VAN SEARCH EXCEEDED LEGAL LIMITS

A man arrested in Robeson County with about 22 pounds of cocaine
could go free because the N.C. Court of Appeals ruled the search of
his van was illegal.

Under the ruling, the court said that someone who gives an officer
permission to search a vehicle is not granting the authority to take
it apart in the hunt for drugs.

According to the court ruling, Tony Simmons Johnson was pulled over
by Robeson County detective Steven Lovin on Aug. 13, 2003, when Lovin
noticed that his Plymouth van's license plate was partly obscured.

Lovin wrote Johnson a warning ticket and asked if he could search the
vehicle. Johnson told him "Yeah," the record says.

Lovin and Deputy James Hunt searched the van. No drugs were in plain
view. But Hunt partly disassembled the van and found the cocaine
hidden inside the wall between the interior trim and the sheet metal.

Johnson's lawyer, Hubert N. Rogers, tried to block the cocaine from
being presented as evidence. The judge ruled against him, so Johnson
pleaded guilty to trafficking in cocaine. Superior Court Judge Frank
Floyd sentenced him to serve at least 14 years, seven months.

The Court of Appeals, citing previous cases, said that when a driver
gives an officer permission to search his car, the search can be
thorough, but it's unreasonable for that search to include taking
apart the car.

The search was unconstitutional, the Court of Appeals found, and the
cocaine should have been kept out of the trial.

Without the cocaine, there is little evidence against Johnson, Rogers
said. Johnson likely will go free, he said.

Johnson had a co-defendant, Clegon Rose, who was a passenger. He
received the same sentence as Johnson. Rose's case is still under
appeal. Rogers thinks he, too, likely will go free.

In another matter, the Court of Appeals ordered a new trial in a rape case.

Tony Lamont Frink was charged with the statutory rape of a
13-year-old girl in June 2003. He was 24 at the time, according to
the court record.

Frink pleaded guilty in October 2004 in Harnett County Superior Court
to attempted second-degree rape. Superior Court Judge Clarence Horton
Jr. sentenced Frink to at least seven years, 10 months.

The Court of Appeals rejected his plea.

Attempted second-degree rape is not an appropriate charge, the court
said, because second-degree rape involves using force to have sex
with an unwilling person, having sex with a person who is helpless,
or having sex with a person who is incapacitated. The facts behind a
statutory rape case do not fit this description, the court said.

The Court of Appeals sent the case back to Harnett County Superior Court.