2005 Decisions

Opinions of the United

States Court of Appeals

for the Third Circuit

8-3-2005

USA v. Ritter

Precedential or Non-Precedential: Precedential

Docket No. 04-3489

Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.law.villanova.edu/thirdcircuit_2005

This decision is brought to you for free and open access by the Opinions of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit at Villanova

University School of Law Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in 2005 Decisions by an authorized administrator of Villanova

University School of Law Digital Repository. For more information, please contact Benjamin.Carlson@law.villanova.edu.

Recommended Citation

"USA v. Ritter" (2005). 2005 Decisions. Paper 627.

http://digitalcommons.law.villanova.edu/thirdcircuit_2005/627
PRECEDENTIAL

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT

 

No. 04-3489

 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA;

GOVERNMENT OF THE VIRGIN ISLANDS,

 Appellants

v.

ERNIE RITTER;

REGGY RITTER;

DALE RITTER

 

Appeal from the District Court

of the Virgin Islands

(District Court Criminal No. 04-cr-00007)

District Court Judge: Raymond L. Finch

 

Argued: April 20, 2005

Before: NYGAARD*, RENDELL and SMITH, Circuit

Judges
- 2 -

*Honorable Richard L. Nygaard assumed senior status on

July 9, 2005

(Filed: August 3, 2005)

Bruce Z. Marshack

Office of the U.S. Attorney

1108 King Street, Suite 201

Christiansted, St. Croix

USVI, 00820

Richard A. Friedman [ARGUED]

U.S. Department of Justice, Room 1264

Criminal Division, Appellate Section

10 Street & Constitution Avenue N.W. th

Washington, DC 20530

 Counsel for Appellants

 United States of America;

 Government of the Virgin Islands

Jomo Meade [ARGUED]

112 Queen Cross Street

Frederiksted, St. Croix

USVI, 00840

 Counsel for Appellee Ernie Ritter

Martial A. Webster

116 Queen Cross Street

Frederiksted, St. Croix

USVI, 00851

 Counsel for Appellee Reggy Ritter
- 3 -

(continued)

Thurston T. McKelvin [ARGUED]

Kirsten G. Downs

Office of Federal Public Defender

P.O. Box 223450

Christiansted, St. Croix

USVI, 00822

 Counsel for Appellee Dale Ritter

 

OPINION OF THE COURT

 

RENDELL, Circuit Judge.

The United States of America and the Government of the

Virgin Islands (collectively, the “government”) appeal from the

order of the District Court of the Virgin Islands granting

brothers Ernie, Reginald and Dale Ritter’s motion to suppress

physical evidence. We will vacate the order of the District

Court and remand for further findings consistent with this

opinion.
- 4 -

I. BACKGROUND

A. Facts

In August of 2002, while conducting aerial surveillance,

Officer Christopher Howell of St. Croix, Virgin Islands,

working jointly with the Federal Drug Enforcement

Administration High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task

Force (“Task Force”), observed marijuana growing in a roofless

stable at the rear of a house in Fredericksted, St. Croix. A man

could be seen tending the plants. Officer Howell notified Task

Force ground units, who entered the premises without a warrant,

destroyed the growing marijuana plants and apprehended the

gardener. The gardener admitted cultivating and tending the

plants but denied residing in the house; no charges were filed

against him. Three additional plots of marijuana plants growing

in a field behind the house were also discovered and destroyed

during the raid. 

The following Spring, on April 24, 2003, Officer Howell

received the first of two anonymous calls relating to the property

previously surveilled and indicating that its residents were

growing marijuana on the premises. The unidentified female

caller advised Officer Howell that the “occupants of the house”

– no names were provided – were growing marijuana “to the

rear of their residence.” She advised that there were “‘hundreds

of plants’ located in the horse stables and the field adjacent to
- 5 -

the stables.” (Howell Affidavit.) Officer Howell noted the

information but took no immediate action. 

Two weeks later, on May 7, 2003, Officer Howell

received a second call. Again, the caller remained anonymous,

but Officer Howell testified that he believed it to be the same

person who had placed the April call. The second call provided

additional information: the informant repeated the allegation that

marijuana was being grown in the back of the residence but

added that she had personally observed someone carrying plants

into the house, and she had heard from another person that there

were at least two indoor grow rooms inside the house. The

tipster, however, did not name or describe any of the residents

of the house, nor did she indicate precisely where in the house

plants were growing. Officer Howell did not remember asking

for more specific information. 

Following the second call, Officer Howell immediately

applied for a warrant, basing his affidavit in support of probable

cause on both the 2002 raid and the information provided by the

anonymous tipster. Other than to draw upon his previous

experience in 2002, Officer Howell did not undertake any

additional corroborative investigation to determine, inter alia,

how many individuals resided in the house at issue. The

affidavit identified the property by reference to an aerial
 At no time have the parties disputed that Attachment “A” 1

features the Ritters’ property and is the same property that was

the subject of the 2002 raid initiated by Officer Howell’s aerial

surveillance.

 The parties now agree that the property’s correct description 2

is 87 Mars Hill. However, Officer Howell testified that Mars

Hill “is part of New Street” and that confusion as to addresses

on the island illustrated the need to attach a photograph of the

premises to be searched.

- 6 -

photograph (“Attachment ‘A’”), which shows a large main 1

structure or residence with at least two outside doors visible,

along with two additional structures on the premises. The

warrant subsequently issued by the Magistrate Judge identified

the premises to be searched as “No known number New Street

Frederiksted St. Croix U.S.V.I. further pictured on Attachment

‘A’”, and authorized the government to search for “marijuana 2

and items used to process, and facilitate the growing of

marijuana, i.e., lighting, air-conditioning units, ventilation units,

scales and packaging materials.” 

Howell was one of many law enforcement officers

present for the execution of the warrant the following day.

However, at the suppression hearing before the District Court,
 Only two witnesses testified in total – Howell and Andre 3

Peterson, an investigator for the Office of the Public Defender.

 Howell himself was on a perimeter team. He described his 4

responsibility as the “affiant on the search” by stating: “You

might say that I, I decided who would do what during the course

of the search.”

- 7 -

he was the only witness to testify regarding the raid. Officer 3

Howell explained that those present on the scene included

various “teams” – entry teams (who conduct an initial sweep of

the premises for people), perimeter teams (who secure the

perimeter) and search teams (who conduct a more thorough

search and actually seize evidence). At some point during the

warrant’s execution, entry team members, who were the first to

infiltrate the premises, realized that the property’s main structure

was not a single dwelling but, rather, consisted of at least four

separate apartments. The record indicates that each of the

defendant brothers – Ernie, Dale and Reginald – occupied

separate apartments, although it is not clear which of the

brothers, other than Dale, was home at the time of the raid.

 Despite the discovery of multiple units in the residence, after

the entry teams finished their preliminary sweep, search teams

were sent in to more thoroughly search the premises and collect

evidence. While the record does not make clear whether Officer

Howell even entered the house, he testified as to the evidence

observed and seized inside. 

4
 The motion was filed by defendant Ernie Ritter, and then 5

joined by his brothers Reginald and Dale Ritter. 

- 8 -

Howell’s testimony concerning the sequence of events is

imprecise, but ultimately, marijuana, guns and cash were

collected from various locations within the building, including

the brothers’ respective apartments. As predicted by the

anonymous tipster, two indoor grow rooms, one downstairs and

one upstairs, were discovered. Marijuana was also found

growing in at least two more areas either in or outside the home.

In addition, a rifle was found either laying or hanging on the bed

of Ernie Ritter along with a second gun in his closet; money and

drugs were found in the oven or broiler of Dale Ritter; and

marijuana was discovered on Dale Ritter’s person after a patdown by officers.

B. District Court Proceedings

The District Court granted the defendants’ motion to

suppress all physical evidence. Although the District Court 5

rejected defendants’ contentions that the warrant was not

supported by probable cause and that it failed to adequately

describe the location to be searched, the Court found that, based

on what the officers discovered as to the true character of the

residence, the warrant did not describe with particularity the

place to be searched. Citing to the Supreme Court’s opinion in

Maryland v. Garrison, the District Court held that the warrant
- 9 -

was facially deficient – in other words, the entry teams’

discovery of multiple units inside the residence had essentially

functioned to retroactively invalidate the search warrant. 480

U.S. 79, 86-87 (1987). According to the District Court, Howell

and his fellow officers enjoyed a “windfall” but should not have

acted upon it – “Once the police officers realized the building

was a multi-unit dwelling, the Court holds that the search

warrant was defective for failing to specify which unit(s) were

to be searched.” 

