Judge Search of students car was legal
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TAMPA, Fla. — A sheriff’s deputy had legal cause to stop and search a car last summer that resulted in the discovery of low-grade explosives and the arrest of two Egyptian college students, a federal magistrate said.If the advisory opinion Thursday from U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Pizzo is accepted by the presiding judge in the case, the evidence found in the car can be used against the men at their April trial on charges of illegally transporting explosives.Attorneys for Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed and Youssef Samir Megahed, both former University of South Florida students, contend the materials in their car were to make fireworks.The attorneys argued at a hearing last week that a Berkeley County, S.C., deputy didn’t have “probable cause” or consent to search the car after pulling them over for speeding Aug. 4.They argued that the deputy, James Lamar Blakely, conducted the search primarily because the two students were obviously of Middle Eastern descent and had copies of the Quran in the car. The dashboard camera in the deputy’s car captured him using the terms “terrorist” and “Taliban.”But Pizzo wrote that despite the remarks, “the officer had probable cause to stop the defendants for speeding, the brief questioning of the defendants was not unreasonable in scope nor duration, and the driver consented to the search.”Blakely has testified that Mohamed delayed pulling the car over while Megahed slammed a laptop computer closed and fumbled with something in the console. When the young men were questioned, they were vague about where they were going and where they had been, the deputy said.One of Mohamed’s attorneys, Lyann Goudie, said Friday she was disappointed in the opinion and may file an objection. Megahed’s attorney, Adam Allen, didn’t immediately return a call.Mohamed, 26, and Megahed, 21, have been in jail since their arrests in Goose Creek, S.C., near a naval weapons station. They were indicted here after federal investigators searched their Tampa-area homes. The University of South Florida is based in Tampa.The engineering students say they were on an innocent road trip to see Carolina beaches. They contend that the items that resulted in the charges - plastic pipe containing a mixture of sugar, potassium nitrate and cat litter, plus fuses - were being used by Mohamed to make fireworks commonly called “sugar rockets.”Mohamed also faces a second, terrorism-related charge brought after authorities say they found a video he made demonstrating how to convert a remote-control toy into a detonator for a bomb.
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