A lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Monongalia County Circuit Court against the Morgantown Police Department and one of its officers after a U.S. Court of Appeals vacated the conviction and sentence of a woman originally found guilty on illegal possession of firearms charges.
The plaintiff, Teresa Miller, claims an illegal search and seizure conducted by the officer and weight given to the officer’s testimony led to the conviction, causing her to suffer monetary, physical and emotional damages before it was vacated on Nov. 29, 2022.
Court documents show the story begins on July 3, 2018, when Morgantown Police Officer Helms conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle with an inoperable taillight. Miller was a passenger in the vehicle.
After printing a warning citation for the driver, Helms used his canine to sniff around the vehicle and conducted a full search when the dog alerted. During the search, two firearms were found in Miller’s backpack.
Miller was indicted in July 2019 on one count of unlawfully possessing a firearm and convicted in October 2020 following a bench trial before Senior District Judge Irene Keeley in the U.S. District Court.
On appeal, Miller argued the district court should have granted a motion to suppress evidence of the firearms and erred in their finding that Helms had reasonable suspicion to extend the traffic stop for a search.
Court records show during the district court proceedings, the court held that Helms had reasonable suspicion to extend the traffic stop because the driver “was slow to pull over, excessively nervous, and traveling on a known drug corridor,” Route 7. The district court gave great weight to Helms’ 14 years of law enforcement experience in their analysis.
U.S. Court of Appeals Chief Judge Gregory and Circuit Judges Agee and Diaz disagreed with the district court findings in their decision to vacate Miller’s conviction and sentence, stating video evidence from Helms’ dash and body cameras did not support his statements and impressions.
First, the appeals court judges did not agree the driver was slow to pull over, citing the video which showed she hit her brakes four seconds after the officer turned his lights on, activated her blinker three seconds after that, and stopped the vehicle a total of 17 seconds after Helms first activated the lights.
Second, body camera footage showed the driver was not excessively nervous during the traffic stop, contrary to Helm’s testimony in district court that she was shaking and nervously talking and sharing details about her day.
The appeals judges wrote that while the driver’s hands could not be seen the entire time, the video was clear and showed her hands were not shaking and the driver was simply making related small talk and responding to Helms’ questions.
Finally, the appeals judges determined that traveling on a drug corridor is not itself an indicator of criminal behavior, as the number of people using these roads for drug activity is significantly less than those traveling innocently.
On Jan. 13, the U.S. Attorney’s Office dismissed the indictment against Miller in light of the appeal decision.
In her lawsuit against MPD, Miller states she spent 967 days, or two and half years, on pre-trial after being arrested by Helms and served 588 days, over a year and half, in prison before her firearms conviction was reversed.
During that time, Miller alleges she suffered a number of injuries related to Helms’ violation of her Fourth Amendment rights and the conditions of her incarceration including: emotional distress, negative health consequences, loss of liberty, wrongful solitary confinement and loss of companionship and time with family.
Miller also claims to have lost business and future revenue due to losing intellectual property rights from a patent on candles, for which she was unable to obtain representation due to her incarceration, causing an infringement of her IP rights.
Miller stated in the lawsuit her estimated monetary damages total over $300,000.
Morgantown Communications Director Drew Bailey told The Dominion Post that as of Wednesday afternoon, the department had not yet been served with the lawsuit and therefore could not comment at this time.
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