COURT UPHOLDS WARRANTLESS SEARCH

Officers Entered Home To Aid Child, Court Rules

A Grafton's man conviction because of evidence found during a warrantless
search by Grafton police officers was upheld by the state Court of Appeals
in a decision released Wednesday.

Rick R. Rome, 30, was convicted in Ozaukee County Circuit Court in May 1999
of growing marijuana.

The central issue in the case was whether the Grafton police officers who
found the marijuana in Rome's house had a legal right to be there.

According to court documents, the incident started at 2 a.m. Dec. 1, 1998,
when Grafton officers Emmett Grissom and E.A. Sutherland saw a woman walking
and carrying a baby. Because it was a cold and blustery night, Grissom
stopped the squad car to ask the woman what was the matter.

The woman, Rome's wife, said she and her husband had had an argument and she
was walking to her brother-in-law's house.

She told the officers that she had left a 2-year-old daughter in the house
but didn't want any help from the police. Eventually, she said she was
concerned about the child because her husband was drunk and probably didn't
know the girl was in the house. She asked the officers to check on the
child.

At the house, two other officers met Grissom and Sutherland. The officers
knocked on the door and had the dispatcher call the house. There was no
response from anyone inside.

The officers found an open door and shouted in the house. There was still no
response.

The officers then went into the house and found Rome sleeping on a bed. In
that same bedroom, Sgt. Dennis Kasprzak saw a light flickering behind a
closet door.

Thinking the 2-year-old might be hiding in the closet, Kasprzak opened the
door and found a greenhouse and marijuana plants. The child was found asleep
in her bed.

Rome argued that the emergency rule that allows officers to enter a
residence without a warrant to help someone did not apply because they were
coming into the house to investigate a domestic abuse complaint.

However, there is ample precedent that says what the officers did was legal
because they wanted to help the child.

"The police entry into Rome's house and closet was justified by emergency
circumstances because the officers' primary purpose was to provide aid or
assistance to the two-year-old child," the court wrote in affirming Judge
Joseph McCormack's decision to allow Rome to be tried on the marijuana
charges. "The trial court's decision to deny Rome's suppression motion was
correct."

The appeals court recommended its decision for publication, which means it
contributes to precedent in cases involving warrantless searches.