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Appeals court ruling ends burglary cases [St. Cloud Times, Minn.]
[November 10, 2010]

Appeals court ruling ends burglary cases [St. Cloud Times, Minn.]


(St. Cloud Times (MN) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Nov. 10--A Court of Appeals ruling Tuesday likely means the end to burglary prosecutions against two men suspected in a string of burglaries in as many as five Central Minnesota counties.

The men were suspects in burglaries of golf courses in Morrison and Wadena counties and businesses in Meeker County. They also were charged in Todd and Wright counties.

The Court of Appeals ruling Tuesday upholds a decision by Morrison County District Court Judge Douglas Anderson, who ruled that the deputy who arrested the suspects didn't have a "reasonable, articulable suspicion of criminal activity" when he stopped the suspects' vehicle. That traffic stop led to evidence implicating the men in multiple burglaries. When Anderson ruled that the stop wasn't proper, all the evidence discovered by law enforcement after the traffic stop was inadmissible in any court proceedings against the suspects.



That led to the dismissal of several charges against James Irving Dale, 46, and Brent Paul Martin, 36.

Jennifer Chaplinski, the St. Cloud attorney who represented Dale in the Morrison County case, said the traffic stop was crucial in bringing any charges against Dale.


"It was the key to everything," Chaplinski said.

Detectives in numerous Central Minnesota counties were investigating several burglaries in the summer of 2009 that were similar in the type of business targeted, the time they were hit, the sophistication of the attacks and the disarming of alarms.

At 1 a.m. on Aug. 24, 2009, a Morrison County deputy responded to an alarm at Eagle's Landing Golf Course in Ripley Township.

The golf course had been burglarized, and an extensive search was conducted in the area with tracking dogs and a helicopter. After about three hours, a Morrison County deputy saw a van parked on a dead-end road a few miles from the golf course. As he approached the vehicle, it accelerated rapidly and drove off. The deputy activated the squad's lights and followed the van, which eventually pulled into the driveway of a residence and drove halfway down the driveway before stopping.

The deputy determined that neither man in the van lived there. A search of the van discovered a crowbar, a police scanner and a backpack and baseball hat with a golf logo on it. Boots that Dale was wearing matched footprints left at the golf course.

Those discoveries led to investigators conducting a search of an Annandale residence the day after the Morrison County traffic stop. Investigators discovered more evidence tying the men to other burglaries. Officers from Wright, Meeker, Todd, Benton, Wadena and Traverse counties were investigating the men. In Wadena County, a cap found during the search as well as data from the GPS device in Martin's vehicle tied him to a burglary at Blueberry Pines Golf Course. Thieves made off with $2,025 in cash and caused about $4,500 in damage to the course during that incident.

Chaplinski asked that all the evidence collected because of the traffic stop be suppressed. She argued that the connection between the van and the earlier burglary was "too tenuous to create a reasonable suspicion" that the van was involved in the break-in.

Prosecutors argued that Dale's "evasive or suspicious conduct" created a reasonable, articulable suspicion of criminal activity, independent of the earlier burglary. Anderson agreed with Chaplinski and ordered the evidence suppressed. That meant the evidence couldn't be used against Dale or Martin in any of the other cases as well.

Court of Appeals ruling To see more of the St. Cloud Times or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.sctimes.com .

Copyright (c) 2010, St. Cloud Times, Minn.

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