| Michael D. Weinstein |
| Leave that crack jacket at home, homie. |
A man accused of drug trafficking showed up for court Friday in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, wearing a jacket the bore a cartoon-style recipe for cooking crack cocaine.
“Maybe he was hoping to impress the judge or ‘crack up’ the courtroom crowd, but the fashion police at the Broward County Courthouse labeled it a fashion fail,” reports Paula McMahon at the Broward-Palm Beach Sun-Sentinel.
“Probably not the smartest attire for a defendant!” wise-cracked Michael D. Weinstein, a lawyer who snapped the cellphone photo which accompanies this article.
The white jacket seemed to be a how-to guide for cooking crack cocaine, complete with little pictures of a white substance with a spoon, a carton of baking soda and a pot over a fire. The end product was “rock.”
The recipe was capped off by the slogan “Stack Paper Say Nothing” — in other words, make money, hold onto it and keep your mouth shut about where it came from.
The man didn’t get in trouble for his jacket; witnesses, including his attorney, Joshua Rydell, wouldn’t reveal the defendant’s name.
Rydell said his clients still sometimes surprise him by wearing drug-related clothing to court.
“Giant marijuana leaves on their t-shirts…” Rydell mused. “It’s so common that I routinely advise clients, ‘No drug-related clothes when you come to court.”
But Rydell didn’t seem that upset about the crack jacket.
“I took it as freedom of expression,” he said. “I didn’t take it as a recipe to cook crack.”
“No comment,” uncommented Broward Circuit Judge Michael Usan.
