In a case that has become well known around the state of Minnesota due to the sheer number of deer poached has been thrown out by District Judge Thomas Van Hon.
In January 2015, Joshua Liebl, along with three other men were charged after officials executed a search warrant on Liebl’s home and uncovered 28 deer antler sets, including 11 shoulder mounts and seized 37 guns.
The focal point of this case quickly became Liebl’s pickup truck.
After receiving numerous tips via the state’s Turn In Poachers (TIP) service, a GPS tracking device was secretly attached to the underside of Liebl’s truck, before officers had secured the necessary search warrant.
The judge’s ruling on Monday came in favor of Defense Attorney William Peterson’s argument citing the 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that had made it clear that a search warrant was required to place a GPS tracking device on a vehicle.
Acting on the advice of the local count attorney’s office, the Department of Natural Resources conservation office sought and received a judge’s order for a “tracking warrant”, which required meeting a lesser legal standard of seeking information.
In Judge Van Hon’s ruling, he stated that the tracking order application “contains sufficient information to support a probable cause determination for a warrant to attach a GPS device, if the application had been an application for warrant and if the tracking order had been a warrant.”
In the end, the proper warrant was not obtained by officials, deeming all evidence seized in the case “fruit of the poisonous tree” and could not be rendered in court.
