Ruling affects 2 in Maine Men pleaded guilty to drug charges

PORTLAND – The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that police cannot use a heat-seeking device to peer inside a home without a search warrant may affect two people who pleaded guilty to drug charges in Maine.

Kevin Woodward and Gregory Jackson entered conditional guilty pleas in March after U.S. District Judge Gene Carter rejected their motion to suppress evidence based on the fact investigators used a heat-seeking device.

The defendants had contended that investigators should have obtained a search warrant before using the thermal imaging device to detect lights used in the marijuana-growing operation in a rented house in Turner.

The two men entered conditional pleas knowing that issue was before the U.S. Supreme Court, said James Burke, the attorney for Jackson.

“This ruling is really important to a lot of people, not just Mr. Jackson and Mr. Woodward,” Burke said from his Lewiston office.

Burke said he would file a motion seeking to delay Jackson’s June 22 deadline for reporting to a federal prison to serve a 13-month sentence. Woodward has not yet been sentenced in the case, he said.

The men entered guilty pleas after Carter ruled that law enforcers who used a thermal imaging device during an investigation into the marijuana-growing operation did not violate anyone’s rights.

Drug agents seized nearly a pound of cocaine, 197 marijuana plants and 36 ounces of marijuana from the house in May 2000.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruling came in a similar case involving an Oregon man who said his rights were violated by law enforcement officials who used a heat-sensing device to find that he was growing marijuana in his home.

Lawyers for the two Maine defendants will now review the Supreme Court ruling to see how it affects their clients.

“This is big stuff,” Burke said. “Obviously it’s going to be significant in the case, so now we’ll have to go to the next step of what does it mean for our clients.”