The government contended that the warrant should

nonetheless be deemed sufficient because the “good faith”

exception should have applied. The District Court rejected this

argument, noting that there are four situations in which the

general presumption of good faith, which generally attaches

based on the mere issuance of a warrant, is negated:

(1) [when] the magistrate [judge] issued the

warrant in reliance on a deliberately or recklessly

false affidavit;

(2) [when] the magistrate [judge] abandoned his

judicial role and failed to perform his neutral and

detached function;

(3) [when] the warrant was based on an affidavit

“so lacking in indicia of probable cause as to
- 10 -

render official belief in its existence entirely

unreasonable”; or

(4) [when] the warrant was so facially deficient

that it failed to particularize the place to be

searched or the things to be seized.

U.S. v. Hodge, 246 F.3d 301, 308 (3d Cir. 2001) (citation

omitted). Based on the warrant’s failure to particularize the

place to be searched, the District Court found the warrant

facially defective and based on the fourth factor above, declined

to apply the good faith exception. “When the police officers

realized that there were multiple dwelling units and the search

warrant gave them no guidance as to which unit(s) were to be

searched, the police officers could not be said to have been

executing the warrant in good faith by subsequently searching

at least four different residential units.” All evidence seized

pursuant to the search warrant, the District Court thus

concluded, should be suppressed. 

II. ANALYSIS 

A. Jurisdiction and Standard of Review

The District Court had jurisdiction under 48 U.S.C.

§ 1612; we have jurisdiction over this government appeal

pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3731. 
- 11 -

On a motion to suppress, the government bears the

burden of showing that each individual act constituting a search

or seizure under the Fourth Amendment was reasonable. United

States v. Johnson, 63 F.3d 242, 245 (3d Cir. 1995). With

respect to a suppression order, we review the District Court’s

factual findings for clear error, see United States v. Roberson,

90 F.3d 75, 77 (3d Cir. 1996) (citing Ornelas v. United States,

517 U.S. 690, 699-700 (1996)), and exercise plenary review

over its legal determinations, see United States v. Coggins, 28

V.I. 241, 986 F.2d 651, 654 (3d Cir. 1993). However, when a

district court, in reviewing a magistrate’s determination of

probable cause, bases its probable cause ruling on facts

contained in an affidavit, we exercise plenary review over the

district court’s decision. United States v. Conley, 4 F.3d 1200,

1204 (3d Cir. 1993) (citations omitted). In contrast, both our

court and the district court exercise a deferential review of the

magistrate’s initial probable cause determination. Id. at 1205

(citing Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 236 (1983)).

B. Discussion 

The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution

provides: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons,

houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and

seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but

upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and

particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons

or things to be seized.” U.S. Const. amend. IV. The right of
- 12 -

security in person and property afforded by the Fourth

Amendment may be invaded in various different ways by

searches and seizures – here, defendants challenge the

magistrate’s issuance of the warrant as well as the government’s

execution of that warrant; however, “[i]t must always be

remembered that what the Constitution forbids is not all

searches and seizures, but unreasonable searches and seizures,”

Elkins v. United States, 364 U.S. 206, 222 (1960). 

1. Probable Cause

The threshold requirement for issuance of a warrant is

probable cause. However, in reviewing the issuance of a

warrant and given the historic preference expressed by our

courts for the warrant process, see Johnson v. United States, 333

U.S. 10, 13-14 (1948), we are to determine whether the

magistrate had a “substantial basis” for concluding that probable

cause was present, Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 236 (1983).

“[T]he Fourth Amendment requires no more.” Id. The District

Court, viewing the “totality of the circumstances,” id., and

deferring to a principle oft articulated by this Court – that

“after-the-fact scrutiny should not take the form of de novo

review,” see, e.g., United States v. Ninety-Two Thousand Four

Hundred Twenty-Two Dollars and Fifty-seven Cents ($

92,422.57), 307 F.3d 137, 146 (3d Cir. 2002) (quoting Gates,

462 U.S. at 235) – could “not find that the search warrant

application was devoid of probable cause,” notwithstanding
 It is “well established that the prevailing party below need 6

not cross-appeal to entitle him to support the judgment in his

favor on grounds expressly rejected by the court below.” Swarb

v. Lennox, 405 U.S. 191, 202 (1972) (White, J., concurring)

(citing Walling v. Gen. Indus. Co., 330 U.S. 545 (1947)).

Because the Ritters have attacked on appeal the District Court’s

reasoning, not the result achieved, they are not barred from revisiting the probable cause issue here. See Mass. Mut. Life Ins.

Co. v. Ludwig, 426 US 479 (1976).

- 13 -

Officer Howell’s admission that he did nothing to

independently corroborate the anonymous caller’s tips. This

conclusion, we think, requires discussion. 

Ernie and Reginald Ritter claim on appeal that the

District Court erred in concluding that there existed probable

cause to support the magistrate judge’s issuance of a warrant.6

They assert that Officer Howell’s affidavit was based on

nothing more than uncorroborated anonymous tips and that such

information does not form an adequate basisfor the issuance of

a warrant under Gates and its progeny. 462 U.S. at 233

(replacing two-prong test with a “totality of the circumstances”

approach for determining if an informant’s tip established

probable cause). The government counters that Howell’s

affidavit appropriately incorporated his past personal experience

of having seized marijuana from the property in question in

2002 to corroborate the more recent anonymous tips. To some

extent, we think, both parties’ assertions have merit. 
- 14 -

On the one hand, a warrant may issue even in the absence

of direct, first-hand evidence. See United States v. Burton, 288

F.3d 91, 103 (3d Cir. 1992) (noting that “direct evidence linking

the residence to criminal activity is not required to establish

probable cause”); United States v. Jones, 28 V.I. 375, 994 F.2d

1051, 1056 (3d Cir. 1993) (“While ideally every affidavit would

contain direct evidence linking the place to be searched to the

crime, it is well established that direct evidence is not required

for the issuance of a search warrant.”). Gates requires that a

court considering the sufficiency of an agent’s affidavit look at

the “totality of the circumstances,” and, in employing this

flexible standard, the Supreme Court has explained that the

“task of the issuing magistrate is simply to make a practical,

common-sense decision whether, given all the circumstances set

forth in the affidavit before him, including the ‘veracity’ and

‘basis of knowledge’ of persons supplying hearsay information,

there is a fair probability that contraband or evidence of a crime

will be found in a particular place.” Id. at 238-39 (citations

omitted). In other words, an issuing court need only conclude

that it would be reasonable to seek the sought-after objects in

the place designated in the affidavit; a court need not determine

that the evidence is in fact on the premises. See Conley, 4 F.3d

at 1205 (“Keeping in mind that the task of the issuing magistrate

is simply to determine whether there is a ‘fair probability that

contraband or evidence of a crime will be found in a particular

place’ . . . a reviewing court is to uphold the warrant as long as

there is a substantial basis for a fair probability that evidence

will be found.”) (quoting Gates, 462 U.S. at 238)). 
 A Terry stop, of course, requires only reasonable suspicion, 7

see Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 20 L. Ed. 2d 889, 88 S. Ct. 1868

(1968), a less demanding level of suspicion than is required to

establish probable cause. 

- 15 -

On the other hand, however, in Alabama v. White, 496

U.S. 325 (1990), where the Supreme Court adopted the “totality

of the circumstances” test to determine whether an anonymous

tip could provide reasonable suspicion for a Terry stop, the 7

Court stressed two factors: (1) an officer’s ability to corroborate

significant aspects of the tip, and (2) the tip’s ability to predict

future events. Where corroboration or independent investigation

after receipt of an anonymous tip is lacking – and thus the

predictive value of the tip goes untested before a warrant is

issued – courts have found officers’ subsequent reliance on the

warrant unreasonable. See, e.g, United States v. Wilhelm, 80

F.3d 116, 121-22 (4th Cir. 1996) (reliance unreasonable

because magistrate acted as rubber stamp by approving “bare

bones” affidavit based solely upon uncorroborated anonymous

tip); United States v. Weaver, 99 F.3d 1372, 1380 (6th Cir.

1996) (reliance unreasonable because detective had no personal

knowledge of unlawful activity, did not conduct any visual

reconnaissance of area, had only third-party hearsay information

on marijuana-growing operation on property, and detective

executed warrant himself). 

