Mushrooms and weed in Boone tied to CMPD officer’s Flock abuse, records allege
The Charlotte police officer arrested and accused of outing an undercover officer says a mushroom and weed dealer in Boone — who was a friend from college — asked him to do it, court documents show.
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Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department Officer Seth Elliott was charged Wednesday with accessing confidential police databases to tell a drug dealer that the person buying from him was an undercover officer. Search warrants filed in court in Watauga County detail how police pieced the case together.
An undercover officer had bought three batches of seven grams of psilocybin mushrooms and two-gram marijuana vapes from Michael Antonio Kuester between April and June. After the third purchase, Kuester messaged the officer on Telegram and asked him to “send a photo of a badge.”
Kuester also said something about how license plate readers had taken photos of the undercover license plate. Kuester could only know that, officers thought, if he had access to the Flock camera system that acts as police surveillance on cars across the state and country.
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The Watauga County Sheriff’s Office asked the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation to see if anyone had looked up the officers’ plate in Flock.
Elliott had, their data showed.
When questioned, Elliott told agents Kuester was a friend from college who reached out saying a random person was hanging around his father’s business. Kuester asked Elliott if he could find who it was. The search warrants don’t say whether Elliott knew Kuester dealt drugs in Boone, which hosts Appalachian State University.
Kuester was arrested and charged with selling drugs on June 19, the day after SBI agents talked to Elliott.
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Elliott was arrested Wednesday and charged with misdemeanor accessing computers.
