Man's appeal over 30-year drug sentence rejected by federal court n Issue centered on drug dog's ability to detect 'aroma', fingerprint evidence

A West Tennessee crime lord was turned down last week on an appeal to the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court in Cincinnati of a lengthy drug sentence.

A three-judge panel of the appeals court unanimously upheld Reginald Devoir Boxley's 30-year sentence for possession of 60 grams of crack cocaine with intent to distribute.

Boxley, 37, was found guilty in a U.S. District Court jury trial at Jackson on July 10, 2002. He was sentenced on Nov. 8, 2002 by U. S. Dist. Judge James D. Todd, who also ordered Boxley to serve five years of supervised probation after completing his prison sentence.

The appeals panel decided the appeal on two narrow grounds raised by Boxley.

Boxley claimed that a drug dog involved in his arrest was not properly trained to indicate the presence of drugs and that the actions of the dog were improperly used at his trial.

"On the night he was arrested in December of 1997, Boxley was subjected to a canine search for drugs by a drug-detection dog, Cuffs," Circuit Judge Boyce F. Martin Jr. wrote in the opinion. "Though Cuffs alerted to Boxley's pant pocket, the police found no drugs in the pocket or on Boxley's body. The police did, however, find drugs nearby and, based in part on Cuffs' alert, arrested Boxley."

During Boxley's trial a police officer testified that drug dogs alert to drugs' aroma"...and that Cuffs' alert to Boxley's pocket demonstrates that Boxley carried an aroma of drugs. This testimony was intended to link Boxley to the drugs that were found in his vicinity that night." Martin wrote. " In this case, (the officer) testified that Cuffs was certified as a drug detection dog after a two-month training program. Because Cuffs was certified, the district court properly admitted (the officer's) testimony."

During his trial Boxley claimed that fingerprint evidence that may have been favorable to him was not properly preserved by authorities. Part of his appeal was based on Todd's refusal to instruct the jury to take this into consideration.

"At trial, the government demonstrated that there was very little chance that even the most diligent preservation would have yielded fingerprint evidence," Martin wrote. " The government also demonstrated that the police did not act with any intention to destroy evidence...

"We agree with the district court: "the most that has been shown is that the policemen did not maintain and control the evidence in a manner consistent with good police tactics. But there was no bad faith involved."

The appeals panel denied that element of Boxley's appeal "Because the fingerprints were not likely to be lifted from the evidence notwithstanding the officers' actions, and because their actions were not in bad faith, the motion for a jury instruction on spoliation was properly denied," Martin wrote.

Circuit Judge John M. Rogers and U.S. District Judge Robert Holmes Bell, Chief Judge for the Western District of Michigan, sitting by designation, joined Martin in the opinion.

Boxley, then listed on the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation's 10 most wanted fugitive list, was arrested in March 2002 in West Palm Beach, Fla.

He formerly lived in Humboldt and was wanted in Union City for first-degree murder in connection with a Jan. 1, 1999, shooting. He was also wanted on federal drug dealing charges that resulted from an indictment in Jackson in November 1998. He is also a suspect in an October 1998 murder and robbery in Paducah, Ky. Police sources said Boxley was connected to the Gangster Disciples and headed a drug dealing operation in rural West Tennessee.