Here, like the officer-affiants in these cases, Officer

Howell, after receiving an anonymous tip call, made no attempt
- 16 -

to verify the informant’s allegations through further independent

investigation. But, unlike the officers in those cases, Howell did

have arguably relevant previous experience with the property in

question and included this “historical information [regarding]

the previous seizure in August 2002” in his affidavit. The

question is whether this experience was sufficiently

corroborative so as to give the tip predictive value. It could be

said that the connection to the previous raid was tenuous in

terms of actual corroboration – it occurred seven months before,

the marijuana was being grown in the stable area, the person

apprehended was the gardener who apparently did not live on

the premises, and there appears to have been no direct

connection to the house or its inhabitants. However, Officer

Howell’s previous observation, the similarity of the type of

offense, the fact that the current tip involved both the house and

the surrounding outdoor area, and the logical inference that the

gardener might have been authorized by the inhabitants of the

house to grow the marijuana, all point to the plausible

relationship between the previous event and the tip. We can see

how an officer and a magistrate could view the tip as

establishing an identifiable pattern of activity on the premises.

This is a close case. Were we reviewing the magistrate’s

decision de novo, we might reach a different result. However,

the Supreme Court has charged us, when reviewing the

sufficiency of an affidavit and resulting warrant, not to engage

in “after-the-fact scrutiny” that “take[s] the form of de novo

review.” Gates, 462 U.S. at 235. Moreover, we review for a
 Judge Smith raises excellent questions regarding the reliance 8

Officer Howell placed on anonymous tips which we might find

persuasive if we were conducting a de novo review for probable

cause as was the situation, for example, in the case Judge Smith

finds analogous, United States v. Roberson, 90 F.3d 75, 77 (3d

Cir. 1996). However, we are reviewing deferentially for

substantial basis for a magistrate’s conclusion that probable

cause existed. 

- 17 -

“substantial basis” for concluding that probable cause existed,

id. at 236 (citation omitted), which is one step removed from a

directed probable cause inquiry applicable when reviewing

warrantless stops and searches. Here, the deferential standard 8

with which we view the magistrate’s initial probable cause

determination tips the scale in favor of determining that the

magistrate had a “substantial basis” for finding probable cause

existed. In so concluding, we are mindful of the Supreme

Court’s consistent admonitions over the course of the last half

century regarding our preference for warrants and the nature of

our task in reviewing warrants issued by judicial officers: 

The point of the Fourth Amendment . . . is not

that it denies law enforcement the support of the

usual inferences which reasonable men draw from

evidence. Its protection consists in requiring that

those inferences be drawn by a neutral and

detached magistrate instead of being judged by

the officer engaged in the often competitive
- 18 -

enterprise of ferreting out crime. Any assumption

that evidence sufficient to support a magistrate’s

disinterested determination to issue a search

warrant will justify the officers in making a

search without a warrant would reduce the

Amendment to a nullity and leave the people’s

homes secure only in the discretion of police

officers. . . . When the right of privacy must

reasonably yield to the right of search is, as a rule,

to be decided by a judicial officer, not by a

policeman or government enforcement agent.

Johnson v. United States, 333 U.S. at 13-14.

A magistrate’s “determination of probable cause

should be paid great deference by reviewing

courts.” Spinelli [v. United States, 393 U.S. 410,

419 (1969)]. “A grudging or negative attitude by

reviewing courts toward warrants,” is inconsistent

with the Fourth Amendment’s strong preference

for searches conducted pursuant to a warrant;

“courts should not invalidate [warrants] by

interpreting [affidavits] in a hypertechnical, rather

than a commonsense, manner.”

Gates, 462 U.S. at 236 (quoting and United States v. Ventresca,

380 U.S. 102, 108, 109 (1965)). The Supreme Court has clearly

indicated that the conclusions of a neutral magistrate regarding
- 19 -

probable cause are entitled to a great deal of deference by a

reviewing court, and the temptation to second-guess those

conclusions should be avoided. Gates, 462 U.S. at 236.

Accordingly, we find the issuance of the warrant to have been

proper. Acknowledging the susceptibility to attack of

anonymous tips when dissected de novo – as Judge Smith

forcefully urges – we note that even if the issuance of the

warrant were faulty under the appropriate standard, Officer

Howell’s reliance on it is clearly not subject to attack, United

States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897 (1984), as Judge Smith readily

concedes. 

2. Particularity Requirement 

Apart from requiring probable cause, the warrant clause

of the Fourth Amendment also unambiguously requires that

warrants must particularly describe “the place to be searched,

and the persons or things to be seized.” U.S. Const. amend. IV.

The particularity requirement not only prevents general

searches, but also “assures the individual whose property is

searched or seized of the lawful authority of the executing

officer, his need to search, and the limits of his power to

search.” United States v. Chadwick, 433 U.S. 1, 9 (1977)

(citation omitted). 

Here, relying on the Supreme Court’s decision in

Maryland v. Garrison, the District Court concluded that the

government’s discovery of multiple dwellings on defendants’
- 20 -

property retroactively invalidated the warrant – in essence,

rendered the warrant defective from the start for failure to

particularize the place to be searched. While we agree that

Maryland v. Garrison controls the instant issue, we disagree

with the District Court’s interpretation and use of that case to

grant defendants’ motion. 

In Garrison, Baltimore police officers obtained and

executed a warrant to search the person of Lawrence McWebb

and “the premises known as 2036 Park Avenue third floor

apartment.” Id. at 80. When the police applied for the warrant

and when they conducted the search pursuant to the warrant,

they reasonably believed that there was only one apartment on

the premises, McWebb’s, located on the third floor as described

in the warrant. A preliminary investigation had been

undertaken, which included making calls to the utility company

to confirm that the third floor had only one dwelling. Id. In

fact, the third floor was divided into two apartments, one

occupied by McWebb and one by Garrison. When police

arrived at the vestibule of the third floor of the building to

execute the warrant to search McWebb’s apartment, they were

able to see into both McWebb’s apartment to the left and

Garrison’s to the right, as the doors to both were open. It was

only after Garrison’s apartment was entered and contraband had

been discovered that any of the officers realized that the third

floor contained two apartments; up until that point, all of the

officers reasonably believed that they were searching McWebb’s
- 21 -

apartment. “As soon as they became aware of that fact, the

search was discontinued.” Id. at 79. 

At the outset, the Garrison Court noted that “the case

presents two separate constitutional issues, one concerning the

validity of the warrant and the other concerning the

reasonableness of the manner in which it was executed.” 480

U.S. at 80. In the case before us, the District Court concluded

that the officers’ discovery of multiple units inside defendants’

residence retroactively invalidated the warrant for lack of

particularity. “Once the police officers realized the building was

a multi-unit dwelling, the Court holds that the search warrant

was defective for failing to specify which unit(s) were to be

searched.” But, in Garrison, the Supreme Court directs us to

perform a different analysis. In fact, it rejects the concept of

retroactive invalidity that was the basis for the District Court’s

order granting defendants’ suppression motion and instructs us,

instead, to examine the reasonableness of the warrant’s

execution.

Similar to the circumstances present in Garrison, here,

there came a point in the execution of the warrant when the

officers “[w]ith the benefit of hindsight [knew] that the

description of [the place to be searched] was broader than

appropriate because it was based on the mistaken belief that

there was only one [dwelling on defendants’ property].”

Garrison, 480 U.S. at 85. “The question is whether that factual

mistake invalidated a warrant that undoubtedly would have been
- 22 -

valid if it had reflected a completely accurate understanding of

the building’s floor plan.” Id. Considering this question, the

Supreme Court answered in the negative, emphasizing that the

constitutionality of police officers’ conduct in the execution of

the warrant – not the validity of the warrant – is the crucial

issue, and it must be judged “in light of the information

available to them at the time they acted.” Id. 

Those items of evidence that emerge after the

warrant is issued have no bearing on whether or

not a warrant was validly issued. Just as the

discovery of contraband cannot validate a warrant

invalid when issued, so is it equally clear that the

discovery of facts demonstrating that a valid

warrant was unnecessarily broad does not

retroactively invalidate the warrant. The validity

of the warrant must be assessed on the basis of the

information that the officers disclosed, or had a

duty to discover and to disclose, to the issuing

Magistrate.

Id. (footnote omitted) (emphasis added). The Garrison Court

thus concluded that a search warrant, “insofar as it authorize[s]

a search that turn[s] out to be ambiguous in scope,” will,

nevertheless, be upheld against a particularity challenge if the

warrant described the structure as it was known or should have

been known to the officers after reasonable inquiry under the

circumstances. Id. at 86. Therefore the District Court’s
- 23 -

suppression order cannot be upheld on the basis of its proffered

reasoning that the officers’ discovery of multiple units within

the residence invalidated the warrant. Accordingly, as directed

by Garrison, we must evaluate the officers’ conduct in carrying

out the warrant. 

