STEPS ENSURE POLICE SEARCH IS WARRANTED

A properly obtained and executed search warrant can crack even the
toughest of cases, police say.

When a police officer has a strong belief physical evidence can be
found at a certain location, the officer fills out a search warrant
and presents it to a judge for approval, said Randy Nordstrom, a
detective with Jacksonville Police Department.

He and Capt. Gary Dixon detailed a home invasion where detectives had
found the firearm used in the robbery. They discovered a tiny drop of
blood in the handgrip of the pistol.

"We got a search warrant to obtain a DNA sample from our suspect,"
Dixon said.

The warrant allowed police to use a swab to take a sample from the
inside of the suspect's mouth. Forensic experts were able to show the
DNA in the blood from the firearm matched the DNA sample taken from
the suspect, which led to the suspect's conviction.

Jacksonville police detectives have used search warrants to get
everything from blood and hair samples to permission for a body cavity
search.

"You can obtain a search warrant for a body cavity search and then
have a medical professional conduct the search," Dixon said.

Onslow County Magistrate Jean Swain said she remembers signing a few
body cavity search warrants over the years. She also remembers at
least one search warrant situation where police wanted to look into
the hair of a suspect.

Probable Cause

"The most important thing a police officer can do is articulate their
probable cause so that the judge understands the basis for wanting the
search warrant," said Doug Freeman, a detective with the Onslow County
Sheriff's Department.

The Oxford Companion to American Law defines probable cause as a
reasonable belief that a crime has been committed and that a certain
person is linked to the crime.

Judges will refuse to sign search warrants if they feel police lack
probable cause.

Swain said she would not sign a search warrant to allow an
investigator to look into the bank account of a suspect because the
investigator failed to provide enough probable cause. Swain said the
only evidence the officer had was that the suspect had stolen from the
same person and pawned the items before.

"I don't blame police for fishing," Onslow County Magistrate Harold
Hall said. "They should give it a shot. It is their job to do
everything within the law to capture criminals, and it's my job to be
the checkpoint."

Fourth Amendment

The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right to
privacy for American citizens, but it also allows for law enforcement
to infringe on those rights if authorities have probable cause to
believe a crime has been or will be committed.

"A search warrant is basically giving the police permission to violate
someone's rights," Hall said. "A judge is giving them permission to go
into somewhere they normally would not be able to go."

Police can frisk a person for weapons and can search the immediate
area subsequent to an arrest without a warrant. But any other searches
would require a signed warrant.

"When a person is arrested on the highway, police can check the
immediate area the person was sitting," Hall said. "That does not
include the trunk of the car."

Police wanting to see inside the trunk of a person's car can get
permission, impound the car and conduct an inventory of everything in
it or get a search warrant, Hall said.

Fruit of Poisonous Tree

It is common sense that law enforcement officers need to be good shots
and have an observant eye, but they also need excellent grammatical
skills.

At least to get a search warrant from Swain.

"Spelling in very important on a search warrant," she said. "Street
names and places have to be spelled exactly right."

Hall said he remembers a search warrant that had the incorrect month
printed on it. The defense lawyer had the case dismissed because of
that technicality.

Jacksonville defense attorney Joe Stroud said that since a search
warrant is reviewed and approved by a neutral, detached judge, it is
rare that a defense lawyer wins an argument against it.

Stroud said he remembers winning a motion to suppress information
obtained by police after a warrantless search.

"I defended a girl who had gotten out of her car and went into a bar
downtown and then came and got back in the car," Stroud said. "Police
were watching her with binoculars and stopped her when she pulled away."

The woman was arrested for possession of cocaine and police testified
they stopped her because her behavior matched that of a drug dealer.

Stroud said he successfully argued in court that her behavior might
have been consistent with a drug deal, but it could have also been
that she went inside to give someone a message or some medication.

The presiding judge ruled the police lacked sufficient probable cause
to arrest the woman. But there may have been enough probable cause to
obtain a search warrant.

Experience Factor

Freeman said old-school detectives usually include with the search
warrant an affidavit that includes their experience and training.

"Detailing your experience adds credence to the request for a search
warrant," Freeman said. "If you have been working narcotics for 10
years and attended five schools on things like identifying drugs, then
the judge will take that into consideration if you are asking for a
warrant for drugs."

Hall said an affidavit might help persuade a judge to sign a warrant
based on the experience of the officer, but the most important thing
he looks for is that the officer be able to articulate exactly what he
needs on a search warrant.

"An officer needs to show that he has probable cause to believe what
he expects to find with a search warrant will be there," Hall said.

The Internet

Cyber search warrants are becoming more common. More crimes, including
fraud and identity theft, are being committed over the Internet,
police said.

Search warrants for a suspect's computer are now a common
occurrence.

Maj. Frank Terwilliger, chief of detectives for the Sheriff's
Department, said search warrants are limited only by the ingenuity of
the investigator.

Terwilliger said if one of his homicide detectives believes suspects
in a murder communicated about the crime via e-mail, a search warrant
can be obtained to search both suspects' computers for the e-mails.

Success Story

In 2002, the Onslow County Sheriff's Department and the Jacksonville
Police Department were investigating three brothers for drug dealing.
Detectives believed Ardell Canady and his two younger brothers, Reggie
and Charlie, were sitting at the top of the Onslow County drug market.

"We suspected they were moving a lot of weight in Onslow County," said
Sgt. Richard Baumgarner, a detective with the Sheriff's Department.

The situation was frustrating to sheriff's detectives because they
said the Canady brothers did not operate like garden-variety drug
dealers. Baumgarner compared the Canadys' drug operation to
drive-through service at a fast food restaurant.

"One brother would take your order, you would pay another one and the
other would fill the order," Baumgarner said.

The Sheriff's Department received reliable information the Canadys
were selling drugs out of a house in Maysville, he said.

"We made a controlled buy using a reliable informant and got two
search warrants for two houses the Canadys were using." Baumgarner
said.

In one of the houses, the Sheriff's Department found $250,000 in a
safe.

"We had always heard on the street the Canady brothers had a lot of
cash and drugs in a storage building but could never find it in Onslow
County," Baumgarner said. "While searching one of the houses, we found
paperwork in a car belonging to Charlie Canady for a rental storage
unit in New Bern."

Sheriff's detectives contacted the Craven County Sheriff's Department,
and deputies there took a drug-sniffing dog to the storage unit in New
Bern.

"A combination of what we had heard from informants, the paperwork in
Charlie Canady's car and the K-9 alerting to narcotics got us a search
warrant for the storage unit," Baumgarner said.

Inside was more than $600,000 in cash and assault weapons. The total
between the houses and the storage unit was $851,215, the largest
money seizure in Onslow County history.

So much money was involved, the Canady brothers were tried in Federal
Court. The brothers were sentenced to more than 20 years each in a
federal prison.

Baumgarner said search warrants played a pivotal role in busting the
Canadys.