The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

November 8, 2009

Defense says search in parcel post pot case was illegal

UPS workers opened package before cops, lawyer says

By Joe Pinchot

FARRELL — A Youngstown man charged with having up to 10 pounds of marijuana delivered to a Farrell home has asked a judge to suppress evidence in the case.

Jayson T.J. White, 33, of Youngstown, was charged by state police with possession of marijuana, possession with intent to deliver and possession of drug paraphernalia.

White’s attorney, Assistant Mercer County Public Defender Charles F. Gilchrest, argued that United Parcel Service employees and state police illegally opened the package that contained the pot.

Police said they were called Jan. 16 by UPS employees, who detected a package they believed contained drugs at their center in Wilmington Township, Lawrence County.

Gilchrest said UPS employees were acting as government agents when they opened the package and found the pot, making the opening an illegal search of private property.

State police obtained a search warrant, opened the package and found five bags of marijuana, each one containing 1è to 2 pounds, police said. The package was addressed to 410 French St., Farrell, and the return address was from Fort Worth, Texas, police said.

Gilchrest argued police did not present sufficient facts to a Lawrence County district judge to establish for the warrant that there might be drugs inside, or list what police thought they might find. The affidavit also contained allegations that were the fruit of the illegal UPS search, he said.

Police said they sealed the package and obtained an anticipatory search warrant. They delivered the package to French Street, placed it on a railing, and walked away. A woman who answered the knock took it inside. After waiting a few minutes, police entered the home and detained the woman, police said. She told police White had asked her to accept the package. She declined, but he had it sent anyway, police said.

Working with police, the woman called White and told him the package had arrived, and he and another man were dropped off at her home at 3:30 p.m., police said.

Police hiding in the house waited until they could hear the package being opened before they arrested White, they said.

“He said, ‘Hey, this stuff’s all mine. They had nothing to do with it,’” testified trooper Jeffrey Brautigam at a February preliminary hearing.

Gilchrest argued the anticipatory search warrant was illegally obtained, because police did not include the fact that UPS employees had initially searched the package in an affidavit. Police also did not sufficiently specify the people or things to be searched or seized at 410 French, Gilchrest said.

Gilchrest is seeking to have physical evidence and White’s statements excluded from trial.

Mercer County Common Pleas Court Judge Christopher J. St. John has set a 10 a.m. Dec. 9 hearing on the suppression motion.

White is free on bond.

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