BILLINGS – A special panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed the conviction of a Canadian man who helped bring $5.5 million worth of Ecstasy pills across the border into Montana.
The panel, which included retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, heard arguments in the case in Billings on July 29 and filed the ruling Wednesday.
The panel upheld a ruling by U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull, who found that a Montana state trooper was reasonable in stopping a car near Glendive in February 2008 for having a burned out headlight.
Timothy Morneau, a 32-year old passenger from Winnipeg, Manitoba, was sentenced in April 2009 to 20 years in prison. He argued that the traffic stop and the subsequent search and seizure were not based on reasonable suspicion, and the evidence should have been suppressed.
Officers seized more than 223,000 Ecstasy tablets weighing 141 pounds — worth about $5.5 million on the street.