SUTTONS BAY -- Leelanau County sheriff's deputies illegally entered homes on several instances in an attempt to sniff out underage drinking, the American Civil Liberties Union contends.
The ACLU of Northwest Michigan sent a 6-page letter to Leelanau Sheriff Michael Oltersdorf outlining five incidents in a "disturbing trend" dating to 2007 through this summer. Deputies without warrants allegedly entered homes to give breath tests and check IDs, among other things.
"That's a legitimate issue; underage drinking is a violation of the law," said Steve Morse, chair of the local ACLU chapter's legal committee. "However, entering people's homes without a warrant is a violation of the law."
Michigan law states that officers are allowed to enter homes without a warrant and without the homeowner's permission if they believe someone is in immediate danger, evidence is being destroyed, a suspect is at risk of escaping or there is danger to police or others.
The ACLU contends none of these factors was present in any of the cited incidents.
"There's a proper way to enforce the law, and there's an improper way," Morse said. "They were doing it in an improper way."
Leelanau Undersheriff Scott Wooters said he hadn't yet seen the letter and wouldn't comment on the allegations or department policy. Oltersdorf was out of town Monday at a conference and couldn't be reached for comment.
'An abuse of power'
The ACLU began to investigate after Courtney Moore, a longtime Leland summer resident, told the organization that Leelanau deputies forced her to take an alcohol breath test without a search warrant.
In July, Moore, 19, and seven friends spent the night at a friend's Leland home. She said she was awakened after 3 a.m. by a loud knock on the door to the upstairs bedroom where she'd been sleeping.
A Leelanau sheriff's deputy stood over her, shining a flashlight in her face, she said, and ordered her to get dressed.
Downstairs, she said authorities told the group they had received a noise complaint hours before and were investigating an underage party involving alcohol. They said everyone needed to submit to a breath test, Moore said, and would be cited for refusing if they refused.
"It's such an abuse of power," said Moore, a hospitality business sophomore at Michigan State University. "It was just really traumatic."
Seven people, including Moore, received minor-in-possession citations, she said. Her blood-alcohol level was less than 0.1, she said, and her ticket later was dismissed.
Once Moore complained to the ACLU, other incidents surfaced, said Michael J. Steinberg, the ACLU's legal director.
"There's quite a reputation up there of abusive behavior by sheriff's deputies," Steinberg said. "It wasn't hard to learn of other stories."
Deputies in one August incident allegedly entered a private residence in Leland without a warrant and checked the identification of everyone present. Everyone was over 21, and no charges were issued.
In another alleged incident, deputies without a warrant went into a Suttons Bay home in the "middle of the night" in June and required everyone present to submit to a breath test.
Minor-in-possession charges against two individuals involved in that incident were thrown out by 86th District Judge Thomas J. Phillips. Phillips said the officers didn't have a valid reason to enter the home.
Deputies in another incident allegedly went into a home without a warrant on an afternoon in August 2007 to ask the homeowner if they planed to be home that evening. A deputy told the homeowner that a parent read on the social networking site Facebook that there was going to be a party at the house that evening.
Phone not 'ringing off the hook'
Leelanau County Prosecutor Joe Hubbell said he didn't have files in front of him and couldn't immediately comment on the cited cases, though the issue doesn't appear to be of significant public concern.
"My phone hasn't been ringing off the hook with local citizens calling to say police officers are overstepping their bounds," he said.
He dismissed the charge against Moore because officers are no longer able to ticket people for refusing to submit to a breath test, he said.
Hubbell said deputies often have their "hands tied" in dealing with incidents involving youth drinking.
"They have to err on the side of caution," he said. "Someone could be bleeding to death or have a closed head injury, and if they do nothing, then they're in trouble for that, too."
The ACLU letter asks Oltersdorf to "assure us that Leelanau County sheriff deputies will not in the future enter residents' homes without a search warrant unless they truly have the voluntary consent of the appropriate person to enter or that another recognized exception to the search warrant requirement exists."
The letter also asks the department to assure that it won't force individuals who aren't driving to take a breath test without a search warrant, and to institute a training program so deputies will be "properly trained on the constitutional limits on entering residents' homes and administering Breathalyzer tests to non-drivers."
The ACLU complaint is intended to alert residents to a pattern of unconstitutional searches conducted by county law enforcement, not fight an MIP ticket, Moore said.
"If this had happened in a different way, we wouldn't have fought it. I wasn't trying to get out of it," she said, adding that she likely won't file a civil suit of her own. "I just want them to stop."
Litigation could be possible if the sheriff's department doesn't properly respond to the letter, the ACLU said.
"It's a possibility, but we don't expect it to be necessary," Steinberg said. "The ball is in the sheriff's department's court."
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