Jan. 21--Text messages sent by a detective posing as a woman who had died of an overdose can be used at the upcoming trial of a man who received the texts and was charged with supplying drugs to the woman.
A McHenry County judge ruled Wednesday that prosecutors can use the evidence against Herman Trigg, a former Crystal Lake man who is charged with drug-induced homicide in the April death of Melissa Carroll of McHenry.
Trigg's lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Grant Tucker, argued last month that Trigg's Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches were violated when McHenry County Sheriff's Detective Kyle Mandernack, investigating Carroll's death, used her cellphone without a warrant to arrange a drug deal with Trigg. Authorities said Trigg, not knowing Carroll had died two days earlier, showed up at her house with heroin and marijuana in his car and was arrested.
But Judge Michael Feetterer ruled that Trigg, 31, had no "reasonable expectation of privacy under the Fourth Amendment" when it came to texts found on Carroll's phone.
"Defendant's only connection to this phone were digital copies of the messages he transmitted to the victim's phone. And once sent, he no longer had control over what became of those messages," the judge wrote.
The judge also noted that the detective had received consent to search and use the phone from the person responsible for the phone's account, Carroll's mother's boyfriend.
Authorities allege that Trigg sold heroin to Carroll on April 2. She was found dead in the bathroom of her home of an apparent overdose two days later.
Through a series of text messages using vague "drug talk," Trigg agreed to meet Carroll at her home on April 6 to sell her more drugs, authorities allege in court documents.
Tucker had argued that the officer engaged in "deliberate solicitation of information of an incriminating nature" -- tactics that he said "prompted" Trigg's alleged actions.
Trigg is being held in McHenry County Jail awaiting trial. He is due back in court Feb. 8.
Amanda Marrazzo is a freelance reporter.
