PROTESTS IN FEDERAL DRUG CASE REJECTED

A Knoxville couple weren't the proper people to challenge a search warrant
that led to their indictments on federal drug charges, a federal magistrate
has ruled. And it isn't relevant that the same Knox County Sheriff's
Department drug-sniffing dog that helped secure the warrant has also been
deemed unreliable by another judge, U.S. Magistrate Thomas Phillips ruled.

Phillips noted that the canine, Falco, was found in an unrelated drug case
involving a traffic stop to be unreliable several weeks after he authorized
U.S. Postal Inspector Sam Romano to open an express-mailed package
suspected of containing drugs.

"But that determination has no bearing upon whether the undersigned had a
substantial basis, based upon the totality of the circumstances presented,
to issue the search warrant," Phillips wrote in one of the two similar
opinions issued Aug. 31.

He recommended in both rulings the denial of motions to suppress evidence
being used in a drug case against Lucretta Elgin, 27, and a drug and gun
case against Ralph Vernnard Russell, 22.

On Friday, Phillips also recommended the denial of a second motion to
suppress evidence concerning Russell's case.

The dispute began April 19 when Romano believed a package coming from Los
Angeles and addressed to a woman at an East Oldham Avenue residence
contained controlled substances.

"The package in question came to the postal inspector's attention because
it originated in a known drug source city and contained a fictitious return
address," Phillips wrote.

Four other packages, each with fake return addresses, had also previously
been mailed to the same Knoxville address, he noted.

Romano lined the package up with four others and had Falco, a German
shepherd, sniff the five parcels. The dog alerted on the one from Los
Angeles, and Romano sought a search warrant to open it from Phillips.

It wasn't until mid-May that U.S. District Judge Leon Jordan ruled in an
unrelated case that there was no probable cause for officers to search a
vehicle Falco alerted on because the dog was wrong more times than he was
right when used for drug searches in the field.

"The fact that the reliability of the dog has been placed in question by a
subsequent decision of this court is irrelevant to the issue of whether the
issuing magistrate judge had a substantial basis for concluding that a
search would uncover evidence of wrongdoing," Phillips wrote, finding the
search warrant and supporting affidavit contained sufficient probable cause
to justify it being issued.

After Romano opened the package and found 1.25 kilograms of cocaine, he put
a mobile tracking device inside, resealed it and directed a controlled
delivery of the parcel to the Oldham address.

On April 20, Elgin arrived at the address, her mother's residence. She
later left the residence with the package and was arrested by postal
inspectors, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents and Knoxville
Police Department officers.

Court papers state she told them she was picking up the package for
Russell, her boyfriend, and that she had previously delivered two other
packages to him that had been delivered to her mother's residence. She was
pregnant with Russell's child at the time.

Meanwhile, Russell had been told that Elgin was "in trouble and needed his
help." When he arrived at the residence, he asked about Elgin's well-being
and was instructed to wait in front of a police vehicle.

When police later asked him if there was anything in his vehicle they
needed to know about, Russell said he had a gun in it, court papers state.
When officers couldn't find the gun, Russell said it might be at his
apartment, where he also said he had some marijuana.

Russell later consented to a search of that apartment, another one and a
storage facility, where authorities found about 25 pounds of dried
marijuana, 24 marijuana plants, two semi-automatic assault weapons and four
other guns. He told officers he sold the pot to make some spare money, the
papers state.