The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

August 9, 2012

Garbage can could be key to case against ex-principal

By Joy Leiker Herald Staff Writer

LAKEVIEW AREA — The case against a former high school principal accused of serving beer to students at her home last summer may boil down to the location of a trash can.

Former Lakeview High School Principal Elizabeth A. Auer, 47, of 957 Schrader Road, Fairview Township, is awaiting trial on two counts of providing alcohol to minors. Wednesday afternoon she appeared in Mercer County Common Pleas court alongside her attorney, Robert Varsek, Oil City, as he sought to suppress evidence from the case – seven beer cans found in a trash can on Auer’s property.

The argument isn’t whether the cans were or weren’t there, but whether the state police trooper had the right to look for, or “search” for them inside the trash can.

The underage men who told police they had been drinking at Auer’s home on July 11, 2011, told the trooper they had thrown one beer can out of their vehicle while driving on Palmer Road, and put the others they drank inside a trash can at Auer’s home.

The trooper found what he believed to be the beer can the young men tossed alongside the road the next day. He went to Auer’s home after that, and though she wasn’t home, he looked in the trash can near her home and found more beer cans. He noted the code printed on the cans in the trash appeared to match the code on the can found by the road.

Varsek noted previous cases have established that when a person moves trash to the curb for collection, that person waives the right to privacy. But Varsek said he didn’t think Auer gave up her right to privacy in this case, as the trooper said the trash can was next to her Auer’s home – as opposed to the end of her driveway.

Varsek said he considered “the search unreasonable.” The attorney noted Auer had no knowledge of the search, hadn’t consented to a search and the trooper didn’t have a search warrant.

Judge Robert G. Yeatts asked Assistant District Attorney Cyndi Gilkey if it was the state’s opinion that a person’s right to privacy ended once an item was placed in the trash. Gilkey said yes, though she acknowledged she wasn’t aware of other court rulings to back up that position.

Yeatts said he had done a quick search for a case to back up that position prior to Wednesday’s hearing, but hadn’t immediately found anything.

Still, he gave both lawyers five days to submit to him cases that support their positions. He did not rule on the issue during the 30-minute hearing Wednesday. Yeatts also granted the defense a continuance of the case, pushing it onto the September court calendar.

Auer was placed on paid administrative leave once the criminal charges were filed against her in January, and this summer the Lakeview School District severed ties with her. Monday night the Lakeview school board hired her replacement.

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