A St. Paul policeman broke into a cargo trailer holding GOP convention protesters' riot shields because he'd just found the trailer after cops spent two fruitless days looking for it, government attorneys argued in court filings Friday.
Prosecutors in the case against accused bomb-makers David Guy McKay and Bradley Neal Crowder contend in their filing that the search of the trailer was legal even though police had no warrant. They also argue that a later search of the basement of the St. Paul house the two Texans had been staying in -- also was legal.
When officers searched the basement, they found eight Molotov cocktails the men had allegedly assembled.
Earlier this week, lawyers for McKay and Crowder filed motion in U.S. District Court, arguing that the evidence from a U-Haul trailer should be barred from their upcoming Nov. 24 trial. They also argued that because the search warrant for the house didn't specify the basement as part of the search, anything found there should be kept out of court.
In September, a federal grand jury indicted McKay, 23, and Crowder, 22, for allegedly making and possessing Molotov cocktails while in St. Paul for the Republican National Convention. The government contends the men were part of an Austin, Texas-based protest group that planned to use the incendiary devices to damage property and injure people during convention protests.
Prosecutors say that when the group came to Minnesota, their van was pulling a U-Haul trailer that contained homemade riot shields, helmets and nightsticks. The government contends that the shields could have been used as weapons because the screws used to construct them had their pointy ends facing outwards.
"The shields, which McKay had tested to determine their resistance to non-lethal police projectiles, would make it that much harder for police to disperse the rioters, and could also be used offensively against the police," Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey S. Paulsen wrote in the government's motion. "The presence of a trailer full of these weapons in St. Paul on the eve of the RNC was of grave concern to law enforcement."
A confidential informant who had infiltrated the Austin group for the FBI had been giving officials details on the trailer's location, but every time police arrived, it was gone, the motion said. Finally, on Aug. 31, the informant told them it was parked in an alley in the 900 block of Woodbridge Street, St. Paul police Officer David Langfellow found the trailer, unhitched to any vehicle.
The informant "stated that the shields and other weapons were going to be moved to other locations within the hour," Paulsen wrote. "There was an extreme shortage of available law enforcement officers in St. Paul that day. Everyone else was tied up dealing with citywide disturbances related to the RNC. Officer Langfellow, in consultation with his superiors, decided he needed to make an immediate entry into the trailer in order to prevent the distribution into the community of these weapons, which were manufactured for the sole purpose of facilitating riotous behavior during the RNC."
He found 34 riot shields fashioned out of orange plastic highway safety barrels. They also found helmets and wooden nightsticks, police said.
Lawyers for McKay and Crowder argue that the warrantless search was illegal, and that U.S. Supreme Court rulings allowing warrantless searches of automobiles didn't apply. There were no "exigent circumstances" indicating that anyone was in danger, the trailer would soon be moved or evidence might be destroyed.
In its new motion, the government contends that those situations did exist, and that exceptions allowing searches of cars should also apply to non-motorized rental trailers.
But the government also argues that McKay and Crowder can't contest the search of the trailer because they weren't the ones who rented it. Records introduced at an earlier hearing showed Esteban Tovar, another alleged member of the Austin group, rented it.
The government also contends the search of the basement of the apartment building on Dayton Avenue was legal. The warrant allowed the officers to search the "third floor living space and common areas" of the building.
The basement, Paulsen wrote, "was a common area accessible to all occupants of the building, and potentially even outsiders, through a door that was routinely kept unlocked."
McKay and Crowder remain in federal custody.
In Austin, McKay did graphic design work for an ad agency and Crowder worked at a sandwich shop. The FBI claimed that they were members of a group that agents dubbed the "Austin Area Affinity Group," and that they came to St. Paul with plans to riot and disrupt the convention.
Both were arrested in street protests on the first day of the convention, but McKay was quickly released. Prosecutors contend McKay intended to use the Molotov cocktails on law enforcement cars in revenge over Crowder's jailing.
St. Paul RNC Aftermath / Basement, trailer searches defended Feds seek to use seized evidence at RNC Molotov cocktail trial |