The Morioka District Court has revealed that police submitted false information to obtain a search warrant for a man they had suspected of drug use, it was learned Tuesday.
The Tono branch of the district court on Sept. 13 found the man guilty of using drugs, but warned in its ruling that the submission of the fictitious report by the Iwate Prefectural Police was "likely to be highly illegal."
Police delivered the report to the court when seeking approval to take a urine sample from the man and a warrant to search his car.
Police claimed the submission of the fictitious report was due to miscommunication between the officers who provided the information and those who wrote the report.
Police questioned the 39-year-old man late last year for driving without a license and suspected he was under the influence of drugs. Police found an injection mark on the man's arm, which he claimed was made by an intravenous drip he was hooked up to when he was hospitalized during the summer.
According to the official hospital response, the man "was hospitalized in March the previous year, but other points cannot be confirmed."
But the bogus report by police stated that the man "was hospitalized in March the previous year and for a fact was not hospitalized at any other time."
The court sentenced the man to 18 months in prison. Prosecutors had demanded 24 months.