United States v. Viers

637 F. Supp. 1343, 1986 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26429
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Kentucky
DecidedApril 22, 1986
DocketCrim. A. CR 85-00121-L(A)
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 637 F. Supp. 1343 (United States v. Viers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Viers, 637 F. Supp. 1343, 1986 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26429 (W.D. Ky. 1986).

Opinion

FINDINGS OF FACT, CONCLUSIONS OF LAW AND MEMORANDUM OPINION

ALLEN, Chief Judge.

This action is submitted to the Court on the motion of Defendants (1) to suppress evidence obtained from a warrantless search on September 2, 1985, (2) a search pursuant to a search warrant issued on *1346 September 2, 1985 by the District Court of Bullitt County, and (3) a search pursuant to two seizure warrants issued by the Honorable Thomas A. Ballantine, Jr., United States District Judge for the Western District of Kentucky on October 7, 1985.

On September 2, 1985 the state court search warrant was issued on behalf of an affidavit executed by Detective Robbie Poppelwell stating:

On the 2nd day of September, 1985 at approximately 8:00 p.m., affiant received information observed: Wathen Viers enter into a marihuana patch while armed with a shotgun, said patch located adjacent to his property. Affiant has kept this field under surveillance for more than three weeks. Said field has been cultivated and topped in places. Affiant has observed the marihuana from the air & there appears to be lk to 1 acre. Air surveillance shows a wagon road leading from the patch to Viers home. Affiant has smelled burning marihuana coming from a red frame outbuilding.

The search warrant authorized the search of a mobile home used as a residence by Wathen Viers, the building adjacent to his home, a 1971 Chevrolet pickup, a 1973 Chevrolet automobile, and a 1983 Buick, together with marijuana plants, seeds, processing equipment, and related drug paraphernalia.

The record does not disclose any information as to what property was seized pursuant to the Bullitt County search warrant. Therefore, the Court can only enter an order that, in the abstract, will either grant the motion to suppress or overrule it. For the reasons set out below, we will overrule the motion to suppress the Bullitt County search warrant, but will sustain in large part the motion made to suppress the evidence seized as a result of the search warrants issued by Judge Ballantine.

The testimony produced at the evidentiary hearing revealed that Poppelwell did not observe Viers entering either of the two marijuana patches that were located on the property of a person named Baldes who is a resident of Louisville and whose property adjoins the property of Viers. Instead, Detective Poppelwell saw Viers on Viers’s own property with a shotgun heading in the direction of the property line. At that juncture, Poppelwell, who was on the property of Baldes with Agent Hammonds, shouted at Viers, told him to freeze, and announced that state police were present. After that warning did not have the desired effect, Poppelwell yelled another warning, at which time Viers fled towards an outbuilding located on his property. Poppelwell and Hammonds then pursued Viers to the building and shortly thereafter arrested Viers.

The weight of the testimony was to the effect that there were two marijuana patches on the Baldes’s property, one that was approximately fifteen to twenty yards from the property line of Baldes and Viers. The second marijuana patch on the Baldes property was approximately 300 yards from the Baldes-Viers property line. The marijuana patches were encircled by mono-filament fishing line and warning devices. In addition, there was a chair, a cooler, and clothing located on Baldes property indicating that the person who was growing the marijuana probably used such equipment. The field, however, was not located on Defendant’s property, nor was there evidence that Viers owned the devices used to warn of intrusion. Thus, the portion of the affidavit that states that the affiant saw Viers entering the marijuana patch is false and must be stricken.

The affidavit is somewhat misleading and inaccurate in that it states that affiant had kept the marijuana field under surveillance for more than three weeks. The truth of the matter is that the affiant and other state law enforcement officers had been at the site on three occasions during a period of sixteen days. In this regard, Defendant argues that this is a false statement under the Franks decision. We do not find, however, that this is a false statement. An accurate statement would not have changed the general theme of the affidavit that over a period of time the affiant had observed the marijuana patch in question.

*1347 As to the statement that affiant had observed the marijuana patch from the air, that was patently inaccurate. More serious than that was the misstatement made to the effect that air surveillance showed a wagon road leading from the patch to Viers home. The great weight of the evidence was that the wagon road led from the Viers home to the Viers-Baldes property line. There was no wagon road on the Baldes property and we believe that the statements relative to the wagon road were made with reckless disregard for the truth and therefore should be excised.

Defendant also contends that the statement that the marijuana patch was located adjacent to Viers’s property was false. However, Webster’s New International Dictionary, 32 (2d ed. 1955), defines adjacent as meaning “lying near, close or contiguous.” The dictionary also states that objects are adjacent when they lie close to each other but not necessarily in actual contact, as adjacent fields or villages. It is apparent from this definition that the word adjacent does not necessarily mean contiguous as the Defendants contend and hence, the affidavit, in this regard, is not false.

In Franks v. Delaware, 438 U.S. 154, 98 S.Ct. 2674, 57 L.Ed.2d 667 (1978), the Supreme Court held that if an affidavit, resulting in the issuance of a search warrant, is knowingly false or is executed in reckless disregard of the truth and where, with the affidavit’s false material set aside, the remaining content of the affidavit is insufficient to establish probable cause, the search warrant must be voided and the fruits of the search excluded to the same extent as if probable cause was lacking on the face of the affidavit. Id. at 156, 98 S.Ct. at 2676.

In the case of United States v. Ciammitti, 720 F.2d 927, 931-32 (6th Cir.1983), the affidavit that the Defendant sought to suppress stated that agents observed the Defendant obtain chemical and laboratory equipment from a Columbus, Ohio establishment that could be used to manufacture controlled substances. One agent also stated in the affidavit that he observed a person believed to be an employee of the chemical supply firm deliver chemicals and laboratory equipment to the Defendant. Id. at 931. In addition he stated that he observed the Defendant load certain chemicals in an automobile previously seen at the defendant’s residence. Id. The Defendants contended that the agent did not observe any chemicals or equipment as the chemicals and equipment were enclosed in cartons. Id. The agent, however, testified that he observed the chemicals and knew from conversations with the head of the chemical company that they were to be delivered to the appellants. Id.

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

Related

United States v. Pierce
107 F. Supp. 2d 126 (D. Massachusetts, 2000)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
637 F. Supp. 1343, 1986 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26429, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-viers-kywd-1986.