State Supreme Court tosses pot conviction over chopper's surveillance

Associated Press - March 28, 2008 5:35 PM ET

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - The state Supreme Court today ruled that Vermonters' right to privacy extends to the airspace above their homes, throwing out a felony marijuana cultivation conviction against a man who said surveillance by a low-flying helicopter was an invasion of privacy.

In a 4-1 decision, the justices said the helicopter wasn't high enough when it went looking for marijuana plants outside his home.

The lone disssenter, Justice John Dooley, agreed that airspace is protected but said the majority went overboard in reversing the 2005 conviction of Stephen Bryant.

Bryant, a 57-year-old contractor, testified at his 2005 trial in Addison District Court that he uses marijuana as an analgesic, to cope with pain he suffers as the result of a construction accident in the 1970s. His property, on a wooded hillside in a remote area of Goshen, is accessible by a locked gate on a U.S. Forest Service road.

The case began after a Forest Service official, believing Bryant "paranoid" about his privacy, suggested to Vermont State Police that it might be a good idea to do a fly-over to look for marijuana.

On August 7th, 2003, a state trooper and an Army National Guard pilot flew over the property, the National Guard helicopter hovering about 100 feet above it for 15 to 30 minutes.

They spotted two plots of marijuana growing about on his property and applied for a search warrant based on what they saw, eventually finding about 45 plants.

Bryant, who was charged with cultivation and possession of marijuana, lost his bid to suppress the marijuana evidence before his trial. At trial, a jury convicted him of cultivation but acquitted him of possession.

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