[DISCLAIMER: I'm not even going to pretend like I understand "laws" and stuff. I'm talking out of my rectum with most of this and going off of kneejerks. I'm not a lawya; Juco is. Have him fill you in if you'd like.]
In this story released earlier today, EotC Hugh Kellenburger revealed to his readers exactly how the police were able to slip into Dundrecous Nelson's apartment and aprehend the Rebel basketballer for getting a wicked case of the munchies.
The arresting officer, whose name I'm too lazy to look up, had apparently warned Nelson before about his apartment's stench saying that such a smell - the pungent smell of marijuana set ablaze - was indeed probable cause for him to search, seize, arrest, and so forth. This officer had even informed Coach Kennedy of this encounter, which might have even led to the creation of Kennedy's "zero tolerance" policy regarding Couscous' arrest we've heard a lot of these past couple of days.
Dundrecous, being 19 or 20, didn't listen to either of these authority figures and, instead, decided to continue his regular consumption of the drug. That led to the police officer following through with his warning to search Nelson's apartment and arrest him for the offense.
Nelson, though, found a way to keep the Cops off of his case, or so he thought.
He simply refused to answer the door when they knocked. Being as that they didn't have a warrant, and only probable cause, they couldn't just kick his door in if they wanted to have a case against the guy. Perhaps Dundrecous knew this, or perhaps he was too busy getting past the Water Temple in Ocarina of Time, but either way he simply didn't answer the door when the police knocked.
He did answer the door, though, when the Domino's delivery driver arrived... with the arresting officer standing directly behind him.
The story, as told by Kellenburger is that
As the officer was leaving, he met a delivery person from Domino's Pizza and asked him where he was headed (it turned out, it was to Nelson's apartment).
According to the report, Nelson then exited his home in order to get the pizza and quickly go back inside.
The officer confronted Nelson at that time. Upon entering the apartment the officer found eight roaches of marijuana made from cigarillos (small cigars that can be emptied and stuffed with the drug), the report said.
I hate that this happened to Dundrecous (and I hate that the delivery driver probably felt like some sort of asshole pushover pawn in this cop's game), but this is a pretty funny story. Nelson, who admitted to being high at the time of his arrest, was clever enough to simply ignore the cop, but wasn't not-hungry enough to ignore a pizza delivery driver.
It sucks that our basketball team's leading scorer was dismissed, but I'm not too bent out of shape over it. That's mostly because we've all but given up completely on this basketball season, but also has a lot to do with the revalation that this wasn't CousCous' first run in with Johnny Law for his affinity for the stickiest of the icky. That latter part, in a vacuum, doesn't bother me all that much because college students gonna college student. But, being that he was apparently in Andy Kennedy's doghouse and under some sort of gentleman's agreement to not get in trouble for illicit substances again, it's completely fair that he was booted from the basketball team.
Basically, if the coach sets rules and you break them, then you're the only person to blame, questionable methods of the Oxford Police Department and generally bizarre drug laws aside.
[In the end, though, I find it amusing, ironic, and even a bit hypocritical that the Oxford Police Department - one of a town which boasts the only university research facility in the United States that is legally permitted to grow and test medicinal marijuana - would be so intent on policing the drug as to finagle their way into doors because they simply smell of its use. Of course, there's also the amusing hypocrisy of the federal government actually giving money to Ole Miss to conduct such research in the first place, but that's a can of worms I'd rather open elsewhere.]