Opinion ID: 46216
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Suppression Proceedings

Text: Pope filed a motion to suppress all evidence recovered from her home. In her motion, Pope argued that the first search warrant was invalid because (1) the facts related in Baird’s affidavit were stale, depriving Baird of probable cause to search Pope’s residence for anything, (2) Baird’s affidavit was essentially conclusional in nature, i.e., a “bare bones” affidavit, and (3) the items listed in the warrant to be seized related exclusively to trafficking in illegal narcotics or money laundering, but Baird’s affidavit mentioned only the single, ten-dollar prescription drug transaction that occurred 78 days earlier. Pope also contended that the infirmities in the first warrant effectively invalidated the second, the “fruit of the poisonous tree” argument. Finally, Pope insisted that, under the particular facts of this case, the 4 government could not rely on the “good faith” exception to the exclusionary rule. The district court held that (1) Baird’s affidavit was not conclusional, and (2) the items to be searched for did relate to the activity detailed in the affidavit, but (3) the warrant lacked probable cause because the information regarding the prescriptiondrug sale was stale. The court nevertheless denied Pope’s motion to suppress, applying the “good faith” exception to Baird’s initial search. In reaching this conclusion, the district court rejected Pope’s argument that the “good faith” exception should not apply in this case, because the search warrant was based on an affidavit “so lacking in indicia of probable cause as to render an officer’s belief in it unreasonable.”2