Pubdate: Sun, 08 Jul 2007 Source: Herald-Sun, The (Durham, NC) Copyright: 2007 The Herald-Sun Contact: http://www.herald-sun.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1428 Author: Beth Velliquette APPEALS COURT REVERSES DRUG SEARCH RULING PITTSBORO -- The N.C. Court of Appeals has reversed a decision by Orange-Chatham Superior Court Judge Carl Fox that Chatham County deputies violated the law when they broke down the door of a house where they went to search for drugs. Based on the theory that the evidence the deputies collected was fruit from a poisonous tree, Fox made the ruling to suppress as evidence cocaine seized during the drug raid at a mobile home on Staley Snow Camp Road in June 2005. Fox ruled the deputies' actions to enter the home of Russell Harman White by force violated the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution against unreasonable searches and seizures and that it also violated North Carolina law and therefore the evidence they collected was fruit from a poisonous tree. When deputies went to the home with a search warrant, five deputies lined up one behind the other, and the first knocked on the door. After about five seconds, the first deputy gave the signal for a forced entry, and the deputies entered the house and found the defendant and several other people in the residence. The defendant was taken into custody and read his rights and the search warrant before the deputies began searching the home and found cocaine and guns hidden in deep fat fryers. When confronted, the defendant said the cocaine the deputies found was his. The deputy who was first in line and made the decision to enter by force did not attend the hearing to suppress the evidence, and the other deputies could not explain why he made the decision. In his ruling, Fox said the deputies did not show that they were denied entrance or that they were unreasonably delayed before they used a battering ram to break open the door. The state appealed Fox's ruling, not on the grounds that the deputies violated U.S. and N.C. law, but because there was an insufficient "nexus" between the improper entry and the evidence the deputies found. The N.C. Appeals Court panel, which included Judges Eric Levinson, Linda McGee and Barbara Jackson, concluded that the trial court's findings failed to support the conclusion that the evidence should be suppressed. "The evidence must be such that it would not have been obtained but for the unlawful conduct of the investigating officer," Levinson wrote in the opinion. "As long as the evidence at issue was not discovered as a direct result of the entry but as a result of the later search conducted pursuant to the valid search warrant, the evidence is admissible despite a substantial violation of [the state law regarding forced entry]." The cocaine likely would have been located even in the absence of the forced entry, according to the opinion. "We conclude that the contraband was not subject to suppression because it was not obtained 'as a result of' the improper entry. The trial court erred by suppressing the contraband and the defendant's inculpatory statement." - --- MAP posted-by: Derek