Judge Dismisses Drug Charge Against Elgin Woman

A county court judge dismissed a drug possession charge against a woman involved in a bust near Elgin.

Tracey Rhoads, 46, appeared in Antelope County Court for a preliminary hearing on the charge of possession of concentrated cannabis or hashish, a class 2A felony, on Wednesday afternoon. The charge stems from a joint  effort of investigators with the Nebraska State Patrol (NSP), the Antelope County Sheriff’s Office, and the Specialized Narcotics Abuse Reduction Effort (SNARE) in February which led to the seizure of several controlled substances and nearly a dozen weapons from a rural residence. Rhoads was arrested along with Steven Powell, 47, of Colorado Springs and Ronald Dorn, 56, the owner of the Elgin home.

Rhoads' attorney Ron Temple asked Judge Donna Farrell Taylor to dismiss the possession charge, claiming that the state's burden of proof hadn't been met.

Antelope County Attorney Joe Abler said the drug "had her name on it" and Rhoads claimed she got the drug in Colorado "for medicinal purposes." He called a Nebraska State Patrol investigator to the stand. The investigator said that through his training and experience, he was able to identify the drug as concentrated cannabis; however, the test results have not been received from the state patrol's crime lab yet.

"They are saying the results should be back in approximately 45 days, but it's sometimes more or less," the officer said.

Temple said it wasn't his client's fault that the testing was taking so long.

"The state should have expedited it," he said. "There is no probable cause."

Abler vehemently disagreed.

"The investigator is not going to call down to the state crime lab and ask for it to be expedited," he said. "It's not a murder case." 

Temple argued that even if the substance was hers, there is no proof that it was derived from cannabis or what percentage of tetrahydrocannabinols (THC) it contained; therefore, the charge should be dismissed. He said, according to Nebraska Statute 28-401, subsection 27,  "Hashish or concentrated cannabis means (a) the separated resin, whether crude or purified, obtained from a plant of the genus cannabis or (b) any material, preparation, mixture, compound, or other substance which contains ten percent or more by weight of tetrahydrocannabinols. When resins extracted from industrial hemp as defined in section 2-5701 are in the possession of a person as authorized under section 2-5701, they are not considered hashish or concentrated cannabis for purposes of the Uniform Controlled Substances Act."

"I'm going to rule on this, but it's not going to make Ms. Rhoads' problems go away," Judge Taylor said. "It may just kick them down the road a little bit. I suspect when it comes back from the lab, in all likelihood it will come back with a percentage. This doesn't end the investigation."

The judge ruled to exonerate Rhoads' bond and dismiss the charge without prejudice, which means the charge can be entered again after the test results are received. 
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