Opinion ID: 1298434
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Use of Recreational Area for Drug Transactions

Text: The evidence pertaining to the use of this area for drug transactions comes from paragraph 8 of the affidavit in support of the search warrant, which was received into evidence at the suppression hearing. Paragraph 8 states: The Saline County Sheriff's Office has received information prior to this incident that drug dealers and users are meeting at this location for drug transactions. This averment, the State contends, provides an appropriate circumstance for consideration in evaluating reasonable suspicion to detain. Lee's motion to suppress challenges the basis of such averment, contending that [s]aid warrant contains information from unnamed sources whose reliability has not been demonstrated or otherwise appropriately qualified. The difficulty in evaluating the parties' respective arguments, however, is that one cannot tell from the district court's order whether it made a factual determination that the recreation area was being used for drug transactions and, if so, whether Mulbery and Lytle had knowledge of such information when they detained Lee. While determinations of reasonable suspicion are made de novo, findings of historical fact to support reasonable suspicion are reviewed for clear error, giving due weight to the inferences drawn from those facts by the trial court. State v. Kelley, 265 Neb. 563, 658 N.W.2d 279 (2003). Thus, while an appellate court will independently analyze the facts found by the trial court to determine if they amount to reasonable suspicion, it will nevertheless accept the trial court's factual findings unless they are clearly erroneous. Id. We acknowledge that the averment in paragraph 8 of the affidavit in support of the search warrant may infer that Mulbery and Lytle were in possession of information that the recreation area in question had been used for drug transactions prior to Lee's continued detention. However, the evidence in this record amounts to little more than conclusory assertions by the State that drug transactions had occurred at the recreation area. Nothing in the record indicates where this information came from, why the source of the information was reliable, or whether the officers had the information when they detained Lee. Thus, even assuming that the trial court did find that the recreation area was being used for drug transactions and that Mulbery and Lytle had knowledge of such information when they detained Lee, such finding was clearly erroneous. As a result, this evidence will not be considered in our reasonable suspicion analysis.