RESIDENTS ANGRY ABOUT DAMAGE AFTER SEARCH THAT DIDN'T YIELD A METH LAB

Jessica Garrison was driving on Interstate 40 Wednesday morning
heading to Greensboro to pick up her fiance when she was pulled over
by a Burlington police officer in an unmarked car.

Garrison, 23, of 918 E. Davis St., knew she wasn't speeding and didn't
know why she was pulled over. She said the officer wasn't quick to
tell her. Instead, her cell phone was taken from her, and she was
questioned. Eventually, Garrison, who was waiting on the shoulder of
the interstate with her 2-year-old daughter and pet Chow-Chow, was
told that the SBI was searching the home she rents on East Davis
Street, but she wasn't told why. Meanwhile, Burlington police
officers, who had obtained a search warrant, were breaking into her
house along with the SBI's clandestine laboratory response team. The
officers were looking for a possible methamphetamine lab or remnants
of one.

Burlington police blocked traffic on a portion of East Davis Street,
between Flanner and Anthony streets, and about 60 officers and agents
worked the scene. A small amount of marijuana and a homemade smoking
device were found but there were no signs of a meth lab in the house.

After searching for a couple of hours and securing the area,
Burlington police eventually let Garrison back into her house. By that
time, she had already seen the nine-page search warrant detailing law
enforcement's suspicions that there was a meth lab operation at the
house. It was then that she saw the gaping hole in her front door that
officers made to get into her home and clothing from her closets and
dresser drawers pulled out of place.

Garrison's photo, as well as information about her including the fact
she doesn't have a criminal record, were in the search warrant along
with information about her fiance's friend, who was staying with them
because he was "down on his luck."

The fiance, a truck driver, had met the 44-year-old friend through
work. The fiance didn't know the friend had two drug convictions in
South Dakota in the 1980s, said Garrison, who indicated the marijuana
police found belonged to the friend.

Garrison was baffled about why police were in her home. Both she and
her daughter were frightened by the experience.

"I saw all this, and I'm just freaking out," she said. Burlington
police Cpl. R.A. Henderson obtained a search warrant at 10:20 a.m.
Wednesday. Superior Court Judge Robert H. Hobgood, a visiting judge
from Franklin County, signed the warrant.

According to the warrant, Burlington police received information
earlier this week from an anonymous informant that methamphetamines
were allegedly being manufactured and sold from the house.

"The informant stated that he had observed a white male and a white
female carrying boxes of funnels, large bags, hoses, lab-type scales
and glassware from a vehicle into a trailer parked behind 918 E. Davis
St.," the warrant states. "The informant stated that he had smelled
strong odors coming from the residence and the trailer behind it over
the last month, which the informant believed to be
methamphetamine."

Burlington police Capt. Jeff Saunders said that methamphetamine labs
have a distinctive smell that's difficult to describe.

"It's so unique to someone who has a very good nose," Saunders said.
"You know it's different than a smell that's supposed to be in your
community." The informant told police there was heavy traffic coming
and going from the residence late at night and during all hours of the
day. He also observed what he thought was hand-to-hand drug
transactions, according to the warrant. Once police received the tip,
officers started doing surveillance on the house to determine whether
the information was credible. Meth labs are dangerous because of the
chemicals used to make the synthetic drug. They are extremely
flammable and the fumes also pose a great risk. The investigation
became a priority, and police moved fast once the informant's
information was verified. In order to get a search warrant, officers
needed to prove that there was "probable cause" to believe a meth lab
was at that location.

While a magistrate can sign a search warrant, police went to a
superior court judge for a signature. Officers also involved the
Alamance County District Attorney's office.

Garrison said she also smelled an odor in her neighborhood but that it
wasn't coming from her house. Her fiance and his friend did carry the
friend's belongings in boxes to a trailer parked in the back yard
behind a locked privacy fence. The funnel was used to change oil. The
fence was locked to prevent theft.

She said she frequently leaves the house at odd hours because her
fiance is a truck driver, and she takes him to work. She's lived in
the house since Jan. 1 and named the few people that have visited in
the past month. If police suspected there was a meth lab at her house,
Garrison doesn't know why they didn't just come to her door and ask to
come in. She said she would have let them in. They didn't have to
damage her door and fence. WHILE BURLINGTON has never had a confirmed
meth lab, police say they couldn't take any chances. They waited for
Garrison to leave the house with her daughter to reduce the impact on
the child.

"Folks who do the clandestine labs are not properly trained to mix
chemicals and when you apply heat, they react," Saunders said.
Sometimes the labs are booby trapped so that if police find them, they
will blow up to destroy all evidence. As a result, Burlington police
had contingency plans to evacuate an area around East Davis Street
that would have included up to 80 homes.

"You don't know what you are going to encounter when you get there,"
Saunders said. "We put a plan in place to protect us as well as people
in the community. ... Had we been met with resistance, then all of a
sudden we would have to deal with a catastrophic event."

Police didn't find a meth lab, and no one has been charged with any
crime. Garrison said she feels violated. She wants to know if the
police department is going to fix her door and her fence.

"If they didn't find anything, I think we deserve an apology," she
said. The police department has reviewed the case - the information
officers received, the action taken as a result, what was found and
what was learned from the experience. Despite the fact that a meth lab
wasn't found, Burlington police officials are confident the department
made the right decision. The department doesn't plan to apologize to
Garrison and since officers didn't go to the wrong house or make any
"glaring mistakes" in this case, the department isn't liable for any
damages caused by breaking into the house to do the search, said
Burlington police Assistant Chief Greg Seel. "Based on the case facts
and based on the scenarios we were presented, we reacted to the
situation we had properly," Seel said.