A trio of Santa Ana police officers are on administrative leave in the wake of video footage and photographic stills posted by the Weekly that appear to show police eating marijuana edibles during a May 26 raid on the Sky High Holistic Collective.
So far, however, Santa Ana police chief Carlos Rojas and Commander Chris Revere, head of internal affairs, have stated that only unedited footage will help them investigate if the officers depicted in the footage are actually eating pot-laced edibles. On July 1, the Weekly obtained several hours of raw footage of the raid and now, we're publishing four minutes of unedited raid footage that provides the most compelling evidence yet that the officers were indeed getting high on the job.
Click through to see the unedited video.
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Although only three officers have been placed on leave, the video appears to show at least four officers eating edibles. The Weekly lacks FBI quality voice isolation technology, but here's a transcript of the most relevant dialogue we were able to hear:
Female Cop: What is it? Butter?
Other Cop: Take a bite.
Female cop: I know right?
Cop in yellow shirt: There are some good looking chocolate bars back there.
Bald cop: Bombs away, homie. (Walks off camera to safe room).
Yellow shirt cop: Yeah, do it.
Cop with beard, to female cop: Are you eating that?
Female cop: Yeah.
Other Cop: Fire department, 97 [10-97 is cop lingo for “arrived on scene.”]
At this point in the footage, the bald cop on the right of the screen is munching away on a bar. Then Alex Sanchez, Santa Ana police supervisor, walks in, followed by fire department personnel.
Sanchez: Fire department, watch your mouths. Watch your mouths. YOU WATCH YOUR MOUTH!
Bald cop is chewing with mouth full: These bars are pretty good. I kinda feel light-headed though.
Yellow shirt cop, patting his stomach: I haven't eaten anything.
The female cop gives the yellow shirt cop a bar; he starts eating it. The bearded cop unwraps a bar, take a bite and hands the bar to the bald cop.
The female cop throws a bar to the cop at the desk in the corner. A fire department employee walks on screen from safe room.
Fire Department employee to female cop: You guys got that munchies now, huh?
Female Cop, with mouth full. Mmm-hmm.
Everyone else: Heh heh heh….
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Email: ns****@oc******.com. Twitter: @NickSchou. Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook!
Award-winning investigative journalist Nick Schou is Editor of OC Weekly. He is the author of Kill the Messenger: How the CIA’s Crack Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb (Nation Books 2006), which provided the basis for the 2014 Focus Features release starring Jeremy Renner and the L.A. Times-bestseller Orange Sunshine: The Brotherhood of Eternal Love’s Quest to bring Peace, Love and Acid to the World, (Thomas Dunne 2009). He is also the author of The Weed Runners (2013) and Spooked: How the CIA Manipulates the Media and Hoodwinks Hollywood (2016).