Fitzgerald v. State

In the Circuit Court for Howard County, the appellant, Matthew Thomas Fitzgerald, was found guilty, by Judge Dennis M. Sweeney, sitting without a jury, of the possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute. He was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment and a fine of $1,000. All of the prison sentence and all but $250 of the fine were suspended, in favor of two years’ probation.

Our concern on this appeal is with the Fourth Amendment correctness of a single pretrial suppression ruling. At issue is the reasonableness of using a drug-sniffing canine to gather probable cause for a search…