A drug-dealing case against a 19-year-old Eudora man is the latest criminal case to be dismissed in the wake of a Lawrence Police officer’s firing.

Even before the officer’s firing, however, the case was problematic. It went forward despite a judge’s ruling that the officer had no probable cause for the stop that led to the arrest.

The Douglas County District Attorney’s Office has now dismissed at least 12 cases in which officer Stuart “Mike” Peck was expected to testify. Peck lost his job earlier this month after a judge ruled he gave misleading information to get a search warrant.

In the most recent dismissal, Assistant Dist. Atty. Dan Dunbar moved to drop charges of cocaine dealing, possession of marijuana and failure to pay a drug tax against Leo J. Johnston. District judge Robert Fairchild dismissed the case Feb. 18.

According to an affidavit written by Peck, he encountered Johnston on June 26, 2002, after he observed “suspicious activity” in the 3000 block of West Ninth Street.

The suspicious activity, according to the affidavit, was young males acting unusual near two cars in a driveway.

“Due to the mannerisms of the subjects involved, (I) felt that there was about to be a fight between the men, so (I) turned the unmarked police car around to investigate,” Peck wrote.

Police questioned the men and looked in the car windows. They eventually found cocaine in Johnston’s shoe and marijuana in a car he had been driving.

The District Attorney’s Office sought a warrant for his arrest Sept. 26 after lab tests on the drugs, but a judge ruled Oct. 7 there was no probable cause for the stop and therefore no probable cause to arrest Johnston.

The case went forward after a judge accepted Assistant Dist. Atty. Bradley Burke’s argument that a hearing on a motion to suppress evidence would be the proper way to determine whether the stop was constitutional.