State wants $293K seized in raid

JACKSON – The state Bureau of Narcotics is seeking to overturn a judge’s ruling that its seizure of cash and other items during a drug bust in 2013 was illegal because the search warrant failed to include a description of the place to be searched.

At the center of the case is $293,270 seized from a north Mississippi apartment. The Narcotics Bureau wants to keep it. A Quitman County judge has ordered the agency to give the money back to Bobby Ray Canada and Beverly Turman.

The Mississippi Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments in the case for April 20 in Jackson.

Law enforcement officers served the warrant on the Crenshaw apartment where Canada and Turman lived on Aug. 16, 2013. The warrant said the purpose of the search was to establish that the two were drug dealers. In addition to the cash, officials seized a gun.

The attorney for the couple, Ja’Nekia W. Barton of Clarksdale, argues law enforcement officers entered the apartment with an invalid search warrant and everything they seized must be returned.

“The Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics used a search warrant that did not contain the Constitution’s required description or designation of the place to be searched to enter the property,” Barton said in court briefs.

Barton said the Narcotics Bureau “intentionally left the locations, address, and description of the place to be searched blank so that they could use the search warrant to gain access to multiple locations and then fill in the blank for whatever address and location that they decided to seize defendants’ or unknown persons assets.”

Narcotics Bureau attorney Pelicia E. Hall agreed the search warrant was faulty but was not illegal.

Hall said the supporting documents given to the judge who issued the warrant “contained a clear and concise description of the place to be searched.”

Hall said while the warrant was defective in its lack of description of the place to be searched, the good faith exception should apply, and the failure to include the description should be considered simple negligence and not a violation of the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits illegal searches and seizures.

Barton said Turman and Canada have neither been arrested nor charged with any crimes although authorities make allegations they were operating a drug trafficking organization.

“The record clearly indicates that no violation of the State’s Uniform Controlled Substances Laws was found after the illegal seizure of the currency and rifle. In fact, no narcotics or illegal drugs were found in the residence that was searched.

“Needless to say, not even a single Tylenol was found in the residence,” Barton said in briefs.