3. Execution of the Warrant

Although the officers lawfully embarked upon the search

of the premises with a warrant supported by probable cause, did

there come a time when their execution went beyond what the

warrant permitted and, thus, ran afoul of the Fourth

Amendment’s prohibition of unreasonable searches? Garrison

necessarily informs this inquiry. From the Supreme Court’s

opinion in that case, several relevant principles can be distilled,

all of which focus on the conduct of a reasonable officer and the

reasonableness of his belief as to whether the search at issue is

proceeding beyond the four corners of the warrant. 

First, if the officers had known, or should have known,

that there were separate dwellings contained in the property

pictured in Attachment “A” to Officer Howell’s affidavit, they

would have “been obligated to exclude [those areas for which

probable cause was not established] from the scope of the

requested warrant.” 480 U.S. at 85. Officer Howell testified

that the multi-unit nature of defendants’ residence was not

known to officers prior to execution of the warrant. Second,

mere entry into the building’s common areas was reasonable and
 Insofar as the warrant at issue in Garrison named an 9

individual as opposed to merely listing an address, the facts of

our case clearly differ. Under the facts of Garrison, the

Supreme Court recognized that officers, depending upon when

the error is discovered, will either have to limit their search

(which assumes the warrant’s mistake is noticed before entry

into an unrelated area) or discontinue the search (assuming, as

was the case in Garrison, that officers have already mistakenly

undertaken a search of premises outside the scope of the

warrant). In the instant case, where there are multiple

defendants and generalized probable cause to search a property

as opposed to a specific individual’s apartment, the lines are not

so clearly delineated. See People v. Luckett, 273 Ill. App. 3d

1023, 1028 (1995) (“[T]he probable cause requirement would

be rendered virtually meaningless if police could legally search

several living units upon a mere showing that one of the units,

not specifically identified, contained the contraband sought.”)

(citing United States v. Busk, 693 F.2d 28 (3d Cir. 1982)).

- 24 -

lawful because the officers carried a valid warrant authorizing

entry upon the premises. Id. at 86. As discussed above, the

warrant to search defendants’ residence was valid and it is

undisputed that the warrant was directed specifically toward the

property that officers did in fact enter. Third, once the officers

knew or should have known of the error in what they

encountered versus what was authorized by the warrant, they

were obligated to either limit the search to those areas clearly

covered by the warrant or to discontinue entirely their search.

Id. at 87. Here, notwithstanding their discovery of multiple 9
 Nevertheless, the government states that it is preserving its 10

right to argue on remand that some exception to the warrant

requirement, such as exigent circumstances, justified the

continued search of defendants’ individual apartments. (Brief

of Appellant at 17.) 

- 25 -

units, the officers did not limit or discontinue their search. This

does not necessarily, however, result in suppression of all

physical evidence discovered during the course of the entire

search. The Garrison Court’s ultimate directive remains salient:

“The officers’ conduct and the limits of the search [are] based

on the information available as the search proceed[s].” Id. This

principle, along with a recognition of “the need to allow some

latitude for honest mistakes that are made by officers in the

dangerous and difficult process of making arrests and executing

search warrants,” Garrison, 480 U.S. at 87 (footnote omitted),

is what must guide us in determining if and when the execution

went awry. 

The government argues that any evidence discovered

before the realization by officers that defendants’ residence

comprised multiple units should not be suppressed but concedes

that “once the officers discovered that the house had multiple

dwelling units, they could no longer rely on the warrant to

justify their search of the building.” (Brief of Appellant at 17.)10

We agree. However, the government itself points out, “It is not

clear from the record [] what evidence apart from the two

marijuana-growing rooms and mini-14 assault rifle was
 In addition, although the entry teams’ function was to sweep 11

the premises to determine whether any persons were present,

rather than conduct a thorough search for contraband, certainly

team members were not oblivious to evidence in plain view. For

example, two weapons were seized from Ernie Ritter’s

apartment – one from the closet, which clearly should be

suppressed, and one that was either laying on the bed or hanging

on the bedpost, which might have been plainly visible to officers

from a lawful vantage point and thus would not necessarily

require suppression. 

- 26 -

discovered in the house before the officers realized that the

house had multiple dwelling units.” (Brief of Appellant.)

Again, we agree, but would go further, as we are not even

certain that the evidence to which the government refers was

viewed before the officers realized they were in a multi-unit

property. The District Court’s order granting defendants’

suppression motion does not include any factual findings on

which we could make such a determination on appeal. Nor does

our reading of the cold record elucidate exactly what happened,

and when, during the execution of the warrant. That which the

District Court finds that members of the entry team observed in

the shared or common areas of defendants’ residence – before

they concluded that the residence actually comprised multiple

apartments – will dictate what evidence, if any, should avoid

suppression. We cannot discern such determinative facts from 11

the record, and we will REMAND to the District Court for

further fact-finding in this regard. 
- 27 -

However, just as “we do not supply the testimony that the

government failed to elicit during the suppression hearing,”

United States v. Myers, 308 F.3d 251, 255 (3d Cir. 2002), the

government should not be afforded a second opportunity to

carry its burden that the challenged evidence should not be

suppressed. Accordingly, the government must live with its

decision to offer only one witness – Officer Howell – to make

a record of the events of May 8, 2003. Based on his testimony,

and that of defendants’ witness, Andre Peterson, the District

Court, assuming it can do so from the evidence already before

it, must make factual findings consonant with both the Supreme

Court’s decision in Garrison and this opinion. Should the

District Court need further elucidation or clarification, however,

in light of our analysis and given the passage of time, it may on

remand request that the witnesses previously called testify once

again in order for the Court to make the requisite findings. 

4. Other Evidence Seized and Suppressed

We now turn to the additional conclusions of law made

by the District Court regarding defendant Dale Ritter’s claims

that 1) the scope of the search warrant was exceeded by the

government’s search of his oven and broiler and 2) he should

not have been patted down absent reasonable suspicion that he

was armed and dangerous. As to the first claim, the District

Court determined that the issue was moot based on its

conclusion that the entire search was unlawful. Under Garrison,

however, only that evidence seized after officers have
- 28 -

discovered the multi-unit character of the premises should be

suppressed. Here, again, we need the District Court to make

factual findings. Officer Howell testified that “there was a trail

of the marijuana leading from the front of the residence to the

oven,” but, when counsel asked him if that trail was what led

officers to look in the broiler for money, Officer Howell

reiterated, “Again, I didn’t search it, the agent that did would be

better, be a better one to ask these questions.” We will

REMAND for the District Court to make findings and render

conclusions on this issue based on the evidence presently in the

record and Officer Howell’s credibility.

Second, the District Court agreed with defendant Dale

Ritter that the marijuana discovered on his person as a result of

a patdown should be suppressed. The Court reasoned that,

under Ybarra v. Illinois, 444 U.S. 85, 92-93 (1979), the officers

needed reasonable suspicion that Dale Ritter was armed and

dangerous, of which the government offered no proof. In

Ybarra, police officers, who had obtained a warrant to search a

tavern and its owner for evidence of drugs, announced upon

entering the tavern that all present would be subject to a

“cursory search for weapons.” 444 U.S. at 88. One of the

officers frisked the defendant and felt “a cigarette pack with

objects in it”; after frisking other patrons, the officer returned to

the defendant, removed the cigarette pack from defendant’s

pocket and found it to contain heroin. Id. at 88-89. In

reviewing the constitutionality of the defendant’s patdown, the

Supreme Court explained: 
- 29 -

The Terry case created an exception to the

requirement of probable cause, an exception

whose “narrow scope” this Court “has been

careful to maintain.” Under that doctrine a law

enforcement officer, for his own protection and

safety, may conduct a patdown to find weapons

that he reasonably believes or suspects are then in

the possession of the person he has accosted.

Nothing in Terry can be understood to allow a

generalized “cursory search for weapons” or,

indeed, any search whatever for anything but

weapons. The “narrow scope” of the Terry

exception does not permit a frisk for weapons on

less than reasonable belief or suspicion directed at

the person to be frisked, even though that person

happens to be on premises where an authorized

narcotics search is taking place. 
 In so concluding, the Supreme Court also rejected the 12

government’s alternative argument that, based on governmental

interest in “effectively controlling traffic in dangerous, hard

drugs,” the Terry “reasonable belief or suspicion” standard

should be made applicable “to aid the evidence-gathering

function of the search warrant” such that persons present on

“compact” areas to be searched can be searched for drugs based

on reasonable suspicion they are somehow connected with drug

trafficking. Ybarra, 444 U.S. at 343-44 (citing United States v.

