Court Throws Out Evidence of 160 Pounds of Cocaine
The Plain Dealer
Tuesday, June 17, 2003
Evidence thrown out in big drug case
Jesse Tinsley
Plain Dealer Reporter
Beachwood - Police and FBI agents may have blown one of the biggest Cleveland-area cocaine busts ever.
After a hearing late last week, U.S. District Judge Lesley Wells ruled that Beachwood police had illegally searched the Holiday Inn hotel room where they found 160 pounds of cocaine, with an estimated street value of $7 million.
The ruling means federal prosecutors will be unable to use most of their evidence against the two Cleveland men - Andre Jenkins and Nathaniel S. Thompson - arrested in the case.
"This was the second-biggest cocaine bust in this area and the largest amount ever suppressed by a judge in Northeast Ohio," said Jeff Saffold, a lawyer representing Thompson.
On Sunday, Wells granted requests by defense lawyers to throw out the majority of evidence, including the drugs, $68,000 in cash, a $17,000 Rolex watch and two firearms.
Some of the property held for evidence was found at a Cleveland house where Jenkins sometimes stayed.
The Judge also suppressed interviews conducted in the case, which has been postponed until July 21.
Meanwhile, federal prosecutors will decide whether to ask the U.S. Department of Justice to appeal the ruling on the evidence, said William Edwards, first assistant U.S. attorney.
The defendants had been scheduled to go to trial today. Instead, Jenkins, 33, and Thompson, 29, will ask to be freed on bond.
Saffold and Thompson's other lawyer, Roger Synenberg, applauded the judge's ruling.
"At a time when overreaching by the government is such an important issue, this ruling is a reminder to everyone in law enforcement that the rights of the individual must continue to be respected," Synenberg said.
Thomas Hudson, Jenkins' lawyer, said he has filed a claim to recover the $68,000. The arrest marked at least the 20th time Jenkins has faced charges involving drugs, receiving stolen property and possession of criminal tools, according to court records. He has 18 convictions in Cuyahoga County and has served five terms in Ohio prisons, records show.
Thompson has two convictions - a weapons offense in 1993 and a drug offense in 1994, according to records.
Authorities were led to the house that was part of the raid when Jenkins, while in police custody, asked to make a telephone call to a resident there. Police thought he was trying to deliver a message to someone at the house, and they obtained a search warrant. Hudson said the money found at the house is unrelated to the case.
Jenkins and Thompson checked into the Holiday Inn in February. A front-office manager alerted the police about the men because he thought they were acting suspiciously while unloading bags from a sport utility vehicle.
The men left the hotel. A female acquaintance of Jenkins' who had gone to the hotel stayed behind and was in the room when Beachwood police entered, according to court testimony.
There was conflicting testimony on how officers entered the room. According to officers, they identified themselves and told the woman they were securing the room and awaiting a search warrant. However, the female acquaintance said a housekeeper knocked on the door. She opened it and police burst in with enough force to knock her to the floor, she said.
There was also conflicting testimony on whether the officers opened or moved the bags containing the cocaine.
Judge Wells ruled that authorities were justified in securing the hotel room in anticipating a warrant.
"However, the court finds that the officers' search of the bags exceeded the sum of the exigencies and therefore violated the Fourth Amendment," Wells wrote.
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