestines,' Ramon Arevalo, director of the maximum security Zacatecoluca prison, said."

One can only imagine what their ring tone was.

(both stories via Fark)

UPDATE (9/8): Jack M. posting at Ace's blog captions the cellphone story "Can You Hear Me Now?" and shows the x-ray.