A sheriff's deputy who barged into a Botetourt County home -- and into the room of a sleeping 10-year-old girl who reportedly awoke in terror -- has failed to convince a federal judge that the warrantless intrusion was appropriate under the circumstances.

Deputy Sheriff J.A. Wood's suspicion of underage drinking in the house that night does not rise to the type of emergency that would justify his actions, U.S. District Court Judge Samuel Wilson wrote in an opinion issued Thursday.

Wilson denied a motion by Wood's attorneys to dismiss a $10 million lawsuit filed last year by the girl's parents, Mark and Cheryl Hunsberger.

The Hunsbergers claim in the lawsuit that they had turned in for the night of Feb. 2, 2007, when they were jolted awake well past midnight by the screams of their daughter.

Rushing to her bedroom, the Hunsbergers found an intruder wearing a uniform and shining a flashlight on their daughter's bed while a second man attempted to pull the covers off the terrified child, the lawsuit claims.

The Hunsbergers later learned that the uniformed man was Wood, who had been called to their home by neighbors who suspected minors were holding a late-night beer bash in their basement.

Wood's companion, later identified as William Blessard, turned out to be the stepfather of a 16-year-old girl who was at the gathering.

While admitting that he had no search warrant, Wood claimed that his entry through the unlocked door was permitted under either of two legal theories: a "community caretaker" doctrine that allows police to enter a home to check someone's well-being, or an emergency situation in which there is clear evidence of danger to the occupants.

In his opinion, Wilson wrote that "it would be neither helpful nor possible to catalog emergencies."

Nonetheless, he listed several cases in which courts have found that the imminent threat of serious harm overrode the need for a search warrant. One example was a situation where police, looking through the window of a house, saw a fight break out and become so violent that blood sprayed from a punch. Another involved a man, distraught over his failed marriage, locking himself in his bedroom with a gun.

Considering that kind of precedent, Wilson wrote, "a reasonable officer would understand that suspicion that an underage person may be drinking or attending a social occasion in another's home where others are drinking, absent other circumstances, is not an immediate threat of serious harm that permits that officer to dispense with the warrant requirement."

Wilson's decision clears the way for Wood to face a trial in U.S. District Court in Roanoke. But it was at least a partial victory for Blessard, who according to court records was called to the Hunsberger home by police after they spotted his stepdaughter's car in the driveway.

Blessard entered the home in good faith, Wilson wrote in deciding to remove him from the portion of the lawsuit that claims the Hunsbergers' constitutional rights against unreasonable searches were violated. The remaining allegation against Blessard is a trespassing claim.

Wilson's analysis of the case differs with one conducted by Botetourt County Commonwealth's Attorney Joel Branscom, who asked for an investigation by state police after the lawsuit was filed.

Branscom later determined that all the circumstances taken together -- complaints of possible underage drinking, no answer to repeated knocks, sounds of movement from the garage, a father worried about his daughter -- justified entry into the home.

Wilson also referred the case to mediation, the goal of which is to reach a settlement before trial.