SUPREME COURT EYES LEGALITY OF DELAYED DRUG SEARCH

WASHINGTON - The police had the right instincts about Charles
McArthur, as even he admits. There were drugs stashed under his couch,
and given the opportunity he would have flushed them down the toilet
or otherwise made sure the cops couldn't find them.

McArthur didn't get the chance, because police wouldn't let him go
into his own house alone for the two hours it took to get a search
warrant. Predictably, he was arrested as soon as Illinois police got
the warrant and found the stash.

More than three years later, McArthur's lawyer told the Supreme Court
on Wednesday that police were out of bounds and that McArthur's
temporary eviction was unconstitutional.

The case made for colorful courtroom discussion, with several justices
seeming to side with the police.

"It seems to me here the officers did everything by the book," Justice
Ruth Bader Ginsburg said.

The case is one of several the court has taken recently that examine
the limits of police powers to hunt for drugs.

The court has already heard arguments this year in a case testing how
far police may go in detaining presumably innocent motorists while
they look for a few drug scofflaws. The justices will hear another
case later in the term involving a man busted for growing marijuana
after police outside the man's home monitored heat generated by
special lamps and equipment inside his garage.

The McArthur case pits an individual's right to come and go from his
home against police power to preserve evidence of a crime.

McArthur fought the misdemeanor charge of possessing less than 2.5
grams of marijuana and drug paraphernalia, and lower courts agreed
with him.

"I think it was definitely wrong to tell somebody they can't go back
in their house unless the police is with them," McArthur said in an
interview. "I think they need to have a clearer law on what they can
and can't do."

John Love, the assistant police chief in Sullivan, Ill., said
McArthur's rights were not violated.

"I chose to do it the right way, the best way for everybody -- and the
fairest way to him," he said.

The case began April 2, 1997, when McArthur's estranged wife arranged
for police to wait outside the couple's trailer while she moved out.
When she left, she told police her husband had marijuana under a couch.

Love knocked on the trailer door and confronted McArthur. McArthur
came outside, denied his wife's accusation and would not let police
inside without a warrant.

Love dispatched an officer to get a warrant, and did not let McArthur
re-enter the trailer unless an officer accompanied him.

McArthur has since testified that if he had entered alone, he would
have destroyed the evidence.

"My guys went out of their way to respect Mr. McArthur's rights.
That's the least restrictive thing they could have done and performed
their jobs," Moultrie County State's Attorney Tim Willis said. "They
could have kicked the door down. They didn't do that."