Woman asks judge to quash warrant on her home
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
One of 18 people accused of taking part in a drug ring is asking a federal judge to suppress a search warrant of her East Side home.
Debra Kanevsky Migdal, a federal public defender, filed the motion Tuesday on behalf of Teresa A. Mills, 34, asking that any evidence taken in June 2014 from her home in the 1500 block of Bennington Avenue be thrown out because there was not enough basis for a judge to issue the warrant in the first place.
U.S. Northern District Court of Ohio Judge Christopher A. Boyko will have a hearing on the motion at a later date.
Mills is one of 18 people indicted by federal prosecutors in December 2014 for distributing mostly heroin in the Youngstown area.
An additional 37 people, who authorities said were the users of the drugs, were indicted secretly in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on state charges.
Mills faces federal charges of distributing heroin, conspiracy to distribute heroin and using a telephone to distribute heroin.
The ring was accused of bringing in heroin from New York City for several months.
Migdal argued in her motion that agents and police investigating the ring used court-approved wiretaps collected in March and April 2014 to serve the search warrant June 24.
Migdal said that authorities also were looking for evidence of cocaine trafficking because one of the members indicted federally with Mills, Steven Filimon, 28, was selling cocaine on the side.
The motion did not say what, if anything, was found at Mills’ home.
The motion said that none of the telephone conversations used to obtain the warrant had any information about any drugs being sold at her home, or that Mills knew anyone was distributing drugs from her home.
It adds that the affadavit to secure the warrant was “stale,” or too old because it detailed activity that happened a couple of months before it was served.
Migdal asked that anything found when the warrant was served be disqualified from trial and that the warrant should not have been issued in the first place.
Prosecutors have yet to file a response.