Di Re, 332 U.S. 581, 583-587 (1948)). 

- 30 -

Id. at 93-94 (footnote and citation omitted). At the suppression 12

hearing in this case, Office Howell testified that when people

are encountered on the premises of property to be searched

during the course of executing a search warrant, usually they are

“secured” and “padded [sic] down for weapons” primarily to

ensure officers’ safety. Though he was not in the area where

Dale Ritter was apparently patted down, which Officer Howell

described as “more towards the front,” Howell testified that he

assumed Dale Ritter had been patted down for this reason.

Under Ybarra, this “cursory search for weapons” clearly is not

permitted absent a reasonable belief or suspicion that an

individual encountered is armed, 444 U.S. at 88, 96. Therefore,

the evidence discovered on Dale Ritter’s person should be

suppressed. See also Doe v. Groody, 361 F.3d 232, 243 (3d Cir.

2004) (“A search warrant for a premises does not constitute a

license to search everyone inside.”). We will AFFIRM this

aspect of the District Court’s order. 
- 31 -

Finally, the government argues that evidence seized from

“the stable” and “elsewhere on the grounds” was lawful

notwithstanding the discovery of multiple units inside the house.

(Brief of Appellant at 17.) Because the record is devoid of

details concerning the discovery of this additional evidence, we

will REMAND for further fact-finding by the District Court. 

 

III. CONCLUSION

The search undertaken in reliance on the warrant issued

was reasonable. Notwithstanding the subsequent discovery of

a factual mistake in the warrant concerning the number of

individual dwellings comprised by the residence, under

Maryland v. Garrison, the warrant was not defective for lack of

particularity

However, we will REMAND this case for further factfinding relating to the government’s execution of the warrant.

Although it is clear that law enforcement officers did not limit

or discontinue their search of defendants’ individual apartments

as Garrison would require, certain evidence observed as a result

of officers’ valid entry onto the premises may be admissible if

the District Court can make findings as to evidence observed

before entry into individual apartments – whether in common

areas or pursuant to the plain view doctrine – while the police

had a reasonable belief that the search was in compliance with

the warrant. 
- 32 -

Additional fact-finding is also required to resolve both

the discovery of contraband outside the residence – in the stable

and “elsewhere on the grounds,” and Dale Ritter’s claim that

evidence seized from his oven and broiler should be suppressed.

We will AFFIRM the District Court’s determination that

the marijuana discovered on Dale Ritter’s person pursuant to a

patdown should be suppressed under Ybarra v. Illinois. 

_________________
- 33 -

SMITH, Circuit Judge, dissenting in part and concurring in the

judgment.

Because I believe that even under a deferential standard

of review, the magistrate judge’s probable cause determination

should not stand, I dissent from the portion of the majority’s

opinion validating the issuance of the warrant. However,

because under the rule of United States v. Leon Officer Howell

could reasonably rely on the invalid warrant, I reach the same

result as the majority: Before they discovered that the building

to be searched contained multiple apartments, the conduct of

Howell and the other warrant-executing officers did not violate

the Fourth Amendment. 

Unlike the majority, I do not view this as a “close case,”

where our deferential review “tips the scale in favor” of

validating the magistrate’s finding of probable cause. This is

not a marginal case of probable cause that should be governed

by a preference for warrants. See United States v. Ventresca,

380 U.S. 102, 109 (1965). Rather, under the precedent of the

Supreme Court and this Court, I am doubtful that the affidavit

even supports a finding that reasonable suspicion existed, much

less probable cause. In my view, the majority’s analysis in

concluding that the warrant was properly issued is flawed in two

ways. First, the majority does not discount for staleness the

information contained in Howell’s May 2003 affidavit regarding
- 34 -

the August 2002 eradication project. Second, and more

fundamentally, by crediting Howell’s supposed corroboration of

a “bare bones” anonymous tip – i.e., a tip consisting only of

conclusory allegations of illegality – the majority misapplies the

anonymous tip jurisprudence of the Supreme Court and this

Court, and misconceives the role corroboration plays in

evaluating such tips. Both of these factors weigh strongly

against the magistrate’s probable cause determination.

Staleness

The majority does not confront the fact that by the time

of the first anonymous tip, Howell’s information from the

August 2002 marijuana eradication effort had aged eight

months. The staleness of this information renders it of minimal

probative value.

It is well-established that staleness is a contextual inquiry

and not simply a matter of measuring the age of information

contained in an affidavit. United States v. Harvey, 2 F.3d 1318,

1322 (3d Cir. 1993) (noting that the speed with which

information supporting a warrant becomes stale varies with the

nature of the crime and the type of evidence); United States v.

Williams, 897 F.2d 1034, 1039 (10 Cir. 1990). By the same th

token, staleness implies no frontier between full-potency fresh

information and the worthlessly stale. With half-lifes varying by

context, the reliability of information dissipates over time to the

point that such information must be disregarded. For instance,
 As the majority notes, Howell saw the area in question one 13

time from a helicopter, approximately eight months before

submitting his affidavit. The one person interviewed by the

officers on the ground in August 2002, the marijuana cultivator,

denied living in the house, and no connection between the main

building and the marijuana growing in the roofless horse stables

or in the field was ever made. Both the horse stables and the

field are described in Howell’s affidavit as being “at the rear” of

the main house. Where, if at all, the roofless stables appear in

the aerial photograph (“Attachment A” to the affidavit) is

- 35 -

information regarding an alleged burglar’s possession of readily

fenced music CDs will dissipate faster than, say, an alleged

burglar’s possession of a stolen Cezanne painting that may take

the suspected thief years to unload. Further, we have

recognized, quite sensibly, that information regarding repeated

unlawful conduct over an extended period suggests a

“continuing offense,” and thus is more durable than information

of discrete offenses. United States v. Urban, 404 F.3d 754, 774

(3d Cir. 2005) (“[W]here the facts adduced to support probable

cause describe a course or pattern of ongoing and continuous

criminality, the passage of time between the occurrence of the

facts set forth in the affidavit and the submission of the affidavit

itself loses significance.”); United States v. Zimmerman, 277

F.3d 426, 434 (3d Cir. 2002). 

Here, the information Howell used to corroborate the

anonymous tip was weak as an initial matter, and the nature of 13
unknown. At best, the connection between the outdoor

marijuana grow operation and the nearby building must be

imputed, and thus was tenuous even in August 2002. 

- 36 -

the crime and type of evidence indicates that the information

was susceptible to becoming stale. 

First, Howell saw marijuana growing on the property on

one occasion. By definition, one sighting cannot constitute a

“continuing offense” such that the information would become

stale at a relatively slow rate. Compare Zimmerman, 277 F.3d

at 434 (concluding that one viewing of a pornographic video

clip ten months before rendered the information stale), with

Urban, 404 F.3d at 775 (determining that a years-long pattern of

graft and extortion, the last evidence of which was from October

1999, was not stale at the time of a February 2000 affidavit),

and Harvey, 2 F.3d at 1323 (concluding that information

concerning the receipt of fifteen child pornography mailings

over a period from two to fifteen months before the warrant

application was made was not stale). The August 2002

discovery of an outdoor grow operation was a discrete event,

and the marijuana was destroyed. To be sure, one may speculate

that marijuana is more likely to be regrown in the same location

where it has been found than in a place where it has never been

discovered. However, Howell’s affidavit contains no

information that marijuana was repeatedly grown at the location,

and it is equally sensible to posit that people will not again

cultivate marijuana in a location already known to authorities.
- 37 -

Because there was no pattern of illegality here, I believe the

information from the August 2002 eradication effort had

become stale by the time Howell included it in his May 2003

affidavit.

