Two months after Utah police dragged his name through the mud, accusing the teen of drugging an officer while preparing his food at Subway, police are now saying there were no drugs in the officer’s drink.
So the Layton police officer apparently drugged himself.
Not that they have even released his name.
But they were sure to release Tanis Lloyd Ukena’s name as well as his mugshot after arresting the 18-year-old man on August 8 in a story that quickly went viral, charging him with a felony, accusing him of lacing the cop’s drink with marijuana and methamphetamine.
And almost every single commenter took the word of police without ever thinking why would a teenager waste his drugs on a cop, not to mention how is it even possible to lace a drink with pot without it being obvious?
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Also, not only does ingested marijuana take about 45 minutes to take effect, methamphetamine produces completely different effects than the paralyzing effects the officer was reporting, being unable to find the gas pedal after taking three sips of the drink.
Even a cursory look through the young man’s Facebook page indicates he is a church-going Mormon who excels in school and is obsessed with sports – and never once expressed any negative sentiment towards officers.
Not that there is anything wrong with that.
Layton police sent out a press released earlier today saying that further laboratory tests were “unable to confirm that contaminates were in the officer’s drink,” which contradicts earlier reports that they found “the presence of a foreign substance in the officer’s drink.”
However, their initial tests were done on what is known as an ios scanner, which as we reported back in August, is highly unreliable when attempting to detect marijuana and methamphetamine.
Police also said at the time that they had obtained surveillance video showing Ukena taking an “unusual amount of time” preparing the cop’s drink, but they never released that video, which was also an early indicator that they had flimsy evidence.
The initial articles on his arrest generated calls from commenters that Ukena needs to be executed because how dare him try to drug a uniformed hero?
His lawyer also said he received “death threats and nasty letters” from the cop-loving populace.
But now that it turns out it was all a lie, what is going to happen to the officer who had to be hospitalized because he was under the influence of drugs while on duty?
Or did they even test his blood to see if he was drugged? If so, it was never reported to the media, which is another indicator they were grasping for straws.
As for now, the public has the right to know the officer’s name to know to never trust a word that comes out of his mouth.
But all police can say at this time is: “The Department would also like to express our appreciation for the patience of Tanis and his family during this investigation.”
UPDATE: According to the Associated Press, Layton police said “it’s a mystery why the officer felt impaired that day. They don’t suspect the officer took drugs, is a drug addict or tried to frame Ukena.”
While still refusing to release his name, they confirmed he is still employed with the department.
And it is still unclear if they even tested his blood to see if he was drugged.
The post Utah Police Drop Charges Against Teen Accused of Drugging Cop After Lab Reports Find No Drugs in Drink (Updated) appeared first on PINAC News.