A Black Hawk County man gets a new trial on one drug charge from the summer of 2003, but his conviction on another drug charge will stand. The Iowa Supreme Court justice who wrote the opinion says “the summer of 2003 was apparently a sticky one for Edward Martin.” In his first arrest that summer, Martin was picked up for “pimping” a woman, but as a Waterloo policeman conducted a routine “pat down,” he discovered a crack pipe in Martin’s pocket. In Martin’s second arrest, Martin was pulled over for driving without a license. The cop says Martin threw the truck’s keys and a crack pipe into the truck bed as he jumped out of the truck and threw his hands in the air. The Iowa Supreme Court has ruled it was wrong for the trial judge to allow the prosecutor to ask Martin about his prior drug convictions during the trial on that charge, so Martin will get a new trial on the crack-pipe-in-the-back-of-the-pick-up charge. But his conviction involving the crack pipe found in his pocket will stand.
