From: dougm@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs,talk.politics.misc,misc.legal
Subject: Baldur von Shirach, call home
Date: 28 Sep 92 08:20:08 CDT
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services

From the Lawrence Jounal-World, Saturday, Sept. 26, 1992, p. 11A.

Third-grader's call to 911 leads to precedent-setting court case.

Cox News Service

        ATLANTA - Darren Davis was so impressed by the anti-drug lecture at 
Douglas County (Ga.) Elementary School that the first thing the third-grader 
did when he got home was call 911 and report that his parents had cocaine in 
their bedroom.

        The 10-year-old boy was trying to get help for his parents, court 
records show.

        Instead, only minutes later, he got deputies from the Douglas County 
sheriff's office, who persuaded him to allow a search of the home while his 
parents were at work.  When his mother and father got home, they were 
charged with possession of cocaine and taken away in handcuffs.

        Now the Georgia Supreme Court, which heard the case Wednesday, must 
decide whether the boy was too young to consent to a search of his parents' 
home.  Legal experts say the case poses a fundamental state and federal 
constitutional question: Is it proper for police to use young children to 
secure evidence against their parents or to use a child's consent instead of 
a search warrant to search the parents' home?  The court's ruling could set 
a national precedent.

        Fred R. and Sonya Davis, Darren's parents, are objecting to the 
circumstances surrounding the search of their house, and they have yet to be 
tried.  Both are free on bond and living at home with their son.  They have 
both lost their jobs.

        Previous court rulings say only that the consent should be free and 
voluntarily given without pressure or coercion, and that the person giving 
the consent must understand what he or she is doing.

        "This opens a door that I do not think we want to see opened," Jay 
W. Bouldin, who represents the Davises, told the justices.  "Darren had no 
realization or understanding of what the consequences of his actions would 
be."

        Prosecutors for Douglas County failed to show up to argue their side 
of the case.

        In court documents, however, prosecutors say that Darren can give 
consent to police to search the property because Darren is usually home 
alone after school, while his parents are at work, and he has a key to the 
house.

        Court documents show that the boy and other pupils attending an 
anti-drug seminar at Douglas County Elementary School in January 1991 were 
told that if they ever saw drugs, they should immediately call police 
because people who use drugs need help.  According to legal briefs, the 
students were not told the consequences: that police could become involved
and that people could end up in jail.

        According to the tape-recording of the 911 call, the boy told police 
that he wanted them to come get the drugs and help him get his parents to 
seek help.

        "Up until they handcuffed me and his mother, Darren had no idea what 
he had done," Davis said.  "I always told him to do what he was told in 
school and that's all he did.  I told him what he did was OK.  I made sure 
he knew what he had done was not bad."

        He said he and his wife have tried to enter drug rehabilitation 
programs since their arrest, but said all have lengthy waiting lists  He 
insists he has not used drugs since the incident.

        Bouldin told justices they should draw a "bright line" that makes it 
clear to police that any child under the age of 13 is not mature enough to 
waive his or anyone else's right to search private property.


-- 
***************************************************************

A day without hooters is a day without sunshine.
						Rush Limbaugh



Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs