Trailor owners accuse Aurelius Township of unconstitutional searches

Couple claims code officer made secret, warrantless inspections, took property

TUESDAY,  Aug. 5 — An Aurelius Township couple has filed a federal lawsuit against a township code enforcement officer and the township for conducting multiple allegedly warrantless searches of their trailer in violation of the 4^th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The plaintiffs, John and Betty Argersinger, allege that Michael Lam and the township
“have a practice and custom of warrantlessly and permissionlessly entering private properties to conduct unlawful searches contrary to the Fourth Amendment.

“Discovery will bear out the total scope of those violations consisting of secret unannounced inspections,” the suit adds.

It was filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan on Friday by Hemlock, Michigan, attorney Philip L. Ellison.

The couple owns a trailer on West Columbia Road in the Ingham County township, the suit says. Aurelius Township is a largely rural area south of Lansing between Mason and Eaton Rapids.

The Argersingers said in the suit that they are not in violation of the township zoning code.

Yet, they said, Lam entered their property “numerous different times to conduct inspection-searches without permission or a warrant” when he “collected information, took photographs, and generated other documentation from information he was not entitled to have access to because he never secured a warrant prior to conducting the search(es).”

The couple said it is entitled to “relief,” in part because of the “failure to properly train agents and officials regarding constitutional protections like those provided by the Fourth Amendment.”

They also have accused the defendants with trespassing and have asked for an injunction to prevent Lam from “his illegal practice of secret, unannounced trespassing upon private property as has been a practice and/or asserted as an ongoing right to do so by Defendant.”

The couple is seeking a jury trial. They are asking for “an award of applicable damages including nominal damages against Defendants”; “an injunction requiring the destruction and/or expungement of all information and/or data extracted (in whatever medium or form) due to the illegal searches”; and punitive damages against Lam personally.

Township Supervisor David Droscha declined to comment on the suit.  He referred questions to the township attorney, but declined to provide his name.  He said he would ask the attorney if he wanted to comment.

 

 

 

 

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