Opinion ID: 3039908
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Sufficiency of the Affidavit

Text: [3] Leon established that for the good faith exception to apply, the officer’s affidavit must establish at least a colorable argument for probable cause. See Leon, 468 U.S. at 923; Hove, 848 F.2d at 140. The Supreme Court framed the inquiry as whether the affidavit is “sufficient to create disagreement among thoughtful and competent judges as to the existence of probable cause.” Leon, 468 U.S. at 926; United States v. Fowlie, 24 F.3d 1059, 1067 (9th Cir. 1994) (internal quotation marks omitted). The affidavit here fails to meet this threshold showing. Unlike other affidavits that this Circuit has upheld under the good faith exception, see, e.g., United States v. Huggins, 299 F.3d 1039 (9th Cir. 2002); Clark, 31 F.3d 831; Fowlie, 24 F.3d 1059, the instant affidavit contains no appreciable indicia of probable cause. [4] A critical deficiency in the affidavit is that it relies on an unverified tip as the lynchpin for its theory of probable cause. As we have repeatedly held, for an anonymous tip to be accorded any weight, “officers must provide some basis to believe that the tip is true.” Clark, 31 F.3d at 834. “[T]he tip must include a ‘range of details,’ and it must predict future actions by the suspect that are subsequently corroborated by the police.” United States v. Morales, 252 F.3d 1070, 1075 (9th Cir. 2001). “Mere confirmation of innocent static details in an anonymous tip does not constitute corroboration.” Clark, 31 F.3d at 834. Therefore, in this case, for the DEA’s tip to be given any weight, the affidavit should have estabUNITED STATES v. LUONG 19341 lished, at a minimum, a reasonable inference that Jao is the chemist identified in the tip and that the agents in fact identified Jao. Otherwise, the tip fails to provide any predictive information about Jao — let alone the “range of details” required by Morales — for the police to corroborate during their surveillance. [5] Here, although we can reasonably infer from the affidavit that Jao flew to Los Angeles on August 1, 2003, the affidavit fails to identify Jao as the “suspected suspect known as a chemist.” The affidavit neither describes the suspect (for example, by name or physical description), nor identifies the basis upon which Jao, as opposed to any other passenger arriving that day, was identified and targeted. The affidavit fails to set forth a factual basis for linking Jao to the allegations