Cocaine Case Dismissed on Illegal Entry

Lynn Marie Sheeley had been arrested at her home in Fullerton clutching a handful of recorded $20 bills from an undercover police informant to whom she had just sold cocaine. The cocaine was spread before them on a mirror.

But on Thursday, the 4th District Court of Appeal threw out the case against Sheeley. The court found that the Irvine police officers who arrested her had illegally forced their way into her home.

In a 2-1 opinion, the appellate court found that the police either should have had an arrest warrant or should have knocked on the door. Instead, officers barged past the front door and arrested Sheeley in a back bedroom.

Sheeley had pleaded guilty two years ago to the sale of cocaine in that incident on Aug. 26, 1982. But the nine-month sentence she received was held up while her attorneys appealed her case, claiming that the guilty plea came only after the trial court refused to suppress the evidence.

The prosecution claimed that the officers were within their rights to make an emergency entrance because they believed that the informant could have been in danger, and they overheard Sheeley, through a hidden transmitter on the informant, indicate that she was about to consume some of the cocaine herself.

But in an opinion written by Justice Sheila Sonenshine, the appellate court found that “there was no emergency situation. . . . Warrantless entry into the home is a violation of the 4th Amendment. . . .”