Guy and Carrie Neighbors contend that their Fourth Amendment rights were violated by the Governments search of their residence and business pursuant to an invalid warrant.
The Search warrant presented at the time of the search December 5, 2005 was for the Business address only at 1904 Massachusetts. That warrant was specifically for the recovery of approximately 20 items individually listed on the warrant and for various financial and employee records.
However during the search Lawrence Police officer's and Government agents took over 100 individual items of merchandise which amounted to a list over 5 pages long. These seized items were in complete violation of the Magistrates order. These seized items were not returned to the business, numerous valuable items were never logged into the evidence custodian, and items that were turned into the Lawrence Kansas Police dept. evidence room are officially missing.
The Lawrence Kansas Police officers and Government agents entered the house and also executed a search of the Residence at 1104 Andover absent of a valid search warrant.
After an in-depth search of the residence a small nursery set up for starting flowers was discovered. A small amount of cannabis lacking any THC (verified through government testing) was found inside the room.
At this time officer's contacted the Judge for what was referred to as a piggyback warrant to enable them to search the garden nursery. Even though no warrant originally existed to enter the house in the first place.
In another room a safe was found bolted to a wall and locked. Inside the safe was a high end collection of 12 unloaded guns the Neighbors had inherited. Among the collector guns was a rare custom made Berretta 12 ga. over and under shot gun that had been custom ordered from a gun maker in Italy. This gun was around 30 years old, had never been fired and valued at around $18,000. During the evidence hearing before Judge Lunstrum on November 16th, 2007 in Federal Court the Government contended that this rare gun was only valued at $650. And that the low value guns did not qualify for collector status.
The "piggyback" warrant did not list the guns as part of the items to be taken. Only new items in packages and items from the nursery were listed.
Officers seized all 12 guns, but only photographed 10 of the guns at the time of the seizure. They left a copy of this strange search warrant and a Receipt for same evidence list of the items taken from the residence on the kitchen table. The list of items seized from the residence did not individually itemize any of the seized items. It simply stated 12 guns, Jewelry, clothing....
A small box of ammunition was taken from the basement but was not on the list of seized items. The guns were not individually itemized with serial numbers or descriptions, various pieces of Expensive Diamond and gold Jewelry with individual values over $1,000. Taken from a bedroom armoire was not itemized at all.
A small box of ammunition was taken from the basement but was not on the list of seized items. The guns were not individually itemized with serial numbers or descriptions, various pieces of Expensive Diamond and gold Jewelry with individual values over $1,000. Taken from a bedroom armoire was not itemized at all.
Several months later, after a pre-indictment hearing with Federal U.S. Prosecuting Attorney Marietta Parker which Attorney Sarah Swain documented the discussion of 12 guns in her notes, the list was altered by the Government and the number of guns seized was changed to 11 guns and ammunition was added to the list.
After a formal complaint about the altered list was submitted to Internal Affairs Sgt. Dan Ward of the Lawrence Kansas Police Dept. and John Gaunt of the KBI, by Guy and Carrie Neighbors. The case was transferred into Federal Court. It was then necessary for the Neighbors to acquire new Federal Attorney's.
At that time the "Receipt for same list" the new Federal attorney's Bruce Kipps and James George were given did not match the list the defendants Guy and Carrie Neighbors had. The case was once again dropped and the Attorney's files were returned to the Prosecutor's office at the Kansas Department of Justice.
Upon refilling of the case new attorneys Phil Gibson, Alex McCauley was appointed to the Neighbors and once again the "receipt for same list" was switched out by the prosecutor’s office. The new attorneys list now matched the altered switched out list that the defendants Guy and Carrie Neighbors had.
In light of this fact it would be reasonable to believe that the credibility of any evidence collected or presented to the courts by the Government through the Dept. of Justice could be questionable.
When do the actions of the Government during an investigation step over the lines of what is and what is not ethical?
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