Drug charges dropped against two Charles City men, based on Iowa Supreme Court ruling in another case

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Drug charges against two Charles City men were dismissed recently because of an Iowa Supreme Court decision over the summer that bans police from going through people’s uncollected trash without a warrant.

Charges of conspiracy to deliver or possess with intent to deliver marijuana, Class D felonies, were dismissed against Dallas Joseph Helton and Cody James Blackburn, both 26-year-old Charles City residents.

In a 4-3 decision handed down in June, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that the Iowa Constitution does not allow law enforcement agencies to go through a person’s trash even when it has been placed out for pickup and is accessible from public property, if the community has an ordinance that bars people other than licensed trash collectors from accessing that garbage.

The long-standing practice, based on a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1988, had allowed police to go through trash under the legal theory that people have no expectation of privacy in their trash once they set it out for pickup. If authorities found evidence of illegal activity such as drug containers, stems or seeds, they could use that information to obtain a warrant to search the property where the trash was found.

But the Iowa Supreme Court ruled in the case of Iowa v Nicholas Dean Wright of Clear Lake, that putting the trash out for collection is not the same as abandoning it, especially if a community has an ordinance saying only the designated trash collector can pick it up.

Iowa Justice Christopher McDonald, writing for the majority, said there is no doubt that going through trash without a warrant is helpful for law enforcement, “but the utility of warrantless activity is not the issue under our constitution.”

McDonald wrote that garbage “contains intimate and private details of life.”

Helton and Blackburn had been charged in November 2020, after a search of a residence on Hawkins Avenue in Charles City allegedly found several bags containing marijuana and also allegedly found drug paraphernalia.

Both men pleaded not guilty and were going through the legal process, with trial dates set, when the Iowa Supreme Court ruling was issued in June.

Shortly after that ruling, Blackburn’s attorney, William Barasel of Charles City, filed a motion to suppress the evidence allegedly collected during the search, saying that the application for the search warrant was based on a trash rip that allegedly found marijuana.

Charles City has a law saying no person can collect, transport, process or dispose of solid waste other than the contractor authorized and franchised by the city, Barasel wrote, asking that the evidence be suppressed based on the new Iowa Supreme Court precedent.

On Aug. 2, Floyd County District Court Judge DeDra Schroeder granted Blackburn’s motion to suppress the evidence gained from the search.

On Aug. 9, Helton’s attorney, James McGuire of Mason City, cited the Iowa Supreme Court ruling and the decision by the Floyd County District Court in the Blackburn case, and asked that the evidence in the Helton case be suppressed and the case dismissed.

A hearing on the Helton motion to suppress was set for Oct. 5, but on Sept. 7, the Floyd County Attorney’s Office filed a motion to dismiss the charge against Helton, citing insufficient evidence to prosecute and convict.

District Court Judge Peter Newell dismissed the charge against Helton that same day.

Last week, on Sept. 27, the Floyd County Attorney’s Office filed a motion to dismiss the charge against Blackburn, saying it no longer had sufficient evidence to prosecute. Judge James Drew granted the order to dismiss the charge the same day.

Earlier, on Sept. 22, Helton had filed a motion to have property seized in the search returned to him, including ammunition, $195 in cash and a newer cellphone. On Tuesday this week, Judge Newell ordered the property returned.