JUDGE RULES SEARCH LAWFUL IN FATAL SHOOTING

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- A judge has ruled that police were conducting a
legal search of a suspected marijuana growing operation when an
officer was killed in a shootout last January.

Prosecutors said that police broke down a door because Steven Dons
started burning marijuana plants that could be used as evidence. Dons
fired an assault rifle, killing Officer Colleen Waibel and seriously
wounding Officer Kim Keist. Sgt. Jim Hudson suffered a minor wound.

Dons was paralyzed from the waist down in the gunfire and killed
himself in his Justice Center jail cell a month later.

Dons' roommate, Jeffrey Moore, 45, was scheduled for trial Tuesday on
drug and child endangerment charges. He allegedly allowed his two
children, then 7 and 9, to be near drugs, guns and ammunition in the
house during a visit.

An attorney for Moore, who rented the house, tried to have evidence
thrown out, saying officers left out critical information when they
sought a search warrant. But Multnomah County Circuit Judge Linda
Bergman ruled Monday the omissions were not intentional or material.

Police say the ruling vindicates their actions that day and their use
of "knock-and-talks," a technique to obtain owner's consent to search
a property or establish probable cause for a search warrant of
suspected marijuana grow operations.

During the raid, Moore was at Mount Hood Community College, where he
worked as a computer network specialist.

Meanwhile, Keist, who has been on leave since the shooting, returned
to work Monday in the Drugs and Vice Division.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry