Marijuana-stuffed suitcase can't be used as evidence in Cumberland County drug case, court says

By Matt Miller

Prosecutors can't use a suitcase stuffed with 3 pounds of marijuana as evidence in a Cumberland County drug case because it wasn't legally discovered during a police raid, a state court has ruled.

The Superior Court decision issued this week snuffs out a bid by the district attorney's office to use the pot-filled luggage to prosecute Rashawn Collier, who was arrested in June 2012 during a fugitive hunt.

According to court filings, Collier, 34, of Harrisburg, was apprehended in an apartment in the 100 block of West Keller Street in Mechanicsburg that was rented by his girlfriend, Shanika Davis, who was on federal probation.
One officer found the marijuana when he opened the suitcase during a "protective sweep" of the apartment without first securing a search warrant and before any officers asked Davis for permission to search her home. Before the suit case was opened, other drug material was found lying in plain view, investigators said.
Only two hours after the marijuana was found did police secure Davis' permission for a consent search, according to court records.

The Superior Court's ruling marks the second defeat for prosecutors in their attempt to use the marijuana stash against Collier in court. Last year, county Judge Edward E. Guido blocked the use of the pot as evidence after concluding that Davis' belated consent to a search of her home wasn't actually given voluntarily.
The state court weighed in on the matter when prosecutors appealed Guido's ruling. They argued that, although the pot was first found without a warrant, it would have been located anyway in the subsequent search they claimed Davis voluntarily authorized.

In an opinion upholding Guido's decision, Superior Court Judge Judith Ference Olson agreed that Davis' consent to a search was not given willingly after officers "stormed her residence."
"These were very coercive circumstances," Olson wrote. "We agree…that a reasonable person would not have felt free to decline the officer's request to search her residence."
"The fact that there was evidence of illegal activity occurring at the residence meant that Davis would have been less likely to give voluntary consent," she added.

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