Ever since Breaking Bad finished its five-season run, fans have been looking for the next big thing in drug crime entertainment. Cops are people too, of course, and some may be bringing their love for fiction into the workplace, even arresting innocent people, all as part of the hunt for that elusive blue crystal and the next Heisenberg.
Minnesota police first stopped the 31-year-old on November 14 because he was driving with his lights on. They searched his vehicle and performed a field test on the powdered substance they found. That field test identified the powder as amphetamine.
While Burrell did acknowledge that he had recently been treated at the New Beginnings rehabilitation center, he maintained his innocence. He told police that the powder was actually over-the-counter medication for shoulder pain.
He was taken into custody, charged with two counts of felony drug possession, and pressured into pleading guilty.
“I told the judge I couldn’t plead guilty to something I knew wasn’t a drug,” Burrell told the Free Press. “They set my bail at $250,000 for vitamins.”
At Burrell’s insistence, prosecutors used a more advanced test on the powder. Presumably red-faced, prosecutors dropped their charges against Burrell when the new test confirmed that the powder was, in fact, legal, run-of-the-mill vitamins.
Burrell told the Free Press he wasn’t thrilled about having to spend so long in custody for possessing a product that anyone can buy in their local Walgreens. He sat in jail for one month before prosecutors administered the new test, and waited another month for those results to come in.
“I had been sitting in jail since November…” he said. “Then, two days before trial, they dropped the charges and let me go.”
Burrell wasn’t exactly the big score police hoped he would be, and there is no word on how he will be compensated for the false arrest. Breaking Bad is streaming on Netflix, so maybe police can get their fix from reruns. Or maybe that’s how they made Burrell spent his time in custody, fielding questions he didn’t know how to answer about the drug trade. “Is ricin really that strong? Is meth really blue?”
To which Burrell could only roll his eyes and shake his head.
