Pubdate: Fri, 04 Oct 2002
Source: Robesonian, The (NC)
Copyright: 2002 The Robesonian
Contact:  http://www.robesonian.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1548
Author: Matt Elofson

OFFICER ACCUSED OF FALSIFYING WARRANT

LUMBERTON -- District Attorney Johnson Britt says he plans to drop felony 
drug charges against two men because a Superior Court judge has ruled that 
a drug-enforcement officer made false statements to obtain a search warrant.

Britt said that Christopher Dean Logan and Gary McLean's multiple drug 
charges will be dropped because evidence seized in the case is unusable. 
Logan and McLean were originally charged with felony possession of 
marijuana, felony possession with intent to sell and deliver cocaine, 
possession of a firearm by a felon and possession of drug paraphernalia. 
Britt said that Carlton Mansfield, Logan and McLean's attorney, contested 
the warrant used to charge the men and search their Red Springs home. The 
warrant application completed by sheriff's Lt. C.T. Strickland said that 
one informant led to the arrest. But, Britt said, there were actually two 
informants used.

Strickland testified and acknowledged in a hearing in front of Superior 
Court Judge Gregory Weeks in May that he had put only one informant on the 
application, when there were two, Britt said. Britt said that Weeks found 
that the application for the warrant contained material misrepresentations 
of fact, which made any evidence seized in the case unusable.

"Without that evidence, there is no case to try," Britt said. "He testified 
in court that he combined information from two individuals to make it 
appear as one."

Strickland said the two informants were Logan's girlfriend and one of her 
friends.

"The information we had was from two individuals, but we were trying to 
conceal the girlfriend's indentity because she was fearing for her life," 
Strickland said.

Sheriff's Glenn Maynor would not comment.
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MAP posted-by: Beth