West Des Moines Police: ‘Now’s the Time to be Honest’

Ever wonder what cops and suspects talk about before an arrest? Here’s how a drug bust went down in West Des Moines  the other day:

It was just after 11 p.m. on Friday, at the beginning of the long Memorial Day weekend. Officer Stephen Becker was on patrol in the vicinity of Waterford Drive and South 50th Street when he saw a silver Saturn traveling southbound about 28 miles per hour, under the speed limit.

But when the vehicle passed, Becker noticed there was no front license plate. So he pulled the car over. Mitchell Adriel Gardner, 21, of 148 52nd St., “seemed overly nervous,” the police report said.

Becker thought he knew why. He could smell an odor that he believed to be marijuana, so he requested backup.

When Becker asked Gardner for his driver's license, registration and insurance card, the driver’s anxiety increased, according to the report. Gardner provided a non-operator’s identification, but “had trouble locating” the other documents, according to police. On the officer’s third request that he produce the card, Gardner reportedly said he had insurance, but didn’t have the card with him.

“At that time, I asked Gardner to be 100 percent with me,” Becker wrote in his report. “I asked if there was any marijuana in the vehicle.”

Gardner reportedly paused for a moment and denied there were drugs in the car.

Becker’s report continued:

“I advised Gardner now was the time to be honest with me. I advised Gardner that I could smell it and then again asked him where the marijuana was located. Gardner then stated that he only had a pipe. I asked him where the pipe was located. Gardner then stated that it was in his pants.”

Gardner removed the pipe when asked, Becker said. He reportedly said it was “an old pipe.”

At that point, Becker again advised Gardner and a passenger – 20-year-old Yenna Turan Kumar of 1178 51st St., West Des Moines – “to just be honest and tell me where the marijuana was” and that “I was going to get them out and search them and they needed to just be honest with me.”

At that point, according to the report, Gardner said he didn’t have any marijuana. Becker pressed the point, asking if the “stuff that was in the pipe was marijuana and advised him that I was going to test it.”

Gardner allegedly acknowledged at that point that, yes, it was marijuana in the pipe.

By then, Officer Ryan Anderson had arrived at the scene.

While Becker was still dealing with Gardner, who reportedly was refusing to divulge where the suspected marijuana was hidden – or acknowledge that it existed – Yenna was still in the passenger seat, reaching into his pants pocket.

Becker told him to “keep his hands up where I could see them.”

After repeated requests for Yenna to comply and his refusal to do so, “I reached in and grabbed Yenna and Officer Anderson did a strike to his arm to have him remove his hand from his pocket.”

By then, both suspects were handcuffed and Becker and his colleague began searching the vehicle.

In the front seat, they found a plastic bag containing 4.2 grams of marijuana, a backpack containing a “large amount of marijuana,” empty plastic bags, a digital scale, a wooden pipe and a package of Zig Zag tobacco rolling papers. The marijuana in the backpack weighed 31.1 grams

Both men were charged with possession of marijuana with intent to deliver and possession of drug paraphernalia. Additionally, Yenna was charged with interference with official acts and Gardner was cited for driving without a front plate and without proof of insurance.

Both were booked in the Polk County Jail.