This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2008, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear a Utah case on whether police officers can enter a home without a warrant when invited into the home by an informant.
A ruling in the matter - which stems from a raid on a Fillmore trailer six years ago by the Central Utah Narcotics Task Force - could set a nationwide precedent, according to Salt Lake City attorney Peter Stirba.
The lawyer, who represents the task force and its members, argues a wired informant who was invited into the trailer could give permission for task force officers to enter once he completed a drug buy.
The second issue in the case - whether the officers who raided the trailer without a warrant and arrested its occupant can be sued - also could have far-reaching implications, Stirba said.
The case centers on the activities of a confidential informant on March 19, 2002. According to court records, the man informed a task force member that Afton Dale Callahan would sell him methamphetamine.
The informant spent about two hours drinking beer before he went to Callahan's trailer and ingested a sample of the drug. He then told the task force he had arranged a buy for that night.
Task force members, who were unaware of the drug consumption, realized the informant was intoxicated and gave him coffee, the court records say. When they concluded he was sober, they gave him a transmitter and sent him into Callahan's home.
When the informant gave a signal that the sale was complete, task force officers rushed into the home. They allegedly found a packet of methamphetamine in the informant's pocket, as well as more baggies of the drug in the trailer's enclosed porch, along with drug paraphernalia.
Callahan, now 45, was arrested on drug charges. He challenged the warrantless search, but 4th District Judge Donald Eyre agreed with prosecutors that it was reasonable.
Callahan entered into a plea agreement but reserved the right to appeal. In 2004, after he had spent two years behind bars, the Utah Court of Appeals overturned Eyre and threw out the evidence seized in the raid.
Callahan then filed a civil suit in federal court claiming his Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure had been violated. However, then-U.S. District Judge Paul Cassell ruled the task force was shielded from being sued because courts have issued conflicting decisions on the issue.
The 10th U.S. District Court of Appeals in Denver reinstated the suit last year, ruling that Callahan's consent to the informant entering his home did not extend to police. That decision, in turn, led to an appeal by the task force to the U.S. Supreme Court.
James Slavens, a Fillmore lawyer who represents Callahan, disputes that inviting a "known drug user" into a home is the same as consenting to allow police officers to enter.
"That's an odd doctrine that has no place in American jurisprudence," he said.