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Megahed's Attorneys Argue Search Of Car Unconstitutional
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Published: December 22, 2007
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TAMPA - One of two University of South Florida students accused of transporting explosives has asked the courts to throw out evidence against him, saying the search was racially motivated and illegal.
Students Ahmed Mohamed and Youssef Megahed were arrested Aug. 4 after deputies in South Carolina found explosive materials in their car trunk, authorities said. Both remain in federal custody awaiting trial.
In a court document filed Friday, Assistant Federal Public Defender James W. Smith, one of Megahed's attorneys, wrote that the South Carolina deputy who pulled the students over used racial slurs, did not believe the reasonable stories they gave and searched their car without probable cause.
Megahed and Mohamed were stopped for speeding. While in Berkeley County, S.C., sheriff's deputy Lamar Blakely radioed a dispatcher to look up Mohamed's driver's license and registration information and had a conversation with his partner, the court document states.
In that conversation, captured on videotape, Blakely tells his partner Mohamed and Megahed are "graduates of suicide bomber school" and members of the "Taliban," according to the court filing. He also jokes that they have a copy of the Quran with them. At one point, the court document states, Blakely becomes concerned the remarks are being taped.
Even though the driver's license and registration came back clean and neither man had an outstanding warrant, Blakely told his partner he was going to search the car, the document states.
According to the document, Blakely asked Mohamed why the two were in the area and Mohamed responded by saying they were driving from Tampa to North Carolina, visiting beaches along the way. That did not seem to satisfy Blakely, who began to question Megahed.
When he returned to Mohamed, he asked, "You don't mind if I search the car, do you?" the document states.
After finding a box of ammunition, Blakely handcuffed the two men and searched the trunk. Authorities have said explosives were in the trunk. Mohamed has told investigators the devices were "sugar rockets," or fireworks that would just travel a few feet in the air and smoke, according to court documents.
Megahed's public defender wrote the car was not speeding and therefore was stopped illegally. Smith also wrote the deputy illegally detained the car for longer than it would have taken to write a citation.
In the document, Smith argues the deputy was on a "fishing expedition" and stopped the car on the deputy's "hunch" that criminal activity was taking place. The hunch, Smith wrote, was based on Blakely's "inappropriate stereotypes" and was a case of racial profiling.
Federal Public Defender Adam Allen, who also represents Megahed, said the motion he and Smith filed Friday "challenges the constitutionality of the stop and search of the vehicle."
"My client's constitutional rights were violated," he said.
Ahmed Bedier, director of the Central Florida office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the deputy's alleged remarks are "disturbing." He also questioned why Mohammed's car was searched.
"Law enforcement should follow the rules," Bedier said. "When they don't do their job the right way, they jeopardize their own investigation."
Allen said he expects the court will schedule a hearing in which the South Carolina deputy will testify and then be cross-examined by the defense and the prosecution.
Pat Doherty, a criminal defense attorney not affiliated with the case, said he expects a debate over two areas when the hearing is held: that Mohammed was indeed speeding, and whether the two men consented to the search.
The prosecution's argument will be that Mohammed and Megahed consented to the search, Doherty said.
"This is going to be interesting," Doherty said.
Reporter Thomas W. Krause can be reached at (813) 259-7698 or tkrause@tampatrib.com.
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