UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff,

v.

DONNELL ARTIS, et al.,

Defendants.

Case No. 16-cr-00477-VC 

ORDER RE MOTIONS TO SUPPRESS

In this case, a federal agent obtained search warrants from two Alameda County Superior 

Court judges. The first judge authorized the search of a defendant's cell phone. The second 

judge authorized the use of a cell-site simulator to locate another defendant. 

The federal agent should not have sought these warrants from those judges, because 

California law does not allow California state judges to issue search warrants to federal law 

enforcement officers. The federal agent should have received training from his employers, the 

Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Marshals Service, about the limits on his 

authority under state law. But he received no such training, because apparently his employers 

were also unaware of these limits. The Alameda County judges may also have been unaware of 

this limitation on federal involvement in the state's criminal justice system, although it's possible 

they were simply misled by the papers submitted by the federal agent in support of the search 

warrants.

As explained in a concurrently-filed unpublished ruling, the evidence obtained from these 

searches will be suppressed. A federal agent's mistaken belief that he could be issued a search 

warrant by a California state judge is likely not, on its own, a basis for suppressing evidence 

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obtained during the search (at least before the publication of this ruling). That is arguably goodfaith negligence. But the two warrants were plagued by numerous errors, reflecting a pattern of 

systematic recklessness by law enforcement that militates in favor of suppressing the evidence

(and against applying the "good faith exception" to the exclusionary rule). This ruling is 

published separately to put the relevant actors in the criminal justice system on notice that

California law prevents state judges from issuing search warrants to federal law enforcement 

officers, which means that federal law enforcement officers are not permitted to execute such 

warrants. 

I.

Stonie Carlson is a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He is 

assigned to a joint federal-state task force headed by the United States Marshals Service. The 

mission of the task force is to apprehend federal and state fugitives. For the purpose of his work 

on the joint fugitive task force, Carlson has been deputized as a member of the United States 

Marshals Service.

In 2015, Carlson began investigating Donnell Artis and Chanta Hopkins. Carlson learned 

from a confidential informant that Hopkins was engaged in credit card fraud with Artis. Carlson

then searched law enforcement databases and learned that California courts had issued arrest 

warrants for both of them, based on California criminal law violations. Members of the Oakland 

Police Department informed Carlson that Artis could often be found near a certain liquor store at 

a street corner in Oakland. On April 5, 2016, Carlson and his partner drove by the store, saw 

Artis there, and approached him. Artis ran, and dropped his phone. 

Later that day, Carlson sought a warrant to search Artis's cell phone. Even though 

Carlson is a federal officer, he did not seek this warrant from a federal magistrate judge. Rather, 

he sought it from a judge of the Alameda County Superior Court. In his affidavit to the judge, 

Carlson identified himself as a member of a joint fugitive task force and explained that the 

purpose of the task force was "to combine the efforts of federal, state, and local law enforcement 

agencies to locate and apprehend dangerous fugitives and assist in high profile investigations." 

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In addition, the affidavit included the following language: "It is requested that any federal, state, 

and/or local law enforcement officers be allowed to conduct the search of Artis' cellular

telephone." The judge issued the warrant. A few days later, one of Carlson's federal law 

enforcement colleagues searched the phone, which revealed evidence of criminal activity. 

On April 7, 2016 – two days after Carlson obtained the warrant to search Artis's phone 

but before the search was actually conducted – Carlson sought another search warrant from a 

different judge of the Alameda County Superior Court. The purpose of this warrant application 

was to get permission to use a cell-site simulator to determine the location of Hopkins's cell 

phone (and thereby likely determine the location of Hopkins himself). A cell-site simulator is a 

device that simulates a cell tower. That is, it "tricks" nearby cell phones into thinking that it's a 

cell tower, thereby causing nearby cell phones to send signals to the device, which allows the 

operator of the device to locate the phone being sought. See United States v. Patrick, 842 F.3d 

540, 542-43 (7th Cir. 2016); United States v. Ellis, 270 F. Supp. 3d 1134, 1139 (N.D. Cal. 2017); 

see also Carpenter v. United States, No. 16-402, slip op. at 1-2 (U.S. June 22, 2018). Carlson's 

affidavit stated that he was seeking authority to use the cell-site simulator on behalf of the United 

States Marshals Service and the Oakland Police Department, as a member of the task force. The 

judge issued the warrant. This allowed Carlson and his task force colleagues (with a federal 

officer operating the cell-site simulator) to locate Hopkins at his apartment in San Francisco. 

They arrested him outside the apartment and seized evidence of credit card fraud from him 

during that arrest. 

II.

Although the April 5 and April 7 warrants were plagued by various problems, one defect 

deserves special attention and is therefore the subject of this separate published ruling: under 

California law, federal law enforcement officers are not permitted to execute search warrants 

issued by California state judges.

California law specifies that a search warrant must be executed by a "peace officer." 

Specifically, section 1523 of the Penal Code defines a search warrant as a written order "signed 

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by a magistrate, directed to a peace officer, commanding him or her to search for a person or 

persons, a thing or things, or personal property." Paralleling this language, section 1528 says 

that when a state judge determines that a search warrant application establishes probable cause, 

the state judge "must issue a search warrant . . . to a peace officer in his or her county." Cal. 

Penal Code § 1528(a); see also id. § 1528(b).

Chapter 4.5 of Title 3 of the Penal Code specifies who counts as a "peace officer." Its 

first provision, section 830, states: "no person other than those designated in this chapter is a 

peace officer." Sections 830.1 through 830.15 identify "persons who are peace officers," listing

members of city police departments, the California Attorney General's office, local sheriffs' 

departments, and other state law enforcement officials. This list does not include federal law 

enforcement officers.

Another section in this chapter of the Penal Code gives federal law enforcement officers 

limited powers of arrest, but even while doing so, underscores that federal law enforcement 

officers do not generally have the authority that peace officers do. Specifically, section 830.8 

states: "Federal criminal investigators and law enforcement officers are not California peace 

officers, but may exercise the powers of arrest of a peace officer" under specified circumstances, 

including when the federal officers are enforcing federal law, when they've been requested by a 

California law enforcement agency to participate in a joint law enforcement task force, or when a 

public offense that involves immediate danger to people or property is being committed. The 

precise and circumscribed language of this provision reinforces the fact that state court judges 

may not issue search warrants to federal law enforcement officers.1

In its initial brief opposing the defendants' motions to suppress, the federal government 

pointed to federal law which authorizes certain federal law enforcement officers to act as state 

law enforcement officers. Specifically, the government argued that because 28 U.S.C. § 564 

 

1

Section 1530 of the Penal Code does not change this conclusion: even though it says that a 

search warrant may be served by officers "mentioned in its directions," it must be read in 

conjunction with sections 830.8 and 1523, which make clear that state search warrants must be 

directed to peace officers, and that federal officers do not count.

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authorizes members of the United States Marshals Service to exercise the "same powers which a 

sheriff of the State may exercise in executing the laws thereof," and because a "sheriff" is listed 

as a state peace officer in section 830.1 of the Penal Code, United States Marshals have all of the 

powers of California peace officers. See United States' Sur-Reply to Defendants' Motions to 

Suppress at 7-8 (Dkt. No. 175-1); see also 28 U.S.C. § 566 (listing the powers and duties of 

United States Marshals, including investigating fugitives); Authority of FBI Agents, Serving as 

Special Deputy United States Marshals, to Pursue Non-Federal Fugitives, 19 Op. O.L.C. 33 

(1995). But as the government now acknowledges, this argument overlooked a state's authority 

to decide how its own criminal justice system will operate. Even though federal law may 

authorize federal agents to act as state peace officers, each state retains the ability to limit the 

involvement of federal law enforcement in administering that state's criminal laws. Some states 

have authorized federal law enforcement officers to act as state peace officers. See, e.g., State v. 

Quevedo, 843 N.W.2d 351, 354-56 (S.D. 2014). But California chose to limit federal authority 

to enforce state criminal law by specifying that federal criminal law enforcement officers are not 

state peace officers. See 80 Cal. Att'y Gen. Op. No. 97-505 (Oct. 24, 1997) ("It is the prerogative 

of California to prescribe the qualifications of its officers and the manner in which they shall be 

chosen. Therefore, federal officers have only such powers to enforce California laws as the State 

of California has conferred upon them." (internal quotation marks and citation omitted)).

III.

It appears from these proceedings that many key members of the criminal justice 

community may have been unaware that California law restricts state court judges from issuing 

search warrants to federal law enforcement officers. 

Carlson himself was unaware of it (notwithstanding the defendants' assertion that he 

engaged in intentional misconduct). Carlson's testimony at the evidentiary hearing in this case 

revealed that he failed to distinguish in his mind: (i) the concept of submitting an affidavit in 

support of a search warrant; from (ii) the concept of being issued and executing a search warrant. 

The former is lawful: an affiant in support of a search warrant need not be a "peace officer" 

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under California law. See People v. Bell, 45 Cal. App. 4th 1030, 1054-55 (1996), abrogated on 

other grounds by People v. Athar, 105 Cal. App. 4th 479 (2002). But the latter is not lawful, as 

discussed in the preceding section. Carlson simply assumed both were allowed. 

The United States Attorney's Office was also apparently unaware of this restriction. As 

discussed above, the position initially taken by the office failed to recognize that it is not enough 

for federal law to authorize a federal officer to function as a state peace officer; state law must 

also do so. The office appears to understand that now and has acknowledged that Carlson is not 

a peace officer under California law and did not have the authority to execute the state search 

warrants. See Government's Post-Hearing Brief at 2, 6 (Dkt. No. 227).

It may be that the Alameda County District Attorney's Office is also unaware of the 

restrictions on search warrants. At the evidentiary hearing, Carlson claimed that his decision to 

seek the warrants from state court judges, rather than a federal magistrate judge, was based partly 

on training his colleagues received from that office. This statement by Carlson may or may not 

accurately reflect whatever his colleagues learned or told him, since Carlson's general conduct in 

this case, as well as his testimony at the evidentiary hearing, shows that he is neither well-trained 

nor particularly concerned with complying with the law in conducting his enforcement activities. 

It might be that the District Attorney's Office merely told Carlson's colleagues that federal 

officers may submit affidavits in support of search warrants to be issued to California peace 

officers (consistent with the above-referenced Bell decision), as opposed to telling them that 

federal officers may be issued and execute search warrants themselves.

Finally, the two state court judges who issued the warrants may have been unaware of the 

legal limits on Carlson's ability to insert himself into the state criminal justice system. The 

record is not clear on this point. As discussed in the separate unpublished ruling, although the 

state court judges likely should have known that Carlson was seeking authorization for himself 

and other federal officers to execute the searches, it is possible they were misled by the 

paperwork Carlson submitted to them. 

Because this is an important issue about which many people in the California criminal 

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justice community may still be unaware, the Court requests that United States Attorney for the 

Northern District of California transmit a copy of this ruling to the relevant local supervisors in 

the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the relevant local supervisors in the United States Marshals 

Service, the Alameda County District Attorney, the Oakland City Attorney (who represents the 

Oakland Police Department), the presiding judge of the Alameda County Superior Court, the 

United States Attorneys for the other districts in California, and the California Judicial Council.

IT IS SO ORDERED.

Dated: July 3, 2018

______________________________________

VINCE CHHABRIA

United States District Judge

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