Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 14, 1994 TAG: 9404140358
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C2 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: JONESVILLE LENGTH: Medium
Defense attorneys asked Lee County Circuit Judge William Fugate to throw out evidence prosecutors want to use against the men accused of possessing smoking materials in two mines in October.
Fugate is expected to rule next month on the joint motion.
Virginia Division of Mines spokesman Mike Abbott said Wednesday that when the miners were searched, inspectors found a butane lighter in Darrell Burgan's dinner bucket, a pack of cigarettes and a lighter in Harold Davis' shirt pocket, a cigarette butt in Bob Lee Eldridge's coveralls pocket and an unopened pack of cigarettes on a machine near Eldridge.
The 1993 General Assembly made it a felony to carry smoking materials into underground mines. The action was spurred by a Dec. 7, 1992, explosion at the Southmountain mine in Wise County that killed eight miners and apparently was set off by a butane lighter.
James Rasnic, an attorney representing Burgan of Clovesplint, Ky., and Davis of Jonesville, said Tuesday that a warrant was unnecessary to inspect the Big Fist Coal Co. mine. But he said a warrant was needed when the Oct. 4, 1993, inspection became personal and included searching individuals.
``There is a difference between periodical inspection of the mine itself and mine workplace ... and going into a mine with a group of agents'' telling miners to empty their pockets, Rasnic said.
He argued that before the miners could be individually searched, there must be prior judicial approval of a search warrant.
Zane Scott, an assistant U.S. attorney and consultant to the state Division of Mines, said the searches were legal and similar to the searches airline passengers often undergo before entering terminals.
Scott said search warrants are unnecessary when the public interest outweighs personal interests of people being searched.
He said miners were not denied their rights to privacy because signs at the mine say it's a felony to carry smoking materials into a mine and there were weekly checks of miners for smoking materials.
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.