NO-WARRANT DRUG RAID THROWN OUT

Helicopter Patrol That Led To Arrest Ignored Rights, Judge Rules

PUTNAM TOWNSHIP -- A recent decision by Livingston County Circuit Judge
Daniel Burress could affect the way law enforcement officers conduct raids.

Burress threw out the evidence -- three marijuana plants -- collected by
officers last year at a raid of a Pinckney home. Officers from the region's
Livingston and Washtenaw Narcotics Enforcement Team (LAWNET) task force
spotted the marijuana growing near a barn by the Pinckney home during a
helicopter patrol Aug. 17. Other officers on the ground then searched the
area and confiscated the plants.

But the officers went in without a warrant -- a violation of the Fourth
Amendment of the Constitution, which protects individuals from unreasonable
searches and seizures, said Chuck Kronzek, a defense attorney with the
Lansing firm of Kronzek and Cronkright.

"They flew over, saw what they believed to be pot and they go in," Kronzek
said. "They skipped the constitutional protection. They didn't care about
the search warrant."

Ypsilanti resident Scott Wardlow, 27, had faced a felony charge of of
delivery and manufacture of marijuana and a misdemeanor charge of marijuana
possession. The marijuana was growing on his parents' property on Cedar
Lake Road.

Whether prosecutors will choose to continue the prosecution is still
unclear. Livingston County Assistant Prosecutor William McCririe may appeal
Burress' decision. McCririe did not return calls for comment on the case.

In court, prosecutors argued that the officers didn't need a search warrant
to conduct the raid after seeing the marijuana plants from the helicopter.
Under state law, police can act without a warrant if evidence of criminal
activity is in plain view or in circumstances where a law officer believes
there is a danger evidence will be destroyed.

Livingston County prosecutors presented both those arguments. But Burress
ruled the arguments weren't applicable in this case.

Using the helicopter patrols is a routine summer event in the county. The
LAWNET officers participate in Operation HEMP -- short for Help Eliminate
Marijuana Planting -- Michigan's marijuana-eradication program that began
in 1983.

Last year, LAWNET conducted at least three flights and dozens of raids.

Kronzek said the failure of police to get a search warrant is a common
occurrence, even though it is a relatively easy task that involves getting
a warrant approved by a judge or magistrate.

"This (Operation HEMP) is an ongoing operation," Kronzek said. "Nobody ever
challenged it. Year after year, people are sitting in jail with criminal
convictions because nobody ever put their foot down."

In 2000, the state Court of Appeals reversed a conviction of a Traverse
City area man convicted of manufacturing marijuana stemming from a 1997
arrest because officers confiscated marijuana plants without a search
warrant after marijuana plants were spotted from a law enforcement helicopter.

LAWNET officials did not return phone calls.