United States v. Van Damme

823 F. Supp. 1552, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8247, 1993 WL 215391
CourtDistrict Court, D. Montana
DecidedMarch 15, 1993
DocketNo. CR 92-36-M-CCL
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 823 F. Supp. 1552 (United States v. Van Damme) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Montana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Van Damme, 823 F. Supp. 1552, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8247, 1993 WL 215391 (D. Mont. 1993).

Opinion

[1555]*1555OPINION AND ORDER

LOVELL, District Judge.

This matter came on regularly for hearing on Defendant John Louis Van Damme’s motion to suppress all evidence seized pursuant to a search warrant issued by the magistrate on September 10, 1992. Law enforcement officers searched Defendant’s property September 11,1992, pursuant to the warrant and seized 2,333 growing marijuana plants.

Defendant appeared personally and was represented at the hearing by Terry Wallace of Missoula, and the United States by Assistant United States Attorney Bernard F. Hubley. At the close of the hearing, Defendant’s counsel requested leave of the court to file further briefing, and the court ordered both sides to file briefs within ten days. That briefing has been completed. After hearing the testimony presented at the hearing, reviewing the exhibits provided by the parties, and considering the arguments raised in the parties’ memoranda, the court is prepared to rule.

This case began on September 7, 1992, when a Missoula County Sheriffs Deputy received information from a citizen informant who had observed what the informant believed to be marijuana growing in a greenhouse on Defendant’s property in the Potomac area of Missoula County, Montana. Officers from the Missoula County Drug Unit contacted the citizen informant to obtain further information concerning the location of the property. The officers were told that the informant had seen a water line running to the property from a well on adjacent property. The informant had gone onto the property to inquire about Van Damme’s permission to use the well and while there observed plants growing in a greenhouse inside a fenced enclosure. The informant described the plants seen as three to four feet in height with long, fan-shaped groups of leaves that narrowed on the end. The informant asserted a familiarity with the appearance of marijuana plants based on public service advertisements on television and posters.

Based upon this information, Detectives Lewis and Peterson of the Missoula County Sheriffs Office proceeded to the area identified by the citizen informant and confirmed the location and description of the property. No marijuana was observed by the detectives at this time. The detectives confirmed through tax and property records that Van Damme was the owner of the property. On September 9, 1992, Detective Lewis caused a National Guard helicopter to fly over the Van Damme property for the purpose of photographing the premises. The helicopter conducted two separate fly-overs approximately 45 minutes apart. There was conflicting testimony presented at the hearing concerning the altitude of the helicopter during its passes. Defendant testified that he believed the helicopter flew at an altitude of approximately 200 feet. This estimation was based on Defendant’s knowledge of the height of the trees in the vicinity.

Detective Lewis testified that he did not know the exact altitude of the helicopter because he was not looking at the altimeter but that he was sure it was over 500 feet. He based his testimony on his experience with helicopter overflights as well as his instructions to the pilot to fly at an altitude of over 500 feet. Additionally, Detective Lewis testified that the pilot assured him the helicopter was above 500 feet as they approached the Van Damme property.

.Defendant called Robert Boiler, a geographic systems consultant, as a rebuttal witness. Boiler testified that the helicopter flyovers were at altitudes of 210 feet and 310 feet. This opinion testimony was based on Boiler’s purported expertise in the field of photogrammetry and calculations he had run on a computer using a space resection program. Photogrammetry was described as the process of taking measurements from aerial photographs primarily for the purpose of making maps. Space resection computer programs are used to assist photogramme-trists in determining the elevation of a camera platform. Before running the program, Boiler analyzed the photographs taken from the National Guard helicopter and took measurements on the Van Damme property. Boiler then ran the space resection program using the data he had assembled to generate the pictorial printouts and the altitude determinations of 210 feet and 310 feet.

[1556]*1556Boiler did not state what measurements were taken from the Van Damme property or explain how those measurements were used in the space resection program to arrive at the results. When asked to explain the mathematical basis of the calculations involved in the resection program, Boiler stated that the computer uses:

various things like the law of cosines and stuff and subtracting your differences in X, your differences in Y, and differences in Z, you can get all those — compute all those angles. It’s like — It’s the Pythagorean Theorem with three dimensional data, X squared plus Y squared plus Z squared, that thing, the square root of that gives you the distance and then the angle is computed by the sine of the angle.”

Boiler: Tr. SHP p. 127.

While computing the altitude of a camera on the basis of the photographs it takes may be scientifically possible, the facts used to calculate his measurements, how the measurements were applied, and what the resection program does with the data was insufficiently established.

Considering all the testimony presented at the hearing, the court finds that the National Guard helicopter in which Detective Lewis was a passenger flew within navigable airspace at an altitude of 500 feet or more during both passes over the property.

On both passes, the helicopter skirted the western boundary of the Van Damme property as it flew south, and, after turning onto an eastward course, the helicopter passed to the south of the residential area. At no time did the helicopter fly directly above the Van Damme residence.

Detective Lewis observed the property through the viewfinder of a camera with a 600mm lens and took several photographs. He observed three plastic quonset-style greenhouses enclosed within a wooden perimeter fence. The greenhouse compound was not covered. The front doors of all three greenhouses were open. No other buildings were inside the greenhouse compound. Through the open doors, Lewis observed marijuana growing in the greenhouses.

At approximately 1:10 a.m. on September' 10, 1992, Detective Lewis and DEA Agent Gale Williams entered onto the Van Damme property by crossing a partial barbed wire fence on the northern property boundary. The sky on this night was clear and the moon was nearly full. Williams and Lewis proceeded southward across the property to a five foot hogwire fence which they climbed over. They then proceeded still southward for approximately 100 feet until they reached the back of the wooden stockade fence surrounding the greenhouses. The stockade fence was approximately 12 feet in height. Williams and Lewis were able to see through the spaces between the boards in the stockade fence and observed what they recognized as marijuana growing in the greenhouses. The rear doors of all three greenhouses were open. They did not climb the stockade fence or enter the area surrounded by the stockade fence. The front of the stockade fence is approximately 204 feet from the Van Damme residence. The length of the stockade fence from front to back is approximately 100 feet. Therefore, the agents were approximately 300 feet from the residence at the time they observed what they believed to be marijuana.

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Related

United States v. John Louis Van Damme
48 F.3d 461 (Ninth Circuit, 1995)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
823 F. Supp. 1552, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8247, 1993 WL 215391, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-van-damme-mtd-1993.