Pubdate: Sat, 12 May 2001
Source: Rutland Herald (VT)
Copyright: 2001 Rutland Herald
Contact:  http://rutlandherald.nybor.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/892
Author: David Gram, The Associated Press

COURT: AERIAL VIEW OF POSSIBLE POT IS ENOUGH FOR WARRANT

MONTPELIER - In a split decision, the Vermont Supreme Court on Friday
relaxed the requirements police officers must meet when they seek a
search warrant after spotting what could be marijuana plants from the
air.

The two justices who dissented from the decision, John Dooley III and
Denise Johnson, said they feared the result would be "unnecessary and
mistaken home searches, with a clear invasion of the privacy of
Vermont homeowners."

In a case arising out of Addison County, the three-member court
majority said it was OK for State Police Trooper Chris Campbell to be
given a search warrant after spotting plants he thought were
"consistent in color, shape and texture" with marijuana from 525 to
600 feet in the air.

Campbell and other officers later went to a property next to the plot
where they had seen the plants and got better confirmation that they
were marijuana before seeking a search warrant. The property owner was
later charged with possession and cultivation of marijuana.

The lower court rejected the grounds for the search warrant related to
the observations the officers made from the ground. But it granted the
warrant based on the aerial search alone, and that's what prompted the
debate between the justices.

The majority, composed of Chief Justice Jeffrey Amestoy and Associate
Justices James Morse and Marilyn Skoglund, labeled "hypertechnical"
the defense's claim that Campbell wasn't sure enough the plants were
marijuana based on the flyover alone.

The majority said past cases have determined that a search warrant can
be issued when ìa person of reasonable caution would conclude that a
crime has been committed and that evidence of the crime will be found
in the place to be searched.î

The minority opinion, written by Dooley, cited past cases in which
police officers have mistaken other plants for marijuana and been
granted search warrants. In one Oregon case, police thought they saw
marijuana through a window, got a search warrant, found the suspect
plants to be common house plants but charged the person anyway based
on marijuana found in the basement. The defense won that case.
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