Second, not only was no connection between the outdoor

grow operations and the main house made in August 2002, even

if one were to infer such a connection then existed, Howell

made no effort to determine whether there was a continuity of

ownership or occupancy of the property. What the majority

terms “Ritters’ property,” ante n.1 – a fair enough

characterization in May 2003 considering the Ritters’ residency

if not ownership of the compound – may have been no such

thing in August 2002. There was simply no investigation of (1)

who, if anyone, lived in the building (or who owned it) at the

time of the August 2002 marijuana eradication; (2) whether the

occupants or owners of the building were connected to the

August 2002 outdoor marijuana growing; or (3) whether any

changes in occupancy or ownership had occurred between

August 2002 and May 2003. Moreover, apart from the

anonymous tips, Howell had no evidence that the building ever

housed an indoor marijuana growing operation. Any connection

between the outdoor grow operation and an indoor grow room

must be imputed. Yet, the majority transports across the eightmonth interim the connection they necessarily draw between the

illicit outdoor activity and that suspected to have occurred

indoors in August 2002. In my view, the connection between

the outdoor marijuana cultivation and that which the majority
 In Gates, the Supreme Court incorporated the reasoning of 14

its decisions in Aguilar v. Texas, 378 U.S. 108 (1964), and

Spinelli v. United States, 393 U.S. 410 (1969), into a totality-ofthe-circumstances approach for evaluating informants’ tips.

Gates eschewed a stovepipe approach that treats an informant’s

“veracity,” “reliability,” and “basis of knowledge” – criteria

developed in Aguilar and Spinelli – as independent and

necessary elements to crediting tips. Rather, in affirming the

Aguilar and Spinelli criteria as relevant indicia of a tip’s value,

the Court established that the inquiry should treat these criteria

as related issues, such that “a deficiency in one may be

compensated for, in determining the overall reliability of a tip,

- 38 -

presumes to have occurred indoors was weak in 2002, and was

worthlessly stale by May 2003. People are mobile. Real

property changes hands.

Corroboration of Anonymous Tips

In Illinois v. Gates, 426 U.S. 213 (1983), the Supreme

Court stressed that, unlike tips from known informants who

have provided reliable information in the past, or tips from

identified citizens who could be charged with filing a false

report if the tip proved faulty, the veracity and reliability of

anonymous tipsters is “by hypothesis largely unknown, and

unknowable.” Id. at 237. Gates also observed that the same

deficiency obtains regarding the means by which an anonymous

informant came by the information contained in a tip, what the

Court termed the “basis of knowledge.” Id. at 246. In 14
by a strong showing as to the other, or by some other indicia of

reliability.” Gates, 462 U.S. at 233. 

- 39 -

expounding on the “veracity,” “reliability,” and “basis of

knowledge” inquiries, Gates and its progeny distinguish

between anonymous tips that contain detailed predictions of the

target’s future activities from those that merely assert criminal

wrongdoing occurring in the past or at the time of the tip. 

In the former category, the cases allow that police

corroboration of the tip’s predictions regarding the target’s

future lawful actions can bolster the tip’s creditability, and may

create the reasonable suspicion or probable cause needed to

support a seizure and search of the target and his property for

evidence of illegal activity. The rationale of these decisions is

that if the anonymous tip proves correct about the target’s

predicted licit actions “A, B, and C,” then the tip’s prediction

that the target will be engaged in illegal activity “D” is more

creditable. Id. at 244; see Spinelli v. United States, 393 U.S.

410, 427 (1969) (White, J., concurring) (“[B]ecause an

informant is right about some things, he is more probably right

about other facts, usually the critical, unverified facts.”). The

police corroboration of the anonymous tip’s innocent details, the

cases teach, bolsters the veracity and reliability of the tip, as

well as suggests that the tipster is a trusted intimate of the target,
 The Supreme Court has suggested that police may rely on 15

an anonymous tip to conduct a seizure and search on the tip’s

target if the danger alleged is great, such as a bomb threat.

Florida v. J.L., 529 U.S. 266, 273-74 (2000). However, as here,

anonymous tips regarding narcotics do not constitute such a

special circumstance.

- 40 -

and thus may be privy to inside information concerning the

target’s alleged lawbreaking. 

Where the anonymous tip contains only “bare bones”

allegations of illegality, however, the police have no basis on

which to evaluate the creditability of the tip’s illegal content by

corroborating the tip’s predictions of the target’sfuture innocent

actions. Such conclusory anonymous tips do not amount to

reasonable suspicion, much less probable cause, and police may

not base a seizure or search on them. As with predictive tips, 15

a “bare bones” anonymous tip can trigger a police investigation,

such as placing surveillance on the tip’s target, that may reveal

independent suspicious activity upon which the police can then

act. With nothing but the illegality to verify, however, the

investigation of conclusory allegations itself must reveal

suspicious activity independently sufficient to support a seizure

and search.

Here, the anonymous tips contained only bare allegations

of illegality – that the residents of the identified building were

cultivating marijuana in two outdoor locations and in two indoor
- 41 -

grow rooms, and that an occupant of the house was seen

carrying marijuana plants inside the building. The tips

contained no predictions of innocent activity Howell could

corroborate to bolster the tip’s overall reliability; there was

nothing to corroborate except for the illegal activity itself. Yet,

the majority, relying on inapposite “predictive anonymous tip”

caselaw, erroneously concludes that Howell’s viewing of

outdoor marijuana growing near the building eight months

earlier somehow “corroborated” the anonymous tip. I disagree

with this approach, and I believe it is unprecedented, because it

substitutes Howell’s prior knowledge for any testing of the

reliability and basis of knowledge of the tipster and her

information. This strikes me as a fundamental error with

potentially dangerous implications. The Supreme Court has

analyzed anonymous tips three times, and in each case the Court

has emphasized the tip’s accuracy in predicting future events as

a means of assessing its overall credibility. The tip here

predicted nothing that could be verified, so when the warrant

issued, the predictive value of the tip was nil.

Predictive Anonymous Tip Cases

The Supreme Court in Gates emphasized the value of the

independent police investigation in corroborating the details of

the Gateses’ narcotics run as predicted in an anonymous letter.

By the time he had submitted his affidavit to the magistrate, the

officer in Gates had corroborated several of the predictions

contained in the letter, including Lance Gates’ flight from
- 42 -

Chicago to West Palm Beach, Florida, his collecting the family

car there, and his quick departure driving back north. Gates,

426 U.S. at 244. That the anonymous letter had correctly

predicted these innocent facts, the Court reasoned, increased the

reliability of the tipster’s prediction that the trunk of the car

would contain marijuana. Id. 

Similarly, the basis of knowledge of the anonymous letter

writer was unassessable before the details were corroborated.

As to this criteria, Gates distinguished between “easily obtained

facts and conditions existing at the time of the tip,” which are

deprecated, and predicted future events that only an intimate of

the tip’s target would know, about which corroboration of

innocent details by police investigation can bolster the

probability that the tip’s content concerning illegality is

accurate. Id. at 244-46. That several of the letter’s predictions

of the Gateses’ unusual travel plans proved true increased the

probability that the letter contained information known only to

the Gateses themselves or a trusted intimate of theirs, namely,

that they were transporting marijuana in the trunk of their car.

Id. at 246. Noting the substantial corroboration of difficult-topredict details contained in the letter, and observing that the

Gateses’ actions were “as suggestive of a prearranged drug run,

as it [was] of an ordinary vacation trip,” the Court held that the

magistrate had a proper basis for issuing the warrant. Id. at 243-

46. 
- 43 -

Gates highlights the illogic of the majority’s reliance here

on Howell’s ex ante “corroboration” of the anonymous tip to

justify the issuance of the search warrant: The majority credits

the anonymous tip at face value in its probable cause calculus

without requiring that its veracity, reliability, or basis of

knowledge be vetted at all. Indeed, quoting Gates, the majority

mentions “basis of knowledge” as a factor in a magistrate’s

“practical, common-sense” probable cause decision, yet never

returns to apply it to the facts of this case. 

In Alabama v. White, 496 U.S. 325 (1990), the Supreme

Court applied its anonymous tip analysis from Gates in a

reasonable suspicion context. The anonymous tip in White

indicated that, at a given time, Vanessa White would drive a

brown Plymouth station wagon with a broken taillight from her

apartment on a direct route to Dobey’s Motel, and that White

would be in possession of a brown attache case containing

marijuana and heroin. Id. at 326. Following up on the tip, the

police located the station wagon at the address given, and

observed a woman enter it and begin driving toward Dobey’s

Motel within the time frame predicted. Id. at 331. As the

vehicle neared the hotel, the police effected a Terry stop of the

car, and a consent search of the attache case found inside

revealed narcotics. Id. at 326.

Applying the same approach in the reasonable suspicion

context as it did in Gates’ probable cause analysis, the Court

again stressed the importance of personal observations by
 Also, as it did in Gates, the Court again distinguished 16

between “easily obtained facts and conditions existing at the

time of the tip” and “future actions of third parties not easily

predicted.” White, 496 U.S. at 332 (quoting Gates, 462 U.S. at

245). The Court noted that anyone could have “predicted” that

the station wagon was parked at a given location because it was

a condition presumably existing at the time of the anonymous

phone tip. White, 496 U.S. at 332. In the Court’s view, “[w]hat

was important was the caller’s ability to predict [White’s] future

behavior, because it demonstrated inside information – a special

- 44 -

officers in corroborating some predictions of lawful behavior

contained in the anonymous tip to establish the reliability of the

tip’s information concerning the target’s alleged illegal

activities. Id. at 331-32 (noting that Gates credited “the

proposition that because an informant is shown to be right about

some things, he is probably right about other facts that he has

alleged, including the claim that the object of the tip is engaged

in criminal activity,” and concluding that “the independent

corroboration by the police of significant aspects of the

informer’s predictions imparted some degree of reliability to the

other allegations made by the caller”). Likewise, White iterated

Gates’ teaching that police confirmation of a tip’s hard-topredict details helps to establish the “insider” basis of the

informant’s knowledge. Id. at 332 (“When significant aspects

of the caller’s predictions were verified, there was reason to

believe not only that the caller was honest but also that he was

well informed, at least well enough to justify the stop.”). The 16
familiarity with respondent’s affairs.” Id. Here, the anonymous

tips lacked any predictive information whatsoever, the

corroboration of which could have augmented the tips’

creditability. 

The government cites a predictive anonymous tip case, 17

United States v. Padro, 52 F.3d 120 (6 Cir. 1995), for the th

proposition that a law enforcement officer may use information

he already possesses to corroborate an anonymous tip, and thus

justify a search requiring probable cause. Tellingly, the Sixth

Circuit in Padro specifically noted that before the search took

place the officer had corroborated the informant’s predictions

regarding the vehicle used and its route, timing, and occupants.

Id. at 123. Moreover, during the stop, the officer had seen a

protruding armrest panel and electronic release hook in plain

view, suggesting the hidden recess predicted in the tip. Id. at

124. In short, several aspects of the informant’s tip were

verified before the search, thus the Padro court held that

probable cause existed to search for the narcotics the anonymous

tipster alleged were being transported. 

- 45 -

Court considered White to be a “close case,” but that “under the

totality of the circumstances the anonymous tip, as corroborated,

exhibited sufficient indicia of reliability to justify the

investigatory stop of [White’s] car.” Id. 

17

Illustrating the difference between the probable cause and

reasonable suspicion standards, White noted that the tip at issue

was not as detailed, and the corroboration was not as thorough,
- 46 -

as in Gates, but that the less demanding reasonable suspicion

standard lowers the sum of the quantity and quality of the

information that must be established. Id. at 330. Also, unlike in

Gates, White’s predicted activities were not independently

suspicious. Though it was a borderline case, the Court

concluded that the police had the reasonable suspicion necessary

to effect the traffic stop.

Here, the majority notes that the Supreme Court in White

stressed that an officer’s ability to corroborate a tip, and the tip’s

predictive ability, are the two most important considerations in

the totality of the circumstances inquiry used to determine

whether an anonymous tip could provide the reasonable

suspicion necessary to support a Terry stop. Despite observing

that reasonable suspicion requires a lesser quantum of proof

than the probable cause standard here, and despite noting that

“the predictive value of the tip [went] untested” before the

warrant issued, the majority still refuses to upset the magistrate’s

finding. The majority then frames the question here as whether

Howell’s August 2002 experience “was sufficiently

corroborative so as to give the tip predictive value.”

The fundamental error the majority makes is that it fails

to recognize that there is absolutely nothing “predictive” about

the anonymous tip in this case to corroborate, as that term is

understood in the caselaw. Because the basis of the tipster’s

knowledge was not and could not be tested to show that she

likely was indeed an insider, and because the veracity and
 The majority notes, “We can see how an officer and a 18

magistrate could view the tip as establishing an identifiable

pattern of activity on the premises.” I submit that under Leon,

discussed infra, Officer Howell is allowed such mistakes, but

the magistrate is not.

- 47 -

reliability of the tip’s substance was not and could not be

corroborated (i.e., there was no innocent prediction of “A, B,

and C” that, if corroborated, would provide a substantial basis

to conclude that prediction “D” of illegal activity was also

accurate), the magistrate was not permitted to rely on the

anonymous tip in its probable cause calculus. In my view, 18

reference to the magistrate’s duty to make “practical, commonsense decisions,” Gates, 462 U.S. at 237, offers no refuge for

the legal error evident here. See United States v. Leon, 468 U.S.

897, 915 (1984) (“Even if the warrant application was supported

by more than a ‘bare bones’ affidavit, a reviewing court may

properly conclude that, notwithstanding the deference that

magistrates deserve, the warrant was invalid because the

magistrate’s probable-cause determination reflected an improper

analysis of the totality of the circumstances... .”). Once the

anonymous tip is discredited, all that is left of the affidavit is

Howell’s sighting and eradication of outdoor marijuana “at the

rear” of the building eight months before, and this is not nearly

enough to support the probable cause standard for the issuance

of a warrant.

“Bare Bones” Anonymous Tip Cases
 Indeed, the Supreme Court has suggested that an unverified 19

tip from a known, repeat informant alone does not create

probable cause. Adams v. Williams, 407 U.S. 143, 147 (1972).

The verification required to credit an anonymous tip is

necessarily greater. Compare id. at 146-47 (holding that a tip

from a known informant who had provided reliable information

in the past was sufficient to support a Terry stop-and-frisk for a

- 48 -

Florida v. J.L., 529 U.S. 266 (2000), involved an

anonymous tip that a young black male wearing a plaid shirt and

standing at a particular bus stop was carrying a concealed

weapon in violation of Florida law. Id. at 268. Acting on this

skeletal tip, the police identified the target of the tip and

conducted a Terry stop-and-frisk of him that revealed a gun. Id.

Relying almost exclusively on White, a unanimous Court

invalidated the search. Id. at 269. Unlike the post-tip

corroboration essential to the White decision, the “anonymous

call concerning J.L. provided no predictive information and

therefore left the police without a means to test the informant’s

knowledge and credibility.” Id. at 271. Absent independent

corroboration, the police impermissibly relied on the “bare

report of an unknown, unaccountable informant who neither

explained how he knew about the gun nor supplied any basis for

believing he had inside information.” Id. “If White was a close

case on the reliability of anonymous tips,” the Court concluded,

“this one surely falls on the other side of the line.” Id. It bears

repeating that like White, J.L. was a reasonable suspicion case,

not a probable cause case as here.19
gun), with J.L., 529 U.S. at 274 (distinguishing Adams and

White and concluding that an anonymous tip lacking indicia of

reliability does not justify a stop-and-frisk under Terry).

 I view the “hot spot” characterization in Roberson to be of 20

approximately equal weight in the totality-of-the-circumstances

analysis as the connection the majority makes between the

outdoor marijuana plots eradicated “at the rear” of the main

house in August 2002 and the indoor grow operations alleged in

the tip to have existed eight months later. 

- 49 -

In my view, the facts of this case are analogous to those

in United States v. Roberson, 90 F.3d 75 (3d Cir. 1996) (Becker,

J., joined by Nygaard and Lewis, JJ.). There, this Court

anticipated the Supreme Court’s decision in J.L. in concluding

that an uncorroborated anonymous tip that contains only

information readily observable at the time the tip was made does

not justify a Terry stop. Id. at 80. The Roberson tip was that an

individual identified by his race, build, clothing, and location

was selling drugs on a corner known to police as a “hot spot” for

narcotic sales. Id. at 75-76. Though brief surveillance 20

revealed no suspicious activity by the identified individual, the

police nonetheless conducted a Terry stop-and-frisk of the tip’s

target, and discovered narcotics. Id. at 76. We held that

reasonable suspicion is lacking where a bare anonymous tip of

illegal activity contains only readily apparent information – i.e.,

the tip does not contain predictive information that, if

corroborated, would suggest the source is a reliable intimate of

the target – and the police do not themselves observe suspicious
 As noted by the Roberson panel, the police could have 21

placed surveillance on the tip’s target on the chance that he

would exhibit suspicious behavior to justify a Terry stop. Id. at

81. The same opportunity was presented here, yet Howell opted

not to visit the compound or conduct any investigation before

seeking a warrant. Deed and utility searches could have

determined continuity or changes in ownership and occupancy

across the eight months. A short post-tip visit presumably

would have revealed the outdoor plots of marijuana, justifying

a warrant for entry onto the property. Further investigation or

surveillance by Howell may have produced information properly

supportive of a search warrant for the building. At the time the

magistrate issued the warrant, however, he had no post-tip

qualifying indicia of the tip’s overall reliability. That the tip

ultimately proved accurate does not matter.

- 50 -

behavior. Id. at 80. To hold otherwise, we reasoned, would

subject anyone to a search on the “say-so of an anonymous

prankster, rival, or misinformed individual.” Id. at 80-81. 21

If anything, the major distinguishing features of

Roberson cut against the majority’s validation of the magistrate

judge’s finding of probable cause here. First, Roberson

involved merely reasonable suspicion, not probable cause. The

majority’s validation of the magistrate’s probable cause finding

threatens to blur the distinction between the two standards by

drawing what is needed to establish probable cause toward the

lesser standard. Second, as recently as 2001, the Supreme Court

has repeated that “the Fourth Amendment ‘draws a firm line at
 The majority’s mistaken approach raises the spectre of 22

every residence that has been the site of prior illegal activity in

recent months being an anonymous tip away from the issuance

- 51 -

the entrance of the house.’” Kyllo v. United States, 533 U.S. 27,

39 (2001) (quoting Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 590

(1980); see Zimmerman, 277 F.3d at 431 (“One’s home is

sacrosanct, and unreasonable government intrusion into the

home is ‘the chief evil against which the wording of the Fourth

Amendment is directed’”) (quoting Payton, 445 U.S. at 585).

By approving the magistrate’s probable cause finding on the

flimsy showing of Howell’s affidavit, the majority guts the

warrant requirement it purports to honor, and fails to recognize

the status traditionally accorded the home in Fourth Amendment

jurisprudence.

Summary

By failing to distinguish between predictive anonymous

tips and bare bones anonymous tips, the majority misconceives

the purpose of corroborating anonymous tips. The purpose is to

test the verity of the tipster and his information, not the

knowledge of the officer who receives the tip and submits the

affidavit to the magistrate. The policy rationale for the

distinction is readily understood: Except in cases where the tip

involves “great danger,” such as a bomb threat, the Fourth

Amendment prohibits police from effecting a seizure and search

based on anonymous reports of illegal activity. See J.L., 529 22
of a search warrant. Consistent with the majority’s reasoning,

a magistrate could validly issue a search warrant where an

affidavit asserts the combination of an anonymous tip of illegal

activity in a certain building with a database “hit” showing that

the address had been the site of similar illegality in the past eight

months. 

- 52 -

U.S. at 272 (refusing to recognize an automatic weapon

exception to the reliability analysis because “[s]uch an exception

would enable any person seeking to harass another to set in

motion an intrusive, embarrassing police search of the targeted

person simply by placing an anonymous call falsely reporting

the target’s unlawful carriage of a gun”). In other words, it is

constitutionally unreasonable for police to rely on untested

allegations by individuals who are unwilling to reveal

themselves; the danger of mischief is simply too great.

Good Faith Exception of United States v. Leon

Gates’ deference to magistrates’ probable cause

determinations was premised on the notion that searches

pursuant to warrants are preferable to warrantless searches based

on exceptions to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement.

Gates, 462 U.S. at 236. The Court observed that the presence of

a warrant during a search “reduces the perception of unlawful or

intrusive police conduct, by assuring the individual whose

property is searched or seized of the lawful authority of the

executing officer, his need to search, and the limits of his power
 This Court has recognized four situations in which Leon 23

does not apply, but these are minor limitations to the

applicability of the rule, and none apply here. See United States

v. Williams, 3 F.3d 69, 74 (3d Cir. 1993) (quoting the

- 53 -

to search.” Id. (citation omitted). Relatedly, the primary

purpose of the exclusionary rule is to deter unlawful police

conduct, United States v. Calandra, 414 U.S. 338, 347 (1974),

a purpose that is weakly served, if at all, by severe after-the-fact

scrutiny of magistrates’ probable cause determinations. United

States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897, 919-20 (1984).

Rather than discourage officers from seeking warrants

with the prospect of reviewing courts excluding evidence by

overturning magistrates’ probable cause findings after close

scrutiny of these findings, and thereby induce officers to rely on

warrant exceptions, Gates affirmed the deferential standard that

“so long as the magistrate had a ‘substantial basis for ...

conclud[ing]’ that a search would uncover evidence of

wrongdoing, the Fourth Amendment requires no more.” Gates,

462 U.S. 236 (quoting Jones v. United States, 362 U.S. 257, 271

(1960)). 

The Supreme Court in Leon established a broad good

faith exception to the exclusionary rule that allows the

introduction of evidence when an officer executes a search in

reasonable reliance on a warrant found on review to have been

unsupported by probable cause. Id. at 922. Leon thus enables 23
admonition in Leon, 468 U.S. at 921: “In the ordinary case, an

officer cannot be expected to question the magistrate’s probable

cause determination.”). Two limitations to the Leon rule involve

misconduct, either by police effectively writing their own

warrants by submitting a deliberately or recklessly false

affidavit, or by the magistrate abandoning his neutral role by

teaming with the officers. Id. A third situation upholding the

exclusion of evidence notwithstanding the presence of a warrant

involves the use of unparticularized general warrants that

purport to allow officers to search first and explain where and

for what they were looking later. United States v. $ 92,422.57,

307 F.3d 137, 148-49 (3d Cir. 2002). The last limitation to

employing Leon’s good faith exception “applies in only those

rare circumstances in which, although a neutral magistrate has

found that there is probable cause, a lay officer executing the

warrant could not reasonably believe that the magistrate was

correct.” Zimmerman, 277 F.3d at 440 (Alito, J., dissenting). 

- 54 -

appellate courts to instruct magistrates on the contours of the

probable cause requirement without discouraging conscientious

officers from seeking warrants, and it does so while preserving

valuable evidence of criminal wrongdoing. See id.; Zimmerman,

277 F.3d at 436. 

Leon is well-designed for a case such as this one, where

the magistrate failed to comprehend an aspect of Fourth

Amendment jurisprudence requiring the synthesis of several

cases, a deficiency that no police officer could have been

expected to recognize, much less question. Indeed, Leon invites
- 55 -

reviewing courts to address novel probable cause questions

before turning to the good faith exception analysis:

If the resolution of a particular

Fourth Amendment question is

necessary to guide future action by

law enforcement officers and

magistrates, nothing will prevent

reviewing courts from deciding that

question before turning to the goodfaith issue. Indeed, it frequently

will be difficult to determine

whether the officers acted

reasonably without resolving the

Fourth Amendment issue. Even if

the Fourth Amendment question is

not one of broad import, reviewing

courts could decide in particular

cases that magistrates under their

supervision need to be informed of

their errors and so evaluate the

officers’ good faith only after

finding a violation.

Leon, 468 U.S. at 925; see United States v. $ 92,422.57, 307

F.3d 137, 145 (3d Cir. 2002).
 As explained by the majority, the Maryland v. Garrison 24

issue to be addressed on remand will turn on what, if any,

contraband Howell and the warrant-executing officers

discovered before they realized that the building contained

multiple apartments. At this point, however, I believe the

officers were legally poised to enforce the warrant despite the

fact that it was invalidly issued.

- 56 -

For the reasons articulated above, Howell’s affidavit did

not adequately support the magistrate judge’s probable cause

determination. However, under Leon, Howell was justified in

relying on the invalid warrant in organizing the execution of the

search. No limitation to Leon’s good faith rule applies. There 24

is no hint of misconduct or abdication of duty on the part of

Howell or the magistrate. The deficiency of particularity

regarding the multiple units of the building did not appear on the

face of the warrant; this deficiency was of the Maryland v.

Garrison variety, and the majority’s discussion of Garrison for

the purposes of remand is thorough and I join in it. Regarding

the last Leon exception recounted in the margin, this is not a

circumstance in which an officer could not reasonably believe

the magistrate’s probable cause determination was correct. The

staleness and corroboration issues either went unrecognized or

were misapplied by the magistrate, the District Court, and my

two colleagues in the majority. In light of these factors, it would

be unrealistic to conclude that Officer Howell should have

recognized, questioned, and correctly applied the nuances of

staleness and anonymous tip corroboration doctrine. In my
- 57 -

view, the magistrate’s probable cause finding should be rejected,

and the Leon good faith exception applied to Howell’s reliance

on the invalid warrant.