Texas DPS Trooper Caught on Video Testing the Evidence in Patrol Car

A defense lawyer has released dashcam video of a Texas DPS trooper taking a couple of hits off a weed vape pen while sitting in his patrol car. Now we know what happens to the evidence once it’s confiscated.

The 420 Lawyer

Attorney David Sloane is a Fort Worth criminal defense lawyer that gets a lot of his business representing people who have been stopped and arrested on highway drug interdiction cases.

Sloan shared his story with The New York Post after several of the drivers he represents were pulled over by the same DPS Trooper near Wichita Falls - DPS Trooper Chad Harden.

Breaking the Law

According to Sloan, Trooper Harden had a reputation for stopping a lot of drivers and arresting them for very small amounts of cannabis or THC. Oftentimes the drivers would say that Trooper Harden would fabricate the reason for stopping them and searching their vehicle.

Get our free mobile app

Sloan had seen that Trooper Harden resigned in 2019 after being accused of tampering with evidence and charged with possession of a controlled substance, so Sloan asked the Department of Public Safety for videos taken from the trooper's dashcams.

Test the Evidence

Here's the YouTube video of Mr. Sloan discussing his case, along with dashcam video of Trooper Harden. Sloan says the footage is from 2019.

Confiscated Weed Evidence

Attorney Sloan says in the video that the Texas Rangers found 20 other cases in which this same trooper would confiscate the weed and it never made it to the evidence box. Sloan wonders why Trooper Harden was only charged with one count of tampering with evidence when he was caught on his own dashcam smoking the evidence.

Plea Deal

The Wichita Falls Times Record reported that Trooper Harden "pleaded guilty to tampering with drug evidence and was ordered to serve two years' probation as part of a deal with prosecutors." 

Harden himself said, "I accidentally inhaled THC, as stupidly as that sounds. I felt it fill up my lungs. I pushed it out as fast as I could, I did not mean to inhale it.’’

"Accidentally inhaled THC." Accidents happen, right?