Supreme court deciding warrants issue in Boardman case

COLUMBUS — The Ohio Supreme Court is considering whether evidence gathered against two Boardman residents should be suppressed after officers, warrant in hand, allegedly forced their way into an apartment without announcing the purpose of their visit.

Heroin and other items that were seized led to drug-related charges against Sherri Bembry and Harsimran Singh, who say officers’ violated Ohio’s knock-and-announce rules, and the resulting evidence should be blocked from consideration during legal proceedings against them.

Lou DeFabio, legal counsel for the two, told justices during oral arguments Wednesday that officers broke down an apartment door without disclosing that they had a warrant to search the premises.

“It is simply, truly a little, ‘Boardman Police Department, we’re here to execute a warrant,’” he said. “That’s not a gigantic burden on law enforcement to say those words. And it protects everyone — it protects the people inside the house, it protects the police officers….”

But legal counsel for the state say officers had a proper search warrant, and evidence was properly collected.

“We have one instance, one minor error, where the Boardman Police Department did not say ‘search warrant’ before they hit the door,” said Assistant Mahoning County Prosecutor Ralph Rivera. “… We do not have a systemic failure.”

According to documents, detectives in October 2012 directed a controlled drug buy between a confidential informant and Singh. The next month, officers obtained a warrant to search an apartment near where the drug purchase was made.

Officers knocked on the door of that residence, announced that they were the police, then battered down the door when the occupants declined to let them in over a period of about 45 seconds.