SEARCH OF COUPLE'S HOUSE 'WITHIN LAW,' JUDGE RULES

FAYETTEVILLE -- The Texas arrest of former Alderman Stephen Miller and his
wife, Janette, was valid, and a search of their Fayetteville home was
proper, a Washington County Circuit Court judge ruled Friday. The ruling
allows the criminal drug case against the couple to proceed. They are set
for trial Feb. 11.

The pair's attorneys had asked Judge William Storey to suppress evidence
that drug agents seized from the Millers' home -- namely 7.79 pounds of
suspected marijuana, six plants, two sets of scales, bags, four rifles, a
pistol and $5,680. Their home was searched and the items seized a day after
a Texas Highway Patrol trooper arrested them on suspicion of having 3
pounds of suspected marijuana in the trunk of their rental car. At a
hearing Friday afternoon, Fayetteville lawyers Woody Bassett, who
represents Stephen Miller, and Charles Stutte, Janette Miller's counsel,
argued that the Texas arrest and search of their car were illegal.
Therefore, the search warrant obtained by drug agents to search the
Millers' 228 Mill Ave. home should also be declared illegal because it
stemmed from information from the Texas arrests.

"It's all proper and within the law," Storey commented as he denied the
motion to suppress.

Texas Highway Patrol Trooper Sharalyn Fichtl pulled the Millers over late
Oct. 22 after she clocked Stephen Miller driving 81 mph in a 70-mph zone.
Fichtl testified Friday that she became suspicious of Stephen Miller
because of his behavior. He paced, fidgeted and talked constantly, she
testified. When he learned that a criminal-history check turned up late
1960s and early 1970s charges, including drug violations, he became
defensive, the trooper said. The couple also had no luggage that the
trooper could see, even though they said they were traveling to Dallas and
would be there two days.

The defense attorneys also argued that two officers with the 4th Judicial
District Drug Task Force went onto the Millers' property before they
obtained a search warrant.

A task force sergeant testified that he did go to their house without a
search warrant as soon as Fichtl notified Fayetteville police of her arrest
the night before.

The sergeant said he called for another officer to watch the house while he
and others obtained a search warrant.

The officer called to "watch" the house said he saw marijuana plants in the
Millers' backyard garden as he looked into the yard from another person's
property. He said he was not on the Millers' property. The smell the
sergeant noticed at the back door and the plants spotted in the garden were
both items used to obtain the search warrant, in addition to information
about the Millers' arrest in Texas.