Pubdate: Fri, 13 May 2005 Source: Rutland Herald (VT) Copyright: 2005 Rutland Herald Contact: http://www.rutlandherald.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/892 Author: Associated Press FELONY POT CHARGES DISMISSED; COERCIVE POLICE TACTICS CITED BARRE -- A judge has dismissed felony drug charges against a Moretown man after ruling that police used coercive tactics to elicit an involuntary confession. John Summers -- a British immigrant who faced deportation if convicted of the felony drug charge -- told Vermont State Police last August that he was responsible for the 28 marijuana plants growing in a plot near his home. The felony charge carried a possible 15-year prison sentence. Defense lawyer Richard Rubin filed a motion to suppress Summers' admission, saying the confession came after a police threat that "overcame (the defendant's) free will not to give a statement." At issue was whether statements made by Trooper Michael Manley constituted a threat, and whether or not that threat forced Summers to relinquish his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. The case stemmed from a helicopter flyover in which members of the Vermont State Police Marijuana Eradication Response Team observed marijuana plants growing along the edge of a field near Summers' home. Summers said during a May 2 motion hearing that Trooper Michael Manley threatened to "play hardball" and arrest everyone in the house if Summers refused to admit to tending the marijuana plot. Summers' wife and 16-year-old daughter and friend of his daughter were in the home at the time. "I was sufficiently unmanned by comments about hardball and taking everyone away that despite the fact I knew it was not in my best interest, I admitted they were mine," Summers said. In a written ruling filed May 6 in Vermont District Court in Barre, Judge Geoffrey Crawford said that Manley's threat was baseless. "He did not have a lawful basis to arrest everyone in the house," the judge wrote. Citing case law in Vermont and other states, Crawford ruled that a confession obtained after a threat to arrest a family member is only valid if the police "had an objective good faith basis for threatening to arrest the family member." - --- MAP posted-by: SHeath(DPFFLorida)