Opinion ID: 514192
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Search of the Apartment

Text: 8 The defendant argues that the search warrant for his apartment was invalid because the affidavit supporting it falsely stated that Officer Hardy had seen the informant enter and leave the described location--3531 Jay Street, Northeast, Washington, D.C., Apartment One  (emphasis added)--when in fact Hardy had only seen the informant enter the apartment complex. 1 Whether the inaccurate statement is excised from the affidavit or is corrected, the defendant argues, the affidavit does not demonstrate probable cause. 9 The test for reviewing an allegation that a warrant was based on a false affidavit derives from the Supreme Court's decision in Franks v. Delaware, 438 U.S. 154, 98 S.Ct. 2674, 57 L.Ed.2d 667(1978). Under the Franks test, 2 in order to challenge the affidavit successfully, the defendant must show that (1) the affidavit contained false statements; (2) the statements were material to the issue of probable cause; and (3) the false statements were made knowingly and intentionally, or with reckless disregard for the truth. See id. 438 U.S. at 155-56, 98 S.Ct. at 2676-77; United States v. Ferguson, 758 F.2d 843, 848 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 1032, 106 S.Ct. 592, 88 L.Ed.2d 572 (1985). We need not resolve whether the statements were false or material. Even assuming that they were, the district court's finding that Officer Hardy acted in good faith was not clearly erroneous, and there has been absolutely no showing that he made the statements with scienter. 10 Read strictly and with the benefit of hindsight, the affidavit is undoubtedly inaccurate. It states that the affiant saw the informant enter the described location, which was described as Apartment One, when in fact Hardy only saw the informant enter the apartment complex. On the other hand, if we consider that a reviewing court must give an affidavit a sensible, pragmatic reading, one that takes account of the pressure of time and the typical level of verbal skills in laymen police officers, United States v. Watts, 540 F.2d 1093, 1097 (D.C.Cir.1976); accord Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. at 235, 103 S.Ct. at 2330, it would not be unreasonable to read the affidavit as being merely ambiguous as to whether Hardy saw the informant enter the defendant's apartment itself. However, we need not resolve here whether this inaccuracy or ambiguity meets the falsity prong of the Franks test. 11 Even assuming that the statement was false, it is not at all clear that the falsity was material. 3 It is not necessarily crucial to a finding of probable cause that a police officer observe an informant enter the specific apartment where a controlled buy is being conducted. See Jones v. United States, 336 A.2d 535, 537 (D.C.), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 997, 96 S.Ct. 427, 46 L.Ed.2d 372 (1975); People v. Exline, 98 Ill.2d 150, 74 Ill.Dec. 610, 456 N.E.2d 112, 115 (1983). To hold otherwise would make apartment houses effectively off limits to officers seeking to enforce the narcotics laws. Jones, 336 A.2d at 537. On the other hand, it is unclear whether the fact of the controlled buy alone is sufficient under such circumstances to demonstrate probable cause without other corroborating evidence. In Jones, for example, the informant had proven reliable on at least five occasions in the prior two months, and in Exline, police investigation had verified that the apartment belonged to the person whom the informant accused of selling drugs. The affidavit in the present case did not supply such corroborating evidence. 4 12 Nevertheless, we need not decide whether the inaccuracy in the affidavit was material, because even if the statement was false and material to the issue of probable cause, the defendant has made no contention that it meets the third prong of the Franks test--i.e., that the statement was made knowingly and intentionally or with reckless disregard for the truth. Officer Hardy could easily have written the affidavit without realizing that it gave the misleading impression that he had seen the informant enter Apartment One. Moreover, the district court found that there was nothing to indicate lack of good faith on the officer's part. Consequently, even if the inaccurate statement in the affidavit was material to the issue of probable cause, the evidence uncovered during the search was admissible because the affidavit was made in good faith, the warrant was issued by a detached and neutral magistrate, and the warrant was reasonably relied on in good faith by the police officers. See United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897, 104 S.Ct. 3405, 82 L.Ed.2d 677 (1984). 13 Although we uphold the search in this case, our holding should not be read to sanction the use of boilerplate or inaccurate affidavits. Nor do we mean to suggest that blatantly false affidavits can survive challenge on a claim of good faith. 5 Police officers must take care to include all evidence of probable cause available to them in their affidavits, and the affidavits must accurately reflect the facts of the particular case. In this case, the evidence indicates that police officers acted in good faith and that the affidavit was infected by nothing more than honest error; that is not enough to support a motion to suppress.