Trafficking cases dropped

SANDPOINT — The state is moving to dismiss marijuana trafficking charges against a Bonner County couple after a district judge suppressed evidence in the case, court records show.

Deputy Prosecutor Shane Greenbank filed motions to dismiss felony charges against Seth Matthan Walser and Kimberly Sue Brown on Tuesday. Greenbank moved for the dismissals because “the state is left with insufficient admissible evidence to proceed to trial,” the motions said.

The motions are pending in 1st District Court.

Walser, 32, and Brown, 28, were charged after a sheriff’s deputy conducted a knock-and-talk investigation on Jan. 28 at the couple’s

Rapid Lightning Road home. The deputy was acting on a tip which proved to be accurate, according to testimony in the case.

The couple reluctantly consented to a search which led to the discovery of 100 plants growing inside an outbuilding on the property.

But the couple’s defense attorneys, Val Thornton and Isabella Robertson, argued the evidence should be suppressed because Deputy Marty Ryan coerced them into giving consent.

In an 18-page ruling issued last week, Verby agreed. He found that Ryan restricted their movements, persuaded them from contacting an attorney, forbid them from making phone calls and warned them of harsher consequences if they did not comply.

Under the totality of the circumstances, Verby held in the Sept. 16 ruling that the defendants’ consent to the search was not voluntary.