Case Studies with Questions and Answers
Chapter 06: Law Enforcement in the Criminal Justice System
A government IRS office was having trouble with employees smoking marijuana on the job. An undercover officer, Jill, was placed in that office to find out what was happening with the employees.
Steve was a longtime employee at the IRS office. While his work had always been excellent, in recent months he began to miss deadlines and goof off with his coworkers during business hours. Since Steve had recently gone through a divorce, his bosses had initially let his new bad behavior slide. Now with the informant working in the office, they decided it was time to see if he was one of the marijuana troublemakers.
Jill began to spend time with him at work going out to lunch and spending break times with him and some mutual friends. Even though Jill was not sending romantic signals, Steve was still hoping that the relationship could grow into a romantic one. They had several phone conversations after hours over the course of four months. In these conversations, Steve and Jill both discussed how much they enjoyed smoking marijuana. They never did, however, smoke marijuana together.
During the course of one conversation, Jill mentioned to Steve that she had a friend who had some marijuana for sale. Steve, trying to be helpful, told Jill he would find her friend a buyer. They arranged the transaction for later that week.
Once the sale had taken place, Steve was arrested and tried.