Ah, DuPage County: Joe Birkett's Son Busted

[orleans]

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/947738,na14_birkett_s1.article

May 13
BY BILL BIRD Staff Writer
The son of DuPage County’s top prosecutor and two other men have been arrested for allegedly possessing marijuana and a smoking pipe over the weekend in Naperville.

Nicholas T. Birkett, son of DuPage County State’s Attorney Joe Birkett, has been cited under city of Naperville ordinances for possession of drug paraphernalia and less than 30 grams of cannabis, according to Naperville police records.

Birkett, 21, listed his parents’ address in Wheaton while undergoing processing at the Naperville police station, police records showed.

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Two police officers went to the apartment building at 7:23 p.m. Sunday following an anonymous telephone call concerning the aroma of burning marijuana in a hallway, according to records. They traced the scent to Busse’s apartment and knocked on the front door, records showed.

A man answered through the closed door and the officers identified themselves, asking that the door be opened, records indicated. The officers at that point could hear people speaking in low voices inside the apartment.

Busse then opened the door, identifying himself as the tenant and claiming to be the only one present at the time, according to records. The officers, however, could hear voices coming from the rear of the apartment, where they found Birkett and Grant seated on the balcony, records showed.

Grant and Birkett said they were smoking cigarettes there because cigarette smoking was not allowed inside the apartment, records indicated.

Police then found “a one-hitter pipe lying on the coffee table in plain view” in the living room, according to records. They also discovered a small clear-plastic bag containing a leafy green substance on the living room floor, a substance that later proved to be four grams of marijuana, records showed.

All three men denied ownership of either the pipe or the marijuana, records indicated.

Birkett has no prior criminal record, according to police documents. To avoid any suggestion of conflict of interest, his prosecution will not be handled by his father’s office.

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