Drug Charges Tossed Out

User · 08-25-2008, 10:46 AM

The Racine County Sheriff’s Department made two costly mistakes when deputies arrested a man for marijuana possession and manufacturing in October 2006, according to court rulings.

Those mistakes — an unlawful traffic stop based on a cell phone call and search of the contents of a digital camera and GPS device found after the arrest — have forced the District Attorney’s Office to drop all six charges against the suspect.

Dean Brown, 39, was arrested Oct. 13, 2006, after Racine County deputies caught up with him following a cell phone call from a driver who believed Brown was acting suspiciously, possibly trespassing. The deputy who made the traffic stop reportedly smelled raw marijuana in the car and searched the vehicle. In the car, the deputy allegedly found garbage bags full of marijuana plants. In total, deputies allegedly recovered nearly 36 pounds of marijuana with a possible street value as high as $140,000.

Deputies also found a digital camera and GPS unit. The camera contained images of marijuana growing in fields. Members of the Racine County Metro Drug Unit checked out recently used coordinates on the GPS unit and discovered several marijuana grow sites.

Brown was then charged with possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of marijuana with intent to deliver and four counts of manufacturing marijuana.

Brown’s attorney, Patrick Cafferty, challenged the charges. He filed motions to suppress all evidence in the case, saying the deputy did not have grounds to stop his client in the first place and that any evidence obtained from the searches of the contents of the camera or GPS unit was inadmissible because deputies did not have warrants to search the contents of the devices.

Cafferty’s challenges were successful.

The four manufacturing marijuana charges were dropped in April 2007, after Circuit Court Judge Emily Mueller ruled in the defense’s favor, saying that deputies should have obtained a search warrant for the camera and GPS device before looking at their contents.

Mueller also ruled that the traffic stop was unlawful, but the state appealed that. The Court of Appeals upheld her ruling late last month, and the state has now dismissed all charges against Brown.

The Court of Appeals ruling on the traffic stop said that a 911 call by a motorist did not give the Sheriff’s Department “reasonable suspicion” to stop Brown’s vehicle.

“The right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures” is contained within the state and federal constitutions, the court’s opinion stated. The court said that police may approach people to investigate possible criminal behavior without probable cause to make an arrest, but that the officer must be able to state facts that led up to the approach.

However, the opinion states, the Supreme Court of the United States “has long held that ‘good faith on the part of the arresting officers is not enough,’ ” and that if that was all that was required, “the protections of the Fourth Amendment would evaporate.”

The Sheriff’s Department receives training on conducting legal stops and searches, said Lt. Dan Klatt, spokesman for the department, but deputies must make judgment calls. He said there is no easy answer.

“Each decision is based on a case-by-case situation,” Klatt said. “There are rules of evidence, but there are some exigent circumstances. It ends up being what the officer perceives. If he perceives one of these exigent circumstances apply, that’s what he’s basing his decision on at the time.”

In this particular case, the court has ruled that the deputies’ actions were not in line with the law that governs traffic stops and searches. While the police work led to evidence against Brown, when the court suppressed the evidence it became unusable in court, effectively ending the case.

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Source: The Journal Times
Copyright: 2008 The Journal Times
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