Opinion ID: 1206603
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Omitted Statements

Text: Wallace also argues that Bertrand intentionally omitted information from his affidavit that deprived the judge of key information necessary to determine probable causenamely additional comments made by the young girl during her interview regarding alleged kidnapping attempts and physical abuse by her stepmother towards her own son. Wallace claims that these omitted statements would have been critical to the issuing judge in assessing the credibility of the eleven-year-old girl whose statements formed the basis of the affidavit. We reject Wallace's argument. A search warrant may be invalidated because of omitted facts [in a supporting affidavit] if (1) the police omitted facts with the intent to make, or in reckless disregard of whether they thereby made, the affidavit misleading, and (2) the affidavit, if supplemented by the omitted information would not have been sufficient to support a finding of probable cause. United States v. Hart, 544 F.3d 911, 914 (8th Cir.2008) (internal quotations omitted). There is no evidence that Bertrand omitted these statements from his affidavit with the intent to mislead the tribunal or in reckless disregard of the truth. Indeed, the evidence demonstrates that the girl's statements did not raise any issues of credibility with Bertrand regarding the claims she made against Wallace on the Arkansas State Police Child Abuse Hotline and during the subsequent police interview. And, these unrelated statements, even if included in the affidavit, would not have been fatal to its sufficiency. Bertrand observed the girl in person, had the opportunity to evaluate her credibility while she was interviewed by trained forensic examiners, and compared her interview to the information contained in the hotline report. Further, during the interview, the girl was quite detailed in her description of what transpired with Wallace during the events in question as well as the physical environment she was in at that time. Not only is more weight given to information where officers meet face-to-face with the informant and judge her to be credible, United States v. Robertson, 39 F.3d 891, 893 (8th Cir.1994), but law enforcement officers are entitled to rely on information supplied by the victim of a crime, absent some indication the information is not reasonably trustworthy or reliable. United States v. McKinney, 328 F.3d 993, 994 (8th Cir.2003). Comments about alleged kidnappings and abuse, while distracting, unrelated and even possibly untrue, do not detract from the girl's credibility regarding the crime at issue here.