Was Smell of Pot on Little Girl Justification for a Search Warrant?

Michigan officials closed in on an illegal marijuana growing operation after the suspect’s kindergarten daughter went to school smelling of pot.

An administrator at the 6-year-old’s school called in a tip to Kingsford police after the 6-year-old reportedly told her teacher her father “was growing marijuana in the basement of their residence and that she was not supposed to tell anyone,” the Detroit Free Press reports. Randall Fleck had a medical marijuana growing permit, but that only allowed 12 plants.

Federal Magistrate Judge Timothy Greeley ruled that was probable cause for police to search Fleck’s home on the Upper Peninsula last January, but Fleck’s attorney is asking another federal judge to quash the warrant that led to the discovery of more than 200 marijuana plants.

Attorney Karl P. Numinen argued in a May 14 brief that because Fleck is legally authorized to grow medical cannabis, “the mere allegations that the kindergarten-age child smelled like marijuana and that Mr. Fieck’s home smelled like marijuana is insufficient for the magistrate to issue the search warrant. …

“The officers had no reason to suspect that the quantity of marijuana was more than allowed” under Michigan’s medical marijuana law, he wrote.

U.S. Attorney Patrick A. Miles Sr. said Fleck refused to tell authorities how many marijuana plants or allow them to inspect his operation. A Michigan Court of Appeals decision in another case held that police aren’t required to determine if a suspect is in compliance with the medical cannabis law before seeking a search warrant.

Michigan voters approved medical marijuana in a 2008 referendum vote.

Fleck will appear at an Oct. pretrial hearing before U.S. District Judge Robert Holmes Bell in Marquette. His trial is scheduled for Oct. 20.