The Wichita Eagle - Local & State - Section D - Tuesday, May 18, 1993 - Faulty Search Warrant Kills Marijuana Case by Gail Randall

Picture of Debby Moore - caption Moore, Marijuana legalization activists had planned to base her defense on the fact that she paid for marijuana tax stamps.

Faulty Search Warrant Kills Marijuana Case

Wichita Police narcotics officers watched their case against Debora Moore - known as the hemp lady go up in smoke Monday.

A district judge ruled that police misled a judge into signing a search warrant for Moore’s residence.

“This is a warrant that, at the very least, does not show probable cause, and at the very most, is a general warrant,” said chief criminal Judge Paul Clark.

As a result, Clark said, none of the fruits of the police raid in November - including 14 pounds of marijuana - can be used against Moore in court.

“She’s free,” said Moore’s lawyer Charles O’Hara as Moore hugged supporters.

“I’m a happy girl,” said Moore, a 45-year old seamstress who had been set to go on trial this week on felony marijuana possession charges.

“The judge can say what a judge wants to say,” said police Capt. Ron West, who supervises the narcotics and vice squad: “I don’t know if there was a screw-up. I’ll have to talk to the district attorney’s office.”

The DA’s office has not yet decided whether it will appeal the ruling. Presumably Clark’s decision also rules out any prosecution of Moore’s 16-year-old daughter, who was charged with marijuana possession in juvenile court. Assistant District Attorney Mona First - citing the privacy of juvenile proceedings - declined to discuss it.

Had Moore gone to trial, she planned to put on an unusual defense that because she purchased marijuana tax stamps required by law, she was exempted from laws prohibiting its sale.

Now, O’Hara is advising Moore to steer clear of controversial activities.

“My advice to her is to take her political point of view and put it out to the people and be heard and not get involved in any more allegedly illegal activity,” O’Hara said.

After listening to several hours of testimony about the raid during a pretrial hearing Clark found that:

· Despite police surveillance of Moore’s East Second Street duplex, police listed the wrong address on the search warrant. · When they realized their mistake, they did not tell Judge David Dewey, who had authorized the search. Nor did they try to correct the warrant. Instead, they searched the whole building. · Although the officers told Dewey that they had previously bought marijuana inside Moore’s building, they didn’t say it happened in a stairway shared by four apartments - not in Moore’s home as their sworn affidavit implied. · Clark also said police were wrong when they seized dozens of books, stickers, smocks, banners, and patches from Moore’s hemp products shop. Officers contended that the products qualified as drug paraphernalia.

But Clark disagreed. Whether a sticker says “American Voter” or “Legalize Marijuana,” he said, it is constitutionally protected opinion, not drug paraphernalia. “It has noting to do with the case.”

O’Hara had asked Clark to suppress all the evidence seized during a 51/2 hour raid on Moore’s home and shop that “left the place in shambles.”

O’Hara argued that police intentionally withheld information which could have caused the judge to frown on the search if he had known.