How 70 Partygoers Were Arrested For 1 Ounce of Marijuana

On the night of December 30, 2017, over 70 party goers gathered at a home in Cartersville, Georgia for the sole purpose of celebrating a birthday. However, by the end of the night, 65 of them laid in freezing jail cells after being strip-searched against their will. Who are these people? The Cartersville 70.

It all started when police officer Joshua Coker received reports of gunfire at an apartment complex in the Bartow County area. On the drive to the residency, Coker reported that he smelled marijuana in a nearby house. Prosecutors report that Coker’s windows were rolled up at this time.

Coker called for backup and asked four men at the party if they heard gunshots in the area. The men confirmed that they had not heard anything. Then, Coker and the two other officers entered the home, with no warrant or consent of anyone in the house.

Over the course of the two hours that followed, the officers brought all 70 people in the home outside into the 20-30 degree cold. The persons were denied use of the bathroom and were instructed not to use their phones. The detainees later recalled to lawyers that the officers told them they were “detained because of the marijuana smell allegedly coming from the private home.”

Somehow, the officers obtained a search warrant and began searching the home and the party attendees. The police department stated that the officers found unregistered weapons, cocaine, and marijuana. However, a later investigation proved that less than one ounce of marijuana was found and both weapons present were legally owned. Regardless, Coker proceeded to announce that all 70 people were going to jail; 50 of them were black.

The conditions in which the partygoers were treated upon arriving in jail are appalling. Each member was strip-searched, several with their hands zip-tied. The group of 70 were held in small, crowded cells accompanied by signs posted that read “THE PARTY CREW.” Several inmates had medical conditions and were denied necessary care. The cells were also unheated and so freezing that members of the group recall wrapping toilet paper around their limbs to stay warm.

Lawyers stated that when the inmates spoke up and questioned their mistreatment, prison officers threatened them and ended up taking a handful of members to isolation cells that lacked beds or blankets for roughly five to seven hours.

Although the charges were dropped in court months later, the mark still remains on the young people’s records. Because of the charges, many of them have been fired from their jobs and have found it almost impossible to find a new one. One woman, a 22-year-old, lost her job and had to go to food pantries to provide for her and her one-year-old son.

The mugshots of all those arrested were also posted online on the Bartow County jail website. The next day after the arrest, the 70 mugshots were broadcasted on the news with false headlines about a “Cartersville Drug Bust”. Attorneys are claiming this violates Georgia state law.

On March 11, 2019, the group’s attorneys filed suit against the city of Cartersville, members of the Cartersville Police Department, the Bartow-Cartersville Drug Task Force, and the Bartow County sheriff's office. The suit claims that the search and mass arrest violated the group’s constitutional rights.

Members of the group told reporters at the Appeal that they hope their ordeal will prevent future similar cases from occurring. “For some folks who never had a criminal record, and this comes at them, it’s a nightmare,” one representative for the group said. “Their lives were turned upside down.”

By Annie Levy