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Thursday, March 09, 2006

Ind. Decisions - Judge tosses out evidence involving use of GPS

Mark Wilson of the Evansville Courier& Press reports today:

A Warrick County judge has thrown out evidence against the man police nicknamed the "Backdoor Burglar" because Evansville police failed to tell a judge they used global positioning satellites to track their suspect.

In suppressing the evidence, Warrick Circuit Court Judge David Kelley questioned investigators' actions in not disclosing the GPS surveillance to another judge when the police sought a search warrant: "Did the (police) not want the issuing judge to know the truth?"

Kelley called the omission a "critical fact" and failure to reveal it "a fatal flaw" that led to insufficient evidence for issuing the search warrants.

Kelley also ruled that hiding a Global Positioning System on Aaron J. Vaughn's car violated the Indiana Constitution because officers could not show they had reasonable suspicion of criminal activity.

In addition to the lengthy story, the Courier & Press has posted a copy of the 6-page Order Granting Motion to Suppress.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on March 9, 2006 08:28 AM
Posted to Ind. Trial Ct. Decisions