Supreme Court agrees to hear Boardman home search case

BOARDMAN

The Ohio Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case in which Boardman police failed to say “search warrant” before they broke down an apartment door to make a drug bust.

Their failure to say those words Nov. 2, 2012, led Judge John M. Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to exclude the heroin and other items police seized from evidence in the case.

After the occupants of an Applecrest Court apartment failed to comply with the police order to open the door, officers broke down the door and arrested Sherri A. Bembry and Harsimran Singh.

Even though the prosecution conceded police violated the state’s “knock-and-announce” law, a three-judge panel of the 7th District Court of Appeals ruled unanimously in January that Judge Durkin should not have excluded the items police seized from evidence because police had a valid search warrant for the apartment they entered.

Read more about the case in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.