Attorneys wrangle over informant's ID

SANDPOINT — Legal wrangling is intensifying over the identity of a confidential informant whose tip to authorities uncovered an indoor marijuana-growing operation earlier this year.

Defense counsel for Seth Matthan Walser is continuing to press for the veil of secrecy protecting the informant’s identity to be parted, while the state works to keep it tightly closed.

Walser, 32, is charged with marijuana trafficking. The growing operation was discovered in an outbuilding adjacent to Walser’s home in the 3000 block of Rapid Lightning Road on Jan. 28. Walser’s girlfriend, 28-year-old Kimberly Sue Brown is likewise charged.

Both suspects have pleaded not guilty to the charges and their cases have been combined for pretrial purposes, contrary to the wishes of the defendants’ respective defense attorneys.

The grow was discovered when a Bonner County Sheriff’s deputy went to the couple’s home on the night in question. Deputy Marty Ryan was given consent to search the property by both Walser and Brown, court records indicate.

The search turned up as many as 100 pot plants in various stages of development.

Walser’s counsel, Valerie Thornton, has made repeated attempts to have the informant’s identity revealed. She argues it is an essential component of her motion to suppress evidence in the case, according to court documents.

Thornton maintains Ryan had no legal right to intrude on the couple’s remote property.

Deputy Prosecutor Shane Greenbank, however, is pushing back at efforts to identify the informant and counters that Ryan had every right to enter the couple’s property to conduct a knock-and-talk query.

Greenbank contends that Ryan restricted his movements to places where ordinary visitors would be reasonably expected to go before he was given permission to search. Greenbank further argues that the informant’s identity is irrelevant since the person is not being called as a witness and their information was not used to obtain a search warrant.

A hearing on the motion to suppress is scheduled for next week in 1st District Court. The couple’s two-day jury trials are slated for August.