Case Title: State v. Melchior

Citation: 172 Vt. 248, 775 A.2d 901

Docket Number: 

State: vermont

Court: Vermont Supreme Court

Date: 2001-05-11T00:00:00Z

Document:
State v. Melchior (2000-192); 172 Vt. 248; 775 A.2d 901

[Filed 11-May-2001]

       NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to motions for reargument under
  V.R.A.P. 40 as well as formal  revision before publication in the Vermont
  Reports.  Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of  Decisions,
  Vermont Supreme Court, 109 State Street, Montpelier, Vermont 05609-0801 of
  any  errors in order that corrections may be made before this opinion goes
  to press.

                                No. 2000-192

State of Vermont	                         Supreme Court

                                                 On Appeal from
     v.	                                         District Court of Vermont,
                                                 Unit No. 2, Addison Circuit

Lois Melchior	                                 November Term, 2000

Dean B. Pineles, J.

John T. Quinn, Addison County State's Attorney, Middlebury, for 
  Plaintiff-Appellee.

Benjamin H. Deppman and Ebenezer Punderson of Deppman & Foley, P.C., 
  Middlebury, for Defendant-Appellant.

PRESENT:  Amestoy, C.J., Dooley, Morse, Johnson and Skoglund, JJ.

       MORSE, J.   Defendant Lois Melchior appeals the judgment of the
  Addison District Court  denying her motion to suppress evidence procured
  pursuant to a warrant which was issued based in  part on observations made
  by police from a helicopter flying over her property.  Melchior argues that 
  the affidavit submitted in support of the warrant application was
  insufficient to support a finding of  probable cause once portions of it
  were excised as was done by the trial court.  We affirm.

       On September 9, 1999, police officers Don Sweet and Chris Campbell
  flew in a helicopter  searching for marijuana cultivation as part of the
  Marijuana Eradication Team (MERT) program.   National Guardsman James
  Valley was piloting the helicopter and was accompanied by another 

 

  Guardsman.  As part of the MERT program, officers perform flyovers of
  particular areas of the state  in an effort to detect marijuana growth.  If
  officers detect marijuana growth, they engage in  eradication efforts which
  include visiting sites on the ground and pulling plants.  There may be 
  further follow-up, including pursuing charges against individuals that can
  be linked to the marijuana  sites. 

       James Valley flew the officers over the area of Melchior's property
  because he thought he had  observed marijuana growth there as he was on his
  way to pick up the officers at the Middlebury  Airport.  According to the
  officers, the aircraft was over the property for between one and five 
  minutes at a height of roughly 525 to 650 feet.  Following their
  observations, they returned to the  Middlebury Airport to follow up with
  eradication efforts, including paying a visit to Melchior's  property. 

       The group pulled onto a neighboring property in order to observe the
  Melchior property.  The  entrance to the access road, however, was marked
  with a sign indicating the land was posted and  forbidding trespassing for
  any reason.  After observing the same marijuana plants from the ground, 
  the officers knocked on the doors of the residences located on the Melchior
  property, but received no  response.  Trooper Campbell then applied for and
  was granted a warrant to search the property.   Melchior was subsequently
  charged with possession and cultivation of marijuana. 

       Melchior moved to suppress the evidence on a number of theories. 
  Ultimately, the trial court  denied the motion, determining that the
  information acquired in the course of the aerial observation  contained in
  the warrant application was sufficient alone to support a finding of
  probable cause.  In  so doing, the court disregarded the additional
  information in the affidavit regarding Trooper 

 

  Campbell's observations from the ground.  After entering a conditional plea
  of guilty, Melchior  appealed to this Court. 

       The State does not contest the trial court's limited consideration of
  the information in the  warrant application, namely that garnered from
  Trooper Campbell's aerial observations.  We are  therefore presented with
  the simple question of the whether the statements in Trooper Campbell's 
  affidavit regarding his training and experience, taken in conjunction with
  his statements regarding his  observations of the Melchior property from
  the air, support a determination of probable cause.   Specifically, he
  states in his affidavit with regard to his aerial observations:

    On 09-09-99 I was engaged in a MERT flyover in Addison County. . . 
    .  The purpose of this flight was the detection of Marijuana
    plants.  In  the area of Vt. Rt. 116 in the town of Bristol north
    of the Middlebury  town line I observed a stand of plants
    consistent in color, shape and  texture with Marijuana plants. 
    Upon closer examination from the air  it was determined that the
    plants were situated within a vegetable  garden on the property of
    what was later identified as the [Lois  Melchior] property.

  (Emphasis added.)

       Melchior argues that the statement that Trooper Campbell observed
  plants "consistent in  color, shape and texture" with marijuana plants is
  insufficient and that, absent a statement that  Trooper Campbell
  affirmatively believed the plants to be marijuana, the trial court could
  not have  concluded that the affidavit supported a finding of probable
  cause. (FN1)  We have cautioned against  hypertechnical scrutiny of the
  language in an affidavit, however, and have instead encouraged a

 

  common sense reading when making determinations of probable cause.  State
  v. Demers, 167 Vt.  349, 353,