SEARCH FOR POT IN TEDDY BEAR WAS ILLEGAL, COURT AFFIRMS

Police in Rohnert Park who ripped open a teddy bear inside a sealed
package and found it stuffed with marijuana can't justify their
no-warrant search on the grounds that the sender used a phony name, a
state appeals court has ruled.

The First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco agreed Tuesday
with a Sonoma County judge who dismissed drug charges against
Gilberto Pereira after ruling the search illegal.

The court rejected a prosecution argument that Pereira had abandoned
his right to keep the contents of his mail private by using a
pseudonym on the return address when he shipped the bear.

Pereira brought a sealed package to a shipping company in August 2005
for delivery to a Wisconsin address. The owner of the store told
police he had grown suspicious of Pereira because he had been sending
overnight packages every two weeks to different addresses in
Wisconsin for the previous several months.

The owner called authorities after he opened the package and found a
teddy bear with crude stitching covering a cut in the fabric and a
heavy object inside. Police cut the bear open and found about a half
pound of marijuana, the court said. A later search of Pereira, his
car and his apartment turned up additional drugs.

Superior Court Judge Cerena Wong found that police had no
justification for opening and searching the teddy bear without a
warrant and ruled the evidence inadmissible, requiring dismissal of
the charges. In upholding her ruling, the appeals court said using a
false name on a package does not forfeit one's right to privacy.

"There are many legitimate reasons to use a fictitious name," Justice
Stuart Pollak said in the 3-0 ruling, citing another court decision
that referred to authors and journalists who use pseudonyms,
celebrities who want to avoid intrusion, and government officials who
have security concerns.

The fact that some criminals use aliases does not mean that "everyone
who wishes to remain anonymous when sending mail loses their
expectation of privacy," Pollak said.