Criminal Justice

A Des Moines man has died after apparently falling from an apartment building balcony as he attempted to evade police executing a drug search warrant. Kirby Praseuth, 28, becomes the ninth person to die in US domestic drug law enforcement operations so far this year.

According to police, the Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement was serving a search warrant on an apartment around 6:30am Friday morning. After securing the apartment, the two suspects inside told police a third man had gone out onto the back balcony to evade them. When officers went to the balcony of the fourth floor apartment, they found Praseuth lying on the ground below.

Hewas taken to Methodist Hospital in critical condition, but later died. Police said they are continuing to investigate how he ended up on the ground.

The two people in the apartment were arrested, but there is no information on what charges have been filed or what, if anything, was found in the apartment.

The push to mandate drug testing for recipients of public benefits is sweeping statehouses across the country this year, but in two states, those efforts hit a roadblock this week. In South Dakota and Virginia, bills were either defeated or deferred.

In South Dakota, the House Health and Human Services Committee Monday killed a pair of bills that would have required people receiving welfare or Medicaid benefits to undergo random, suspicionless drug testing. House Bill 1268, introduced by Rep. Mark Kirkeby, would have directed the state to create a drug testing pilot program for Medicaid recipients, while House Bill 1174, introduced by Rep. Mark Venner (R-Pierre), would have mandated drug testing for welfare recipients based on "reasonable cause." Both bills would have thrown people who tested positive off the programs.

But after Social Services Secretary Kil Malsam-Rysdon testified that federal law barred drug testing for people on Medicaid and that drug testing welfare recipients hadn't saved any money where it had been implemented, the two measures were voted down, or, in South Dakota's unique legislative language "deferred to the 41st legislative day." (The session only lasts 40 days.)

"If this passes Medicaid in South Dakota would not exist," she said, referring to Kirkeby's bill. As for Venner's bill, if people suspect welfare recipients are using drugs, they should call the cops or children's services officials, Malsam-Rysdon said. "There are other systems to deal with illegal drug use," she added.

That same day, a Virginia House Appropriations Committee subcommittee voted to defer action on a welfare drug testing bill for this session. Two days later, the committee followed the lead of the subcommittee, so the bill will see no further action this year, although it could be taken up again next year.

The bill, House Bill 73, would have required local social service agencies to screen welfare recipients for probable cause they were using drugs, and if probable cause was found, subject them to a full substance abuse assessment, which could include drug tests. Participants who failed the drug test would have been ineligible for benefits for a year unless they completed a drug treatment program.

Legislators expressed concern about the bill's cost after the Department of Planning and Budget estimated that the drug testing provision would cost the state $1.3 million in its first year and $1 million a year thereafter.

"It's just that the money situation is tight," subcommittee Chair Del. Riley Ingram (R-Hopewell) said Monday explaining his vote.

A companion measure in the Senate, though, is still alive. It is before the Senate Finance Committee.

Awash in a whirlpool of proposals to subject welfare recipients to drug tests, legislators in two states, Missouri and Tennessee, are proposing that legislators themselves should undergo drug tests. In Missouri, a welfare drug testing bill was signed into law last year, while in Tennessee, a plethora of drug testing bills are currently before the legislature.

They are only two of about three dozen states that have seen drug testing bills aimed at welfare recipients, recipients of unemployment benefits, or other public beneficiaries introduced in the past year. But they are among the first to see the push expand to target legislators.

In Missouri, Rep. Rick Brattin (R-Harrisonville) has introduced House Bill 1225, which would require members of the General Assembly to undergo random, suspicionless drug testing at their own expense during the legislative session. Members who test positive for illegal drugs or drugs not lawfully prescribed would be immediately removed from office and barred from seeking elected office again for two years.

"Hardworking taxpayers don’t want their money to be subsidizing other people’s drug use," said Rep. Ellen Brandom (R-Sikeson) last year, explaining her push to test welfare recipients.

What's good for the goose is good for the gander, said Rep. Brattin.  "I think we should live by the same standard we are asking others to live by," he told the Kansas City Star. "Our salaries are paid by taxpayers, so we should assure them we aren't using that money on drugs."

The bill has been assigned to the House General Laws Committee, but it has not yet been scheduled for a public hearing.

Meanwhile, across the Mississippi River in Tennessee, two Democratic legislators, state Rep. Johnny Shaw and state Sen. Reginald Tate, are backing a bill, House Bill 2433 and its Senate companion bill, SB 3524, which would require the speaker of each chamber of the general assembly to develop and implement a drug testing program for legislators and staff.

Under the bills, state legislators and staff would be subjected to random, suspicionless testing for drugs and alcohol. A positive test result or a failure to take the test would be referred to the leadership of the chamber for disciplinary action.

They said the bill was in response to numerous Republican bills calling for drug testing for welfare recipients, workman's compensation recipients, state employees, private sector employees, and even making it a crime ("internal possession") to fail a drug test.

"I don’t think lawmakers should ever vote to make any laws they don't first and foremost abide by," Shaw told the Associated Press. "My question is, what lawmaker would not vote for it?"

House Majority Leader Gerald McCormick (R-Chattanooga) might be one. He told the AP drug testing legislators wasn't his highest priority. "Most people would like to see people who don't work for their government paychecks to get tested first," he said.

The bills to drug test politicians make for good statehouse politics, but even if they were to pass, they are probably doomed. In a 1997 decision, Chandler v. Miller, the US Supreme Court threw out a Georgia law requiring drug tests for elected officials, saying it violated the Fourth Amendment's proscription against warrantless searches.

Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies executing a narcotics search warrant in Lancaster Wednesday night shot and killed an a 68-year-old man when he allegedly emerged from a bedroom holding a four-foot sword. The as yet unidentified man becomes the seventh person to die in US domestic drug law enforcement operations so far this year.

According to police, the man raised the sword toward a deputy and was then shot several times. It's not clear how many deputies fired. None were injured.

The man was taken to a local hospital, where he died. His name has not been released pending notification of relatives.

Three other people in the house were detained for questioning.

Police released no information about the results of their narcotics search, nor have they specified the technique they used in gaining entry to the residence.