Judge finds state detective offered 'reckless' misrepresentations to get search

[Silent_Bob]

http://www.laconiadailysun.com/index.php/newsx/local-news/79494-evidence-tossed-in-governor-s-island-grow-operation



GILFORD — A Belknap County Superior Court judge has thrown out all of the evidence seized during a drug raid on a rented Governor's Island home last October because there were "reckless" misrepresentations made by the narcotics detective who filed the affidavits supporting the search.

It took Judge James O'Neill less than two weeks after presiding over a suppression hearing to exclude the evidence after he heard Jennifer Truman, the owner of 15 Blueberry Hill Lane, testify about what she said she told N.H. State Police Narcotics Det. Kirk Hart as opposed to what he wrote in his affidavits.

Hart's representations in his affidavits led to a raid on the home and the arrest of renters Corey LaPlante, 28, and Janelle Noftle, 25. They are both charged with manufacturing marijuana and hashish with the intent to distribute both controlled substances.
When police raided the home in October, they found 12 pounds of marijuana, hashish, and $34,000 in cash.

Specifically, the ruling says that Truman testified she told Hart she never saw any marijuana in the home the only time she actually entered it during the time frame in question. She said she told him only odors she could smell was "a sharp, chemical smell" on the second floor that lingered into the attic.

In Hart's affidavits, he wrote that she told him there was "the smell of fresh marijuana was pungent throughout the residence."

Truman said the first time she went to the property in the fall of last year was to assess the outside for repairs. She said she never entered the home but smelled a "skunky" odor coming from the garage area. She contacted the management company and asked them to schedule a walk through and brought someone she knew with her.

After the walk through the home on October 13, she said she contacted Hart, who she knew, and then met with him in person on October 16 at the Gilford Police Department.

Truman also testified that she told Hart she saw PVC piping in the basement through a window in the basement on her first visit, however Hart wrote that there was a "unusual water filtration system set up in the basement"

Truman testified that there were some fluorescent lights in the attic while Hart wrote that she told him the "attic was equipped with fluorescent lights and the smell of fresh marijuana was again strong in that area."

She testified that she told Hart what her electrical usage was in the home during the time she lived there and that she lacked the authority to get LaPlante's and Noftle's usage information.

Hart wrote in his affidavit that the lowest bill for the home was in November of 2012 and was $744.02 while the highest was May of 2013 at $1,117.62 and that Truman provided him with this information.

"The Court finds that all the misstatements were at least reckless," O'Neill said. "Ms. Truman testified that the statements made in her testimony at the hearing on this matter are the same statements she provided to Detective Hart."

O'Neill found that once he removed the inaccuracies from Hart's affidavit there was not enough evidence to support the probable cause needed to search the home so the evidence gathered there cannot be used at trial.

Attorney Mark Sisti represents LaPlante and said yesterday that he is "very pleased with the order and expects to resolve the matter in short order."

[K neth]

Is Corey LaPlante any relation to Chief Judge Joseph LaPlante?