A Franklin County judge has ruled that deputies didn’t violate the constitutional rights of two home-invasion suspects by attaching a GPS device to their car without a warrant.

Common Pleas Judge Michael J. Holbrook issued the decision yesterday in the case of Montie E. Sullivan and David L. White, who are awaiting trial in six home-invasion robberies in Franklin County.

The ruling is consistent with a decision handed down last year by a judge in Fairfield County, where the pair were convicted in what investigators said was the last in a string of home invasions.

An Ohio appeals court also ruled last year that motorists should not expect privacy when traveling on public roads, meaning that their movements could be monitored with a tracking device.

Attorneys for Sullivan and White filed a motion in October asking Holbrook to throw out the evidence against their clients. They argued that Franklin County deputy sheriffs violated their clients’ Fourth Amendment protection against unlawful searches by tracking their movements without a court order. Their movements were tracked for nine days using a GPS device attached to Sullivan’s car.

Holbrook wrote that “a reasonable expectation of privacy” does not exist for those parking and traveling on public roads.

“The device was attached to a vehicle found on public property” and “monitored their travel in public and at no time did the defendant attempt to shield the vehicle from the public,” he wrote.

“Clearly, without an expectation of privacy, the defendant cannot assert the protection of the Fourth Amendment.”

Sullivan’s attorney, Joe Scott, called it “a sad day,” not just for his client, “but for all (of) us who believe in the Constitution.

“It says that police can put a GPS device on any of our cars, without probable cause, without a court order, and follow us indefinitely.”

A Franklin County deputy placed the device on a car registered to Sullivan in a public parking lot on Jan. 14, 2010, after Sullivan and White were linked to a series of home invasions.

The car’s movements were monitored until an officer detected suspicious activity in the area of a Fairfield County residence on Jan. 23.

Within minutes, a resident reported a home invasion on Bickel Church Road. By the time Fairfield County deputies arrived, two gunmen had fled after shooting through a side door and killing a Labrador retriever inside.

The GPS was used to track Sullivan and White to an apartment on the East Side of Columbus, where they were arrested.

A trial date in Holbrook’s courtroom for Sullivan, 19, and White, 23, has not been set.

jfutty@dispatch.com
Tuesday, May 10, 2011  03:07 AM
By John Futty

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH