Drug Defendant in Court After One Year

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A man who has been in the custody of police since August last year waived his rights to a preliminary hearing when he appeared before District Court Judge Fiti Sunia this morning.

Tao Liu who is being represented by Public Defender Douglas has been held at the Territorial Correctional Facility without bail on 11 charges including unlawful possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, 3 counts of attempted assault, possession of an unlicensed firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition, resisting arrest and careless driving.

In late August 2016 Liu’s vehicle was pursued by police when he didn’t stop after he was flagged down.

A police search found ice, marijuana, paraphernalia associated with drug used and a gun inside the defendant’s car.
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Court affidavits say Liu came to the police’s attention when a van he was driving westward swerved in their lane around the curve at Faganeanea.

Officer Pese who was driving the police unit, said he had to make a hard right turn to avoid a head on collision with the defendant’s van.

When police approached the defendant and asked for his driver’s license he at first refused then starting going through a black backpack.

Police state in court filings they saw Liu removing some items from the backpack and threw them on the floor of the van then tried to push them backward.

He apparently became agitated and demanded the cops to produce a search warrant to search his vehicle.

In the meantime he was still trying to get rid of what he had taken from his backpack.

The officers noticed that apart from being brash and loud, the defendant had bloodshot eyes and his speech was slurred.

They suspected he was driving under the influence of an illegal substance.

According to court documents, the man refused to get out of the vehicle and was reaching for a gun in the pocket of the passenger door.

The two police officers managed to pry open the door of the vehicle on the driver’s side, despite Liu’s efforts to keep the door shut.

During the struggle, police said they saw what appeared to be a butt of a handgun sticking out of the door.

Police found in Liu’s car a .45 caliber hand gun loaded with 7 live rounds, 42 clear, cut up straws with both sides burnt and sealed containing a crystalline substance.

They also found 2 medium size clear Ziploc plastic baggies containing green leafy substances that appeared to be marijuana, 1 medium size clear plastic Ziploc bag containing five rolled cigarettes that appeared to be marijuana joints and 1 broken glass pipe commonly used to smoke methamphetamine with white crystalline substance inside.

Liu is to be arraigned in High Court on Friday.

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