TOPEKA, Kan. — The Kansas Supreme Court ruled Friday that Reno County District Judge Trish Rose was wrong to suppress drug evidence discovered in an automobile while executing a search warrant issued by another judge.
The court held the drug evidence could be used in Jeremy Zwickl’s criminal prosecution because officers were acting in objectively reasonable reliance on the search warrant.
The case resulted from a criminal investigation by the sheriff’s office into Zwickl’s suspected sale of marijuana over a period of time. The investigation included the use of confidential informants and surveillance both using a GPS device on Zwickl’s automobile and physical tailing of Zwickl to Colorado, where it was suspected he would periodically purchase marijuana for resale. Three pounds of marijuana were discovered in the vehicle during the execution of the search warrant after the Colorado surveillance.
Reno County District Judge Trish Rose ordered the drug evidence suppressed because she determined the search warrant, approved by another judge, was not properly supported by probable cause and the officers should have known the warrant was defective. A Kansas Court of Appeals panel reversed Rose, the defense then asked for a review and the Supreme Court took the case to resolve the conflict between the two lower courts.
In a unanimous opinion written by Justice Dan Biles, the court agreed with the Court of Appeals that the evidence shouldn’t have been suppressed.
The case goes back to Aug. 27, 2012, when a drug-related search was executed on a 2006 Ford Mustang registered to Zwickl. Three individual vacuum-sealed bags of marijuana weighing about a pound each were allegedly found in the trunk. Also located were maps and drug paraphernalia.
The Reno County Drug Unit then served a search warrant on a home on East C, where it allegedly found drug paraphernalia, mushrooms, marijuana as well as growing equipment in a hidden room in the basement.
The case will now come back to District Court for further proceedings.