By W.T. ECKERT
The U.S. Attorney’s office is appealing a federal judge’s ruling to suppress drug evidence seized by law enforcement during a June traffic stop near Alexandria Bay.
Talon
Swamp and Geri-Leigh Thompson, ages not available, both of Akwesasne,
are each charged in U.S. District Court, Plattsburgh, with conspiracy to
possess with the intent to distribute and to distribute controlled
substances.
The charges followed a June 16 traffic stop at a rest
area on the Jefferson County line on Route 37 where state police seized
about 55 pounds of marijuana and nearly 7 pounds of Ecstasy that were
in two hockey bags in the trunk of a white Chevy Impala operated by Ms.
Thomson where Mr. Swamp was a passenger.
Mr. Swamp and Ms.
Thompson made a motion to suppress the drugs as evidence at trial,
claiming there was no probable cause for the stop.
Following a
Nov. 29 suppression hearing at the U.S. Federal Courthouse, Utica, Judge
David N. Hurd ruled that testimony heard by U.S. Border Patrol agent
James McConnell and state police Investigator Scott Freeman were not
credible.
According to the transcripts of the hearing, Mr. Freeman
said he was given information that the white Impala had made suspicious
routes of travel into and out of the area. Mr. McConnell testified that
the Impala had a prior Border Patrol encounter involving alien
smuggling and narcotics.
Mr. McConnell testified that Ms.
Thompson violated state vehicle and traffic law when she failed to
signal within a hundred feet of her turn into the rest stop. He then
immediately notified Mr. Freeman, who was following behind him, and
informed him about the signal violation, leading to the traffic stop.
Mr.
Freeman testified that “I was not able to see the signal light or the
traffic violation … Agent McConnell was directly behind her, and I was
directly behind Agent McConnell’s Ford F-150 pick-up truck, and I
observed her abruptly turn in.”
Mr. Freeman said he didn’t know
whether her signal was on. He told the court that had he not been
advised by Mr. McConnell about the alleged infraction, he would have
“absolutely not” stopped the vehicle, and that the stop was based on his
report.
Ms. Thompson said she pulled over to let her dog relieve
itself and was uncomfortable about being tailgated by the truck, driven
by Mr. McConnell.
In his decision, rendered from the bench, Judge
Hurd said the credible testimony in this case fails to establish
reasonable suspicion to justify the initial stop on Thompson’s vehicle
that led to the drug seizure.
Mr. McConnell testified that he
based his understanding of turn signal requirements on having seen
Freeman use this violation to justify stops in the past.
Judge
Hurd ruled that Ms. Thompson’s testimony about pulling off the road to
avoid danger after Mr. McConnell’s truck had pulled to within less than
one car length of her vehicle and traveling at a speed of 55 miles per
hour, was credible.
“Further, Freeman’s testimony regarding his
basis for stopping Thompson’s vehicle is not credible,” Judge Hurd said.
“At best, Freeman saw Thompson pull into the rest stop and chose to
follow her.
But absent at least some suspicion of unlawful conduct,
there was no permissible basis on which to execute the vehicle stop he
testified to having conducted.”
“After considering the particular
facts and circumstances of this case and the fact that McConnell did not
see a violation, and the credible testimony of Defendant Thompson that
she did not violate the Vehicle and Traffic Law is accepted, and that
Freeman may be properly charged with knowing he had no lawful basis on
which to conduct his initial vehicle stop, exclusion is warranted,”
Judge Hurd ruled. “The defendants’ motion is granted. The two bags and
the contents therein are suppressed and may not be admitted at trial.”
Prosecutors filed their appeal on Dec. 23 in the U.S. District Court, Syracuse.
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