Lawyer says affidavit insufficient in federal case

May 22, 2019 at 12:00a.m.

Motion says defective search warrant was used

YOUNGSTOWN

A lawyer for a man federal prosecutors said had drugs, seven guns and more than $70,000 in cash asked a judge Tuesday to suppress all evidence in the case because of a defective search warrant.

Writing for his client Robin Rutledge, 48, attorney J. Gerald Ingram said the evidence must be suppressed because a warrant used to search a 785 Delaware Ave. home April 11, 2018, did not contain probable cause to search the home.

Rutledge was subsequently indicted by a federal grand jury April 2 in the U.S. Northern District Court of Ohio on one count of possession with intent to distribute cocaine, one count of possession with intent to distribute marijuana, felon in possession of a firearms and ammunition and possession of a firearm in futherance of a drug trafficking crime.

The indictment in the case said members of the Mahoning Valley Law Enforcement Task Force, which served the warrant, found cocaine, marijuana, $70,079 in cash, and seven guns including two shotguns and a .223-caliber semiautomatic rifle.

In his motion before Judge James S. Gwin, Ingram wrote that task force members working on an unrelated investigation followed someone to the Delaware Avenue home who allegedly purchased cocaine and then gave it to a confidential source at a North Side address during the week of April 2.

Task force members conducting another investigation in the neighborhood before that event had also noticed a lot of traffic from the home, the motion said, however, task force members did not perform any additional surveillance nor did they even attempt to make a controlled purchase of drugs at the home, the motion says.

The affidavit used in the case for a search was deficient because it did not use any follow up surveillance nor does it say police made any effort to confirm that a man in the home was selling drugs, the motion said.

A hearing date for the motion has not been set yet.

Rutledge is being held in federal custody pending trial.