Sheriff Stands His Ground on Judge Ruling

A ruling by Superior Court Judge Frank Lanier was announced on May 1 that an August search by drug agents with the Lee County Sheriff's Office was unconstitutional and has ordered that drugs seized during the search not be admitted into evidence. He dismissed the evidence (four ounces of cocaine and a small amount of marijuana) which was seized on Aug. 7 from the home of Charlie Loy Pickard of 4317 Deep River Road. Drug agents found the cocaine inside Pickard's home after going behind the house during an effort to find another person unrelated to the case and seeing a single marijuana plant on the ground near a storage shed. The marijuana plant was then used as the basis for a search warrant which led to the discovery of the cocaine. The drug agents were at Pickard's home on an unrelated matter with state revenue agents, looking for another person whom they'd heard lived with Pickard. Judge Lanier ruled that agents with the Lee County Sheriff's Office had no evidence that the person in question lived at Pickard's address (he did not, according to sworn affidavits) and that the deputies had no right to be in the backyard looking for him and thus no legal standing to discover the marijuana plant and use it as the basis for the search warrant. The ruling followed a motion by Pickard’s attorney; Whitaker asked that the evidence be thrown out because it came in "violation of Pickard's constitutional and statutory rights to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. Without the evidence, there would be no case to try.


To the citizens of Lee County from Sheriff Carter

"Our drug agents have done a good job fighting the drug problem in this county and they are going to continue to do that. We do understand that we are not going to win every case, however I think the public should know that our conviction rate for our drug cases has remained between 80-85% since I took office in December of 2006.

Over the last two and a half years our drug agents have charged over 800 individuals for drug offenses and have served approximately 100 search warrants. The Charlie Pickard Jr.’s case is the first time one of our search warrants has been dismissed.

I don’t understand why Judge Lanier made the decision to dismiss the case. Our Drug Agents were assisting State Law Enforcement officers from the Department of Revenue. Our officers do have the authority to assist these officers and to serve tax warrants. Assistant Attorney Mike Beam has advised the sheriff’ office that they are in the process of appealing Judge Lanier’s decision.

Ironically the same individual was charged the next day for possessing an illegal substance once again.

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