Meet 28 y/o Marlan Byars and his brother 31 y/o Otis Pegues, both of North Versailles, Pennsylvania, That’s them below…
The siblings were arrested in a sting operation for trying to sell twenty (20) bricks of heroin to an undercover police officer for $4,600.00, but that’s not what makes this story news-worthy…
What makes this story news-worthy is that the location for this transaction was at a Burger King. More specifically it was to occur in the children’s play area of a Burger King.
And, adding insult to injury (and an extra felony charge and a DCF proceeding), Marlan brought his six (6) year old son with him.
The brothers face several drug charges including possession, criminal conspiracy, and endangering the welfare of children, and Marlan’s six (6) year old son is now in the custody of his mother.
Memo to the Folks: A “Sting Op” is a law enforcement term that cops use when they embrace any of a variety of deceptive tactics to catch people who are predisposed to committing crimes. Sometimes the cops do it themselves “undercover” and other times they employ CI’s (confidential informants) or CS’s (cooperating sources). There are many sorts of sting ops and some examples are: Posing as someone who is seeking illegal drugs, contraband or child pornography to catch a supplier; or posing as a supplier to catch a customer (where the cops are the suppliers it is called a “reverse sting”), Posing as a potential customer of illegal prostitution; or posing as a prostitute to catch a customer (again a “reverse stiong”), Posing as a child in a chat room to identify a potential child molester, Posing as a hitman to catch customers and solicitors of murder-for-hire, Passing off explosives, fake or real, to a would-be terror bomber, Deploying a bait car (or a “honey trap”) to catch car thieves and Arranging someone under the legal drinking age to ask an adult to buy an alcoholic beverage or tobacco products for them. Most folks caught in a sting think they were entrapped but very few actually were. The fact is that cops are permitted to use methods of persuasion, trickery or subterfuge in an effort to get you to commit a crime. The question that determines whether or not you were entrapped is: Would you have done what you did if a civilian had been involved instead of the cops? Watch HaberPA’s YouTube Webisode / VideoFAQ on “What is a Sting Operation / Sting Op / Reverse Sting?” by clicking on the video link below (and feel free to subscribe to HaberPA’s YouTube Channel featuring – to date 89 – Webisodes / Video FAQ’s on a variety of criminal law and DUI based topics by clicking here).
https://www.youtube.com/c/michaelhaberlaw / http://habercriminallaw.blogspot.com
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Top notch, very skilled, and highly attentive. Mr. Haber is a fantastic criminal defense attorney. 
- Thanks again. You are second to none when it comes to defending your clients. For that, I thank you
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