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Deputy Expected Drugs In Students' Traffic Stop

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 20, 2008

Updated: 02/20/2008 12:55 pm

TAMPA - The South Carolina sheriff's deputy who stopped a car with two University of South Florida students inside in August says he initially suspected the silver Toyota with a Florida tag was involved in drug trafficking.

But under questioning by defense attorneys for the two men, Deputy James Lamar Blakely said he was told by another deputy that the pair had copies of the Quran, which raised suspicions in his mind of terrorism.
Blakely testified Tuesday in a hearing concerning a motion by the defense to suppress evidence on the grounds that the search of the car during the stop was illegal. The two defendants, Ahmed Mohamed and Youssef Megahed, both Egyptian nationals, are charged with illegally transporting explosives. Mohamed also is charged with trying to help terrorists by posting on the Internet a video in which he demonstrates how to use a remote-controlled toy to detonate a bomb.

A video of the Aug. 4 traffic stop in Berkeley County, S.C., was played in court Tuesday, as Blakely explained his actions.
Derogatory Comments Made
Blakely was grilled about derogatory comments he was recorded making about the men's ethnicity.

"The driver ain't much saying anything," he said at one point to a fellow deputy, Andy Taylor. "Except when I asked him why he didn't pull over, he said because the roads were slanted, but both of them were sitting holding Qurans in their lap while they're driving. One's got a laptop. I think they're part of the Taliban."

At another point, he said, "I got Taliban, bro ... Them boys got me scared. ... Hey, they probably got a bomb strapped to 'em."

Asked about the comments, Blakely said, "I made some jokes. It was unprofessional."

"You just assumed, right off the bat, as soon as you saw them, they were terrorists," said an attorney for Megahed, public defender James Smith.

"No, sir," Blakely responded. "I made a joke."
Blakely said he wrote a traffic warning to give to Mohamed, but wound up searching the car and arresting the men instead. On the citation, in the space for race or ethnic origin, Blakely testified he put an "I" for Islamic. That's not standard operating procedure, he said under cross-examination by Mohamed's attorney, Lyann Goudie.

"I have a habit of doing that," he said.

Before the stop, the deputy said, a number of factors raised his suspicions.

Blakeley said the license plate on the men's car caught his attention because of Florida's reputation as a drug importation hub. When the car didn't pull to the side of the road until after he signaled for about a mile, Blakely said, his suspicions deepened.

Defense attorneys, however, contended that the video appeared to suggest the car pulled over sooner than Blakely said, or about 30 seconds after he signaled. Blakely said the car was going between 58 and 60 mph in a 45 mph zone.

Deputy Grows Suspicious
Blakely said Mohamed kept looking at him in the rearview mirror, to the point that the deputy felt the driver wasn't paying attention to the road. The driver and passenger also made movements as though they were stowing something, Blakely said.
Blakely said when he asked Mohamed, who was driving, for the registration, Megahed, the passenger, interjected that they didn't have the registration because his brother owned the car. Asked his brother's name, Megahed spelled out Yahia, which Blakely said he found unusual.

After confirming the vehicle's registration and the men's licenses, Blakely told Taylor, "I'm going to get him out of the car; I'm going to search his car and you got to help me."
Blakely testified he meant that he was going to ask Mohamed for his consent to search the vehicle.

On the recording, Blakely approaches the car and asks Mohamed to step out. Mohamed walks with him to the trunk area and puts his arms out as if preparing to be searched.

The deputy asks questions about Mohamed's school and his destination. Mohamed says they're going to Sunset Beach, N.C. Mohamed says they drove up from Tampa and made stops in Jacksonville and Walterboro, but he mistakenly places that town in Georgia instead of South Carolina.
Blakely said he was also suspicious that Mohamed said they stopped at three beaches, yet there was no sand in the car.
Blakely asked Mohamed whether there is anything in the vehicle he should be concerned about. "Maybe you will find just fireworks, fuse," Mohamed says.

"You don't have a problem if I look then, right?"

"If you must," Mohamed says.

Reporter Elaine Silvestrini can be reached at (813) 259-7837 or esilvestrini@tampatrib.com.

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