BY C.L. HARMON
PUBLISHER
Sometimes law enforcement is presented with clues and must surmise the role each plays in order to solve the riddle. For Mannford police officer Don Caffey he was given the clues of strong aroma of marijuana in a vehicle, four sandwich style baggies filled with one quarter pound of marijuana each, a cold gatorade, THC oil, Zig-Zag rolling papers, two cell phones and $9,914 in cash in which to deduce a conclusion. Although the justice sysytem will ultimately decide if Caffey is correct, most in his position would have probably believed as he did…this woman is distributing marijuana! However, Tanda Williams (39) told the officer a different story.
Caffey initially pulled her over on a traffic stop near Green Valley Park. That would quickly change after clue number one, the odor of marijuana sweeping from the vehicle to the outside. This would then prompt the question if she had been smoking marijuana, to which she acknowledged she had, according to the incident report. So at this point it could seem Williams was just a recreational user out for a drive. A consent to search her vehicle, however, would provide another clue that pointed away from the recreational user conclusion. That search would first turn up an orange bucket with miscellaneous items such as bedding and Hot Wheels cars. But as he dug in a little deeper, he discovered the four baggies of weed at the bottom and oddly enough, a cold Gatorade resting on top of them. Then he found a rubber container with THC oil and rolling papers in her purse, according to the incident report. He would finally uncover the cash and cell phones. Caffey’s training led him to believe that that much weed is a bit more than is needed for recreation and that more than one cell phone is indicative of drug trafficing criminals who use them to facilitate drug transactions
Williams was arrested on a complaint of Possession of CDS with Intent to Distribute and transported to Mannford PD. Once under arrest, Williams was questioned by police chief Lucky Miller after she waived her Miranda Rights. She informed Miller that she had no idea that the baggies of marijuana were in her vehicle, but stated that she was aware of the THC oil. She elaborated on that by telling Miller that she had been given the oil by a man in Tulsa, the incident report reads.
She also informed him that the cash was taken from a safety deposit box at an American Heritage Bank earlier in the day.
Moving on to the orange bucket where the marijuana was found, Williams explained that the bucket had been placed there six days earlier by the same man who had given her the oil. What she could not explain is how the Gatorade had remained cold to the touch after six days in a vehicle with out a functioning air conditioner.
Ending the interview, Miller asked for permission for a forensic data dump on the phones. She consented verbally, but then retracted it after being asked to sign a consent form. She then asked, “If I tell you the truth, am I still going to jail?” Miller responded she was going to jail regardless. She then asked for an attorney and Miller ended the interview. She was booked into Creek County a short time later.