80 percent of felony drug cases that I had scheduled for trial were what us prosecutors called "a long plea." We would begin by responding to a motion to suppress the evidence, and if we won the motion, the defendant would plea. If we lost, well, we'd have to drop the case.

I talked to a lot of frustrated cops, and we put tremendous pressure on these guys to not only be in harms way, often alone, in a bad neighborhood late at night; but to also understand and employ a sophisticated understanding of how to make a proper stop, search, siezure, and arrest. My hat's off to every one of them.

Most cases that did not survive the motion were not based on officer error, or attorney error, but by how the judge chose to interpret the large grey area. Getting the right judge was key, and defense attorney's have much greater flexibility in getting set overs if they draw the "wrong" judge. A defense attorney claims a key witness has a medical appointment, no problem, come back in two weeks. A prosecutor has a key witness who just came off a 36 hour shift and is at the hospital getting stitches because some meth head resisted arrest. Case dismissed. Its not fair, but it is what it is.