No pot detected by drug dog; search illegal, lawyer says

PIERRE, S.D. — The lawyer for a Washington state woman caught near Sioux Falls with 53 pounds of pot is telling the state Supreme Court a drug dog did not indicate the presence of marijuana in the trunk of her car.

Therefore, say written arguments filed ahead of an April 25 hearing, the search that turned up two large duffel bags with $432,520 in marijuana was illegal and the evidence should have been suppressed.

A state trooper stopped Tam Thi Thu Nguyen, 23, of Renton, on March 18, 2005, near the exchange of Interstates 90 and 29 for following too closely.

Trooper Christopher Koltz had his drug dog sniff around the car during the videotaped stop.

Nguyen was convicted of drug possession and possession with the intent to distribute marijuana. She was sentenced to 25 years in prison, with 13 years suspended.

Lawyer Michael Butler says the trunk of Nguyen's car was searched when the dog, Kaz, merely put his paw on the rear bumper after prodding from Koltz on the second time around the vehicle. The tepid signal was hardly enough of a reason to open the trunk, the lawyer says, adding that the dog was trained to aggressively scratch when it smells drugs.

"The tape shows that Kaz had every opportunity to scratch at the target area but did not. He did not even show an inclination to scratch."

Kaz, a Belgian Malinois originally from Germany, has been with the Highway Patrol since 1996.