BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Several members of the community are calling for two Buffalo Police Officers to be fired, and for District Attorney John Flynn to press charges after a March traffic stop in Buffalo.
Morgan Eaton says his life was turned upside down when he was charged with a felony cocaine possession in March of this year. According to Erie County District Attorney John Flynn, Eaton was pulled over for a traffic violation by Buffalo Police Officers Andrew Moffett and John Davidson.
Flynn says Eaton was then found to have a warrant out of the Town of Tonawanda for a suspended license when his vehicle was searched.
“I have been upstanding in the community for over 20 years,” Eaton said. “I’ve been coaching little league football since 2002, and now I have to answer questions from my son like ‘are you a drug dealer?”
During the search, Flynn says officers recovered two bags of marijuana, and body camera footage that 7 Eyewitness News has seen shows the officers then finding an unmarked bottle of white powder pills in a purse in the backseat.
Officer Moffett then conducted a field test on the powder, which in the video, the officers say they suspect to be cocaine. The field test turned up negative. The officers then said “it’s not coke” but also suspected it could be cut with something to be a weak batch.
A source with the Buffalo Police Department says the field tests are not always accurate.
DA Flynn says the officers then got the go-ahead from the Lieutenant on duty to charge the cocaine charge.
“The pills in the bottle looked homemade,” Flynn said. “We’re now seeing crack cocaine in pills on the streets.”
When the substance came back from the lab, DA Flynn says it came back as negative for cocaine and was a vaginal supplement.
All charges were eventually dropped against Eaton, but his supporters say the officers committed perjury and tampered with evidence and should be fired.
“The bad officers that are not being held accountable and making good officers look bad are terrorizing the residents of the City of Buffalo,” said Dominique Calhoun, Eaton’s fiancee.
Flynn says the officers in this case did not commit a crime, but says they shouldn’t have charged the cocaine charge.
Both officers were suspended last month, and an internal investigation is ongoing. The Buffalo Police Union says it expects the officers to be fully exonerated. They’re unpaid for 30 days.
