A North Dakota court has preliminarily upheld the first-ever use of an unmanned aircraft to assist in the arrest of an American citizen.A judge denied a request to dismiss charges Wednesday against Rodney Brossart, a man arrested last year after a 16-hour standoff with police at his Lakota, North Dakota, ranch. Brossart’s lawyer argued that law enforcement’s “warrantless use of an unmanned military-like surveillance aircraft” and “outrageous governmental conduct” warranted dismissal of the case, according to court documents obtained by U.S. News.
District Judge Joel Medd wrote that “there was no improper use of an unmanned aerial vehicle” and that the aircraft “appears to have had no bearing on these charges being contested here,” according to the documents.
Court records state that last June, six cows wandered onto Brossart’s 3,000 acre farm, about 60 miles west of Grand Forks. Brossart allegedly refused to return the cows, which led to a long, armed standoff with the Grand Forks police department. At some point during the standoff, Homeland Security, through an agreement with local police, offered up the use of an unmanned predator drone, which “was used for surveillance,” according to the court documents.
Grand Forks SWAT team chief Bill Macki said in an interview that the unmanned aircraft was used to ensure Brossart and his family members, who were also charged, didn’t leave the farm and were unarmed during the arresting raid.
Brossart faces felony terrorizing and theft of property charges and a misdemeanor criminal mischief charge. Although his charges weren’t dismissed, Brossart won a motion to move the trial from Nelson County—which has a population of 3,100—to nearby Grand Forks County.
Brossart is believed to be the only American citizen who was arrested with the assistance of a UAS on U.S. soil. John Villasenor, of the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution, says the legality of domestic UAS use likely stems from two Supreme Court cases that allow police to use “public, navigable airspace” for evidence gathering.
Source: US News