Title: State v. Mosley
Citation: 412 So. 2d 527
Docket Number: 81-K-2025
State: Louisiana
Issuer: Louisiana Supreme Court
Date: March 1, 1982

412 So. 2d 527 (1982) STATE of Louisiana v. James MOSLEY. No. 81-K-2025. Supreme Court of Louisiana. March 1, 1982. Rehearing Denied April 30, 1982. *528 William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Harry F. Connick, Dist. Atty., Louise Korns, Nancy Sharpe, Asst. Dist. Attys., for plaintiff-relator. Charles L. Elloie, New Orleans, for defendant-respondent. DENNIS, Justice. We granted certiorari to review the trial court's suppression of evidence obtained by police officers during the search of a residence pursuant to a search warrant. On April 15, 1981 a police officer, under oath, made the following showing of probable cause before a magistrate in applying for the search warrant: A search warrant was issued on April 15, 1981 authorizing a search of defendant's residence at 1608 Music Street for "narcotics to wit marijuana and cocaine." Pursuant to these warrants police officers searched defendant's residence on April 15, 1981 and seized marijuana, cocaine and other items. Defendant moved successfully to suppress the evidence in the trial court. We granted the state's application for review. At the motion to suppress hearing, the informant, Carlos Dartez, testified that he went to the defendant's house as related in the search warrant application but that, contrary to the information he gave to the police officers, he did not buy any drugs or see any drugs on that occasion. To protect the right of privacy (not for the defendant whose privacy has already been invaded, but for law-abiding citizens in this state) is and should be of primary importance to the courts. To this end, untrue allegations of the affiant must be subject to judicial examination. State v. Melson, 284 So. 2d 873 (La.1973); State v. George, 273 So. 2d 34 (La.1973). Accordingly, the issue at a suppression hearing is whether the affiant was truthful, not whether the informant was truthful, because if the informant lied, but the officer reasonably believed him, it cannot be said that the officer acted without probable cause. State v. Paster, 373 So. 2d 170 (La.1979); State v. Barrett, 350 So. 2d 664 (La.1977). Since the evidence educed at the suppression hearing in this case does not contest the veracity of the affiant or his belief in his informant, none of the material in the warrant affidavit need be set aside in deciding whether the warrant was issued with probable cause. See Franks v. Delaware, 438 U.S. 154, 98 S. Ct. 2674, 57 L. Ed. 2d 667 (1978). Defendant contends that the search warrant affidavit cannot pass the second prong of the Aguilar two-prong test, viz., the veracity test.[1] Under the "veracity" prong of Aguilar, facts must be brought before the judicial officer so that he may determine either (1) the inherent credibility of the informant or (2) the reliability of his information on this particular occasion. That is, the second or "veracity" prong of Aguilar may be said to have a "credibility spur" and a "reliability spur." See State v. Jeffcoat, 403 So. 2d 1227 (La.1981); Moylan, Hearsay and Probable Cause: An Aguilar and Spinelli Primer, 25 Mercer L.Rev. 741, 755 (1974); 1, W. LaFave, Search and Seizure, A Treatise on the Fourth Amendment, § 3.3, p. 501 (1978). The affidavit does not provide any basis for a belief in the inherent credibility of the informant under the "credibility spur." Dartez was apparently a first-time informer and therefore had no track record from which the magistrate could conclude he was a credible informant. The disclosure of an informant's identity can serve as an underlying circumstance which tends to establish that he is entitled as an ordinary law abiding citizen to the presumption of inherent credibility. See United States v. *531 Rollins, 522 F.2d 160 (2d Cir. 1975); Cundiff v. United States, 501 F.2d 188 (8th Cir. 1974); People v. Hicks, 38 N.Y.2d 90, 378 N.Y.S. 660, 341 N.E.2d 227 (1975); State v. Haron, 220 N.W.2d 829 (S.D., 1974); Woods v. State, 533 S.W.2d 16 (Tex.Cr.1976); LaFave, supra, § 3.4 n. 41. There is no possibility of that in this case, however, for the affidavit shows that Dartez is a criminal without any inherent credibility. If the affidavit is to pass the "veracity test," it must do so under the "reliability spur" by providing a reason to believe that Dartez' information was reliable on this particular occasion despite his lack of inherent credibility. The state argues that the magistrate was justified in finding Dartez' information reliable because it was a declaration against his penal interest. Although admissions of crime do not always lend credibility to contemporaneous or later accusations of another, they may sometimes be relied upon as a means of showing that an informer's information is reliable. United States v. Harris, 403 U.S. 573, 91 S. Ct. 2075, 29 L. Ed. 2d 723 (1971); State v. Mena, 344 So. 2d 357 (La. 1976); Moylan, supra, at 762. The admission-against-penal-interest concept should not be used in a casual or blunderbuss fashion. Established Fourth Amendment doctrine would be turned on its head if criminals are thereby deemed more credible than disinterested "citizen informers." The significance of each admission in the context of the particular case must be assessed carefully and preferably upon a full disclosure by the police of all relevant circumstances. LaFave, supra, at 525; See United States v. Martin, 615 F.2d 318 (5th Cir. 1980). Strictly speaking, because the informer, Dartez, was caught redhanded and revealed his illicit drugs to the police before naming his supplier, Dartez' tip was not a statement against his penal interest but an obvious attempt to curry favor with the police. Compare United States v. Martin, supra. The circumstances here are different from a case in which the police did not have an air-tight case against the informant before he provided the information at issue. See People v. Wolzer, 41 A.D.2d 679, 340 N.Y.S.2d 953 (1973); LaFave, supra, at 529. Dartez told the police he had a bag of marijuana in the trunk of his car immediately upon being stopped and informed he was under narcotics investigation. After removal of the bag from his car, Dartez further told the officers he had more marijuana in his residence and consented to its search. Dartez eliminated any possibility that his possession of the drugs was innocent before informing on the defendant; his tip, which might have provided crucial evidence of his guilty knowledge under different circumstances, added little to the evidence against him. Nevertheless, Dartez' statements to the police that he had marijuana in his car and residence were self-incriminating and in the context of this particular case and its relevant circumstances lend credibility to his immediately subsequent tip involving the defendant. We reach this conclusion on the basis of several factors, considered collectively. First, Dartez' tip was almost contemporaneous with his own admissions, which themselves were given immediately, without interrogation and perhaps spontaneously. See Dutton v. Evans, 400 U.S. 74, 91 S. Ct. 210, 27 L. Ed. 2d 213 (1970); United States v. Rosselli, 506 F.2d 627 (7th Cir. 1974). There was little time or opportunity for Dartez to fabricate a story. Second, Dartez' tip focussed on a specific individual and included his address, personal characteristics and a description of his taxicab. LaFave, supra, p. 529. If Dartez had given the police several names or vague descriptions it would have been more likely that he was relying on rumor and concealing his actual source. Third, an incentive for Dartez to produce accurately was his probable realization that any discrepancies in his story might go hard with him. Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 83 S. Ct. 407, 9 L. Ed. 2d 441 (Clark, J., et al., dissenting); Commonwealth v. Norris, 6 Mass.App. 761, 383 N.E.2d 534 (1978); State v. Wielgus, 278 N.W.2d 805 (S.D.1979); LaFave, supra, at 3.3 n. 124. We are inclined to discount this factor, however, because to Dartez the *532 risks incurred in fabricating the basis of his information may have seemed small, difficult to distinguish from a genuine effort to cooperate and worth the chance of having the charges against him dropped. Fourth, "the residual risk and opprobrium of having admitted criminal conduct" see United States v. Harris, supra, 403 U.S. at 584, 91 S. Ct. at 2082, is correspondingly greater where the informant is identified by name and address as in this case. State v. Welsh, 371 So. 2d 1314 (La.1979); Merrick v. State, 283 Md. 1, 389 A.2d 328 (1978). Considering all of the relevant circumstances, we conclude that the issuing magistrate had a reasonable basis for finding the informant's information reliable on this particular occasion, for finding an adequate basis to assure that the informant obtained his information by personal observation, and ultimately for determining that there was probable cause to issue the search warrant. Accordingly, the trial court's ruling suppressing the evidence is reversed and the case is remanded for further proceedings. SUPPRESSION OF EVIDENCE REVERSED; CASE REMANDED FOR FURTHER PROCEEDINGS. MARCUS, J., concurs in the result. LEMMON, J., concurs. [1] The affidavit clearly passes the first prong of the Aguilar test, the "basis of knowledge" test. The magistrate was informed of the underlying circumstances from which the informant concluded that illicit drugs were located in defendant's residence at 1608 Music Street. He claimed to have seen five pounds of marijuana and one-quarter ounce of cocaine in the residence when he bought drugs from the defendant there on April 13, 1981. This provided an adequate basis to assure that the informant, if he is inherently credible or there is reason to believe in his information on this occasion, obtained the information by personal observation and not through mere rumor. See State v. Jeffcoat, supra.