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Motion Hearing Held On Elmes Marijuana Charges

By JAMES JARDINE, Staff Writer
Saturday May 12, 2007

ST. JOHNSBURY -- Robert Elmes, the former Lyndon selectman charged with a felony count of cultivating marijuana, was in Caledonia District Court Friday in a six-hour hearing.

In the hearing, his attorney, David Sleigh, was arguing in support of motions he filed to suppress all evidence obtained as the result of the execution of a search warrant, and to dismiss the felony charge against Elmes.

Caledonia County State's Attorney Robert Butterfield opposed the motions and argued that they should not be granted.

Caledonia District Court

Elmes, 56, was arraigned on the felony charge of cultivation of marijuana on Sept. 25, 2006. He pleaded innocent to the charge and was released on conditions. A Lyndon selectman at the time of his arraignment, Elmes resigned from the select board this year, on Jan. 8.

State trooper Shawn McGarvin was a passenger in a Vermont National Guard helicopter flight on Aug. 14, 2006 when the pilot and McGarvin spotted what they believed was marijuana growing on a Pudding Hill property.

Landing the helicopter at the Caledonia County State Airport, trooper McGarvin met with Sgt. Brian May and trooper Dennis Amadon. The three state troopers, each in a cruiser, drove around the Pudding Hill area attempting to identify the property they photographed from the air. They identified Elmes' property and pulled onto the property and spoke with Elmes. They then searched his property and found what they believed was evidence of marijuana cultivation.

Trooper Dennis Amadon subsequently filed an affidavit in Caledonia District Court in support of a search warrant. Once the search warrant was issued, state police searched Elmes' property, home and car and found additional evidence.

The defense believes the state police were not qualified to identify marijuana from the air and that because an application for a search warrant made representations that were unsupported, a search warrant should not have been given to the state police.

The defense argues that all evidence obtained as a result of the search warrant must be suppressed.
Judge Thomas Zonay presided over the hearing and heard testimony from the three Vermont state troopers who went to Elmes' house on Shelburne Road in Lyndon to verify observations made during a helicopter flight over the Elmes' property.

Judge Zonay, after hearing testimony from the three troopers and the testimony of the defendant, told the two sides he thought the state police may have filed inconsistent statements in the case.

He continued the hearing so that both sides could brief the court on issues raised by Zonay and could hear additional testimony from Trooper Dennis Amadon.