COURT HEARS DRUG CASE OF MAN KEPT OUT OF HOME

Washington --- Charles McArthur admits that given the chance, he would have
flushed the drugs down the toilet before police could find the stash under
his couch.

What brought his arrest on minor drug charges to the Supreme Court on
Wednesday was the way police made sure McArthur never got that opportunity:
They kept him outside his own house while they got a search warrant.

The justices will decide if that was an unreasonable search and seizure
under the Constitution, or whether, as the police claim, it was an
efficient and humane way to preserve evidence of a crime. A decision is
expected by summer.

Several justices pressed McArthur's lawyer to say what police did wrong,
with Justice Stephen Breyer even suggesting the arresting officer might
deserve a medal for patience.

"Why isn't what he did a good thing?" Breyer asked.

The case began three years ago in Sullivan, Ill., when McArthur's estranged
wife arranged for police to wait outside the couple's trailer while she
moved out. As she left, she told the officers she had just seen her husband
hide marijuana under a couch.

Sullivan Deputy Police Chief John Love knocked on the trailer door, told
McArthur about the accusation and requested permission to search. McArthur
came outside and denied he had drugs inside, but he refused to allow police
inside without a warrant.

"If I were a police officer, I would think, 'He's going to turn right
around and flush it down the toilet,' " if left alone, Breyer said
Wednesday.

Yet the officer did not arrest McArthur immediately and did not go in
without a warrant. Instead, the two men waited together outside McArthur's
trailer for about two hours, except for chaperoned visits inside so
McArthur could use the phone and fetch his cigarettes.

McArthur was arrested as soon as police went inside and found the drugs
right where McArthur's wife said they would be.

He fought the misdemeanor charge of possessing less than 2.5 grams of
marijuana and drug paraphernalia, and lower courts agreed with him. He also
testified after his arrest that he would have gotten rid of the drugs as
soon as he got the chance.

McArthur's lawyer, Deanne Jones, agreed police were in a bind but said,
essentially, tough luck.

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

The court already has 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 grow lamps in his garage.