Location of trash plays role in case against Mercer teacher

Associated Press

MERCER, Pa.

The underage drinking case against a former Mercer County, Pa., high school principal may hinge on the location of her trash can, in which police say they found empty cans.

Former Lakeview High School principal Elizabeth Auer was charged after a 20-year-old former student was charged in a drunken crash involving an Amish buggy July 11, 2011. Police contend Auer gave beers to that man and another former student doing yard work earlier that day and say empty beer cans in her trash support that.

But The Herald of Sharon, Pa., reports Auer’s attorney is challenging that evidence because the trash cans were next to Auer’s home, not at the curb.

A Mercer County judge must now rule whether Auer’s trash was illegally searched because she had yet to put it out for collection.