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Police: Man With Pot Offered Cop Installment-Plan Bribe

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By NEIL JOHNSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 8, 2009

TAMPA - If you have a bag of pot in your pocket, it's not a good idea to pick a fight with a cop, or to offer a bribe on an installment plan after you've been arrested.

But that's pretty much what Tampa police say Rene Caso, 21, did late Saturday night.

The arrest report notes this occurred after the Gasparilla parade.

Police say Caso challenged an officer, driving a marked squad car, wearing a badge and police department vest, to a fight and made several threats about 10:15 p.m. at 17th Street N. and 8th Avenue E.

Instead, the officer arrested Caso on a charge of assault on a law enforcement officer, a misdemeanor.

While the officer searched Caso, he found a baggie in a pants pocket that tested positive for marijuana. Police added a misdemeanor possession charge to the assault charge, the report says.

While he was being arrested Caso, of Temple Terrace, offered the officer $150 to let him go, the report says. He offered to pay $25 immediately and the balance later if he could go home, the report says.

Police tacked on a third charge of bribery, a felony.

Caso was taken to the Orient Road Jail and held, Bail was set at $3,000.

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