FREDERICK'S LAWYER: POLICE MAY HAVE KNOWN OF BREAK-IN

Ryan Frederick's attorney argued Monday that an audio recording suggests
police knew about an unreported break-in at his client's home just before
the ill-fated drug raid in which a detective was killed.

The burglary occurred days before police raided Frederick's home in
Portlock on Jan. 17. They had a search warrant, based on an informant's
tips about a marijuana-growing operation. Frederick is accused of killing
Detective Jarrod Shivers that night as he and other officers tried to enter.

James Broccoletti, Frederick's attorney, renewed a motion Monday in
Chesapeake Circuit Court to have the search warrant thrown out. Judge
Marjorie A.T. Arrington declined to reconsider the motion.

Broccoletti has argued the warrant - and all the evidence found under its
auspices - should be suppressed because the police informant had
burglarized Frederick's property to get drug evidence and the magistrate
who granted the warrant was never told about the police informant's role in
the break-in. Prosecutors have already acknowledged that "more than one
person, including the confidential informant in this case" had broken into
Frederick's detached garage.

Frederick, 29, has maintained that he fired twice at what he thought were
intruders breaking through his front door.

The night Frederick was arrested, he was placed in a police car and a
recorder was turned on, Broccoletti said. The recording is of Frederick
trying to tell police about an earlier break-in at his home.

A detective on the recording replied: "We know that," Broccoletti said.

At another time, the detective states: "First off, we know your house had
been broken into. OK?"

"Two separate occasions he tells the defendant that he knew the home had
been burglarized," Broccoletti argued.

The special prosecutors in the case said there is nothing whatsoever to
suggest police knew at the time who broke in or who was involved. They said
police learned months later that the parties involved included one of their
informants.

Frederick is scheduled to stand trial Jan. 20 on charges of capital murder,
use of a firearm and manufacturing marijuana. He is being held in the
Chesapeake Correctional Center.