State v. Ford

276 N.W.2d 178, 1979 Minn. LEXIS 1403
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedFebruary 16, 1979
Docket47687
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 276 N.W.2d 178 (State v. Ford) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Ford, 276 N.W.2d 178, 1979 Minn. LEXIS 1403 (Mich. 1979).

Opinions

ROGOSHESKE, Justice.

Defendant was found guilty by a district court jury of two counts of unlawful possession of heroin and was sentenced to a maximum term of 5 years in prison. The main [180]*180issues on this appeal from judgment are whether the court erred in refusing to order the prosecution to produce a government informant as a witness and whether the court properly handled a number of issues relating to the defense of entrapment and a claimed due-process violation. We affirm.

On August 24, 1976, an officer of the narcotics division of the Minneapolis Police Department obtained a warrant to search the apartment and persons of defendant and Patti Blomlie for heroin and related items. The affidavit accompanying the application for the warrant stated that the affiant had learned from Agent Kryger of the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration that one of his informants, who had previously .provided information which had led to convictions, had been on the premises sometime within the previous 72 hours and had seen defendant and Blomlie in possession of the heroin.

After obtaining the warrant, Minneapolis police officers went to the apartment and executed the warrant. In defendant’s pockets the officers found $345 in cash and an empty cigarette package containing a gram of powder wrapped in tinfoil. Laboratory analysis would later reveal that this powder contained heroin.

Defendant at first accused the police of bringing the powder with them, but then he changed his approach and told the officers that he would do anything, including become an informant, in order to avoid going to jail and having his parole revoked. The officers told defendant that they had to arrest him and take him to jail but that if he cooperated, they would put in a good word for him.

The officers then proceeded with the search and, as they were searching in a bedroom, defendant said that there was a ¼ ounce of heroin in a pill bottle in one of the drawers. Actually, the officers found two pill bottles containing a number of foil packs of heroin. The largest foil pack contained 6 grams of a hard powdered substance containing heroin. A second pack weighed 1½ grams. In addition there were four smaller packs. The state’s chemist would later testify at trial under cross-examination by defense counsel that she believed all of the heroin, including that found in defendant’s pockets, came from the same source.

Defense counsel opened the omnibus hearing by arguing that there was an illegal search and seizure and that this would become apparent if the court would order the state to produce as a witness one John Erickson, whom the defense could not locate. The defense, on the basis of testimony by defendant, contended specifically that Erickson was the unnamed informant referred to in the affidavit and that earlier on the 24th he had supplied defendant with the heroin found in defendant’s pocket, telling defendant to hold it for a few hours as security for a debt which defendant had told him to repay later that afternoon. The defense argued that, this being so, suppression of all of the evidence was required, otherwise the police could simply give an informant a list of suspected drug users, have him deliver drugs to these people, and then use that as a basis for obtaining warrants to search for those drugs and other drugs. Defense counsel said that if the case went to trial he would be claiming entrapment as to the heroin found on defendant’s person and lack of constructive possession as to the heroin in the drawer, but that for purposes of the pretrial motion he was arguing that suppression was required because of what he termed “outrageous governmental conduct.’’

The state, which at no time throughout these proceedings has either admitted or denied that Erickson was the informer or that he did the things alleged by the defendant, opposed the motion to suppress, saying that defendant was entitled to suppression only if he could show material false statements in the affidavit, and that he had not done this.

The court then hinted to defense counsel that he had not made a sufficient showing to require production of the informant, and so defense counsel called two more witnesses, Ms. Blomlie and her daughter, and recalled defendant. Chantel Blomlie, the [181]*181daughter, testified that sometime before defendant’s arrest an “ugly black girl” knocked on the door and gave her a plastic bag with tinfoil over it, and she in turn gave it to her mother. Her mother testified that this happened the day before defendant’s arrest and that the bag contained what she assumed was a chunk of heroin. She testified that she put it in the drawer by the bed and told defendant about it that night. She testified that they first thought the package came from a friend of defendant’s who lived in Kansas City, but that later, after defendant’s arrest, they decided that it must have come from someone connected with Erickson. At the conclusion of this testimony the defense rested and the court took the motion under advisement.

Thereafter the defense filed a new motion and a memorandum claiming that the prosecution should be dismissed or the evidence suppressed because of what defendant contended was entrapment as a matter of law or a due-process violation. In a memorandum submitted in support of this second motion defense counsel argued that under State v. Grilli, 304 Minn. 80, 230 N.W.2d 445 (1975), when a trial court decides the issue of entrapment as a matter of law, the court should not consider the matter of predisposition, only whether the police conduct was outrageous. He then argued that in view of the state’s failure to produce any witnesses to refute defendant’s testimony the court was obliged to believe defendant’s testimony and hold that there was outrageous governmental conduct amounting to entrapment as a matter of law. He added that it wasn’t enough to bar prosecution of defendant for the possession of the heroin in his pocket but that the court also had to suppress the other heroin found in the apartment because police should not be able to provide a person with drugs and then use that as a basis for obtaining a search warrant.

The state in its two reply memoranda opposed an order requiring it to produce the informant and reemphasized that it felt defendant had to show a material falsehood in order to void the search warrant. With respect to the entrapment claim the state disputed what it believed was defendant’s contention that under Grilli a different test applies when the court decides the entrapment issue. The state submitted that by defendant’s own testimony all Erickson had done was provide defendant with the opportunity to illegally possess marijuana and that this was not entrapment.

At a reopened omnibus hearing the court asked defense counsel whether or not he wanted to preserve the entrapment issue for trial. Defense counsel replied that he was submitting the entrapment issue to the court for decision and that he was aware that under Grilli once he submitted the issue to the court for decision as a matter of law, he could not raise it again at trial. However, counsel stated that if the court ruled that there was no entrapment, he intended to assert at trial that he had a right to have the jury decide the entrapment issue and that if Grilli denied him that right, then Grilli was unconstitutional. Counsel for the state responded that Grilli required a specific waiver on the record and that he believed that had been done by defense counsel.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State of Minnesota v. Diego Hernan Suqui-Carchipulla
Court of Appeals of Minnesota, 2017
State of Minnesota v. Ricky Marcel Roberson
Court of Appeals of Minnesota, 2015
State v. Christenson
827 N.W.2d 436 (Court of Appeals of Minnesota, 2012)
State v. Kuhlmann
806 N.W.2d 844 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 2011)
State v. Fitzpatrick
690 N.W.2d 387 (Court of Appeals of Minnesota, 2004)
State v. Halseth
653 N.W.2d 782 (Court of Appeals of Minnesota, 2002)
State v. Oanes
543 N.W.2d 658 (Court of Appeals of Minnesota, 1996)
State v. Balduc
514 N.W.2d 607 (Court of Appeals of Minnesota, 1994)
State v. Johnson
511 N.W.2d 753 (Court of Appeals of Minnesota, 1994)
In Re the Welfare of G.D.
473 N.W.2d 878 (Court of Appeals of Minnesota, 1991)
Commonwealth v. Weiskerger
554 A.2d 10 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1989)
State, City of Tracy v. Neuman
392 N.W.2d 706 (Court of Appeals of Minnesota, 1986)
State v. Sandmoen
390 N.W.2d 419 (Court of Appeals of Minnesota, 1986)
State v. Olson
361 N.W.2d 899 (Court of Appeals of Minnesota, 1985)
State v. Vaughn
361 N.W.2d 54 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1985)
State v. Abraham
335 N.W.2d 745 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1983)
Bailey v. People
630 P.2d 1062 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1981)
State v. Crist
281 N.W.2d 657 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1979)
State v. Folk
278 N.W.2d 410 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 1979)
State v. Ford
276 N.W.2d 178 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1979)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
276 N.W.2d 178, 1979 Minn. LEXIS 1403, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-ford-minn-1979.