Opinion ID: 1025988
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Adequacy of the Search Warrant

Text: Appellant also claims that the search warrant was inadequate on its face because an anonymous tip, corroborated only by a year-old search of a trash can, would not provide the officers with probable cause to believe that illegal narcotics were being sold. The government concedes that, had the search actually occurred in March of 2004, as the affidavit stated, probable cause would have been lacking. The search did not occur in 2004, however; it actually occurred the day before the officer's request for a warrant. Neither Officer Graves, who wrote the affidavit, nor the magistrate judge who signed the warrant, noticed that the year of the search of the trash can was incorrectly stated. Even defense counsel failed to notice that the date was incorrect. In fact, this unintended typographical error might have gone entirely unnoticed were it not for the careful and diligent district judge. The error was not mentioned until the first suppression hearing, when the district judge pointed out that the year of the trash can search on the affidavit was given as 2004 rather than 2005. Having uncovered this error, the district judge investigated this issue thoroughly. He obtained testimony from Officer Graves, who explained that the trash cans had been searched the evening before the warrant was issued and that the date on the affidavit was an innocent mistake. The judge also took testimony from the magistrate, who explained that while he did not have a strong recollection of his thought process in this case, it was extremely likely that he would have thought [the request for a warrant] would have been within 24 hours of the search. The magistrate's determination of probable cause rested on the actual facts of the trash can search, not the erroneous date stated in the warrant. Officer Graves thus had probable cause to believe there was illegal conduct; the magistrate considered the facts as known to Officer Graves, and agreed. The only question is whether the typographical error in the affidavit voids the warrant when probable cause otherwise exists. Even if this sort of easily-overlooked typographical error would render the warrant deficient, we hold that under the Leon good-faith exception, the warrant should be upheld, see United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897, 913, 104 S.Ct. 3405, 82 L.Ed.2d 677 (1984), because the officers reasonably relied on a warrant issued by a detached and neutral magistrate. The Leon good-faith exception is not available where (1) probable cause is based on statements in an affidavit that are knowingly or recklessly false; (2) the magistrate fails to perform a neutral and detached function and instead merely rubber stamps the warrant; (3) the affidavit does not provide the magistrate with a substantial basis for determining the existence of probable cause; or (4) the warrant was so facially deficient that the executing officer could not reasonably have assumed it was valid. Id. at 914-15, 104 S.Ct. 3405. None of these circumstances exist here. The finding of probable cause was not based on knowingly or recklessly false statements in the affidavit. See Section II.A. The typographical mistake as to the year was inadvertent, and at best could be chalked up to negligence on the fault of the officer who prepared the affidavit. Nor did the magistrate fail to perform a neutral and detached function. That he missed an error in the date does not show that his reading was cursory, or that he served as a rubber stamp for the police. See United States v. Wilhelm, 80 F.3d 116, 121 (4th Cir.1996) (holding that a magistrate who allows bare-bones affidavit, which fails to state the items to be seized, does not perform a neutral and detached function). While the magistrate failed to detect the error in the date, as noted above, the mistake was so minor that defense counsel also missed it. The affidavit was in no other respect deficient, and the magistrate testified that he read and considered it carefully. The district court correctly concluded that the magistrate had not abandoned his judicial role. See United States v. Servance, 394 F.3d 222, 231-32 (4th Cir.2005) (holding that the magistrate did not abandon his judicial role where he read and considered the affidavit), vacated on other grounds, Servance v. United States, 544 U.S. 1047, 125 S.Ct. 2308, 161 L.Ed.2d 1086 (2005). Had the magistrate noticed the typographical error at issue here, he would still have had a substantial basis for believing that the search had in fact taken place in 2005. The date of the trash can search was March 25which would have been one day prior to the filing of the affidavit, had Officer Graves correctly specified the year. We conclude that the affidavit presented a substantial basis for a reasonable magistrate to believe that the warrant was supported by probable cause. Cf. Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983) (affidavits should not be discarded for technical reasons). An error so minor that it is not caught by the police, the magistrate, or counsel on either side does not render the warrant entirely deficient. See United States v. Angle, 230 F.3d 113, 118 (4th Cir.2000) (holding that an innocent mistake in naming the wrong trailer to be searched is entitled to a good-faith exception under Leon ), vacated on other grounds, United States v. Angle, 254 F.3d 514 (4th Cir.2001) (en banc). Finally, and most importantly, none of the purposes of the exclusionary rule would be served by suppressing the evidence here. The exclusionary rule seeks to deter unlawful police conduct. Leon, 468 U.S. at 918, 104 S.Ct. 3405. Here, the police investigated an uncorroborated tip to establish probable cause to search appellant's home. Once they had found evidence of illegal narcotics activity in the trash cans, they followed proper procedures to obtain a warrant. Officers already have significant incentives to avoid the sort of mistake that occurred here. The mistake as to the year would not have helped the officers establish probable cause; quite the contrary. There is simply no need to create additional incentives for police officers to avoid making typographical errors that are to their own detriment. For these reasons, we hold that the inadvertent, minor mistake in the affidavit is entitled to Leon 's good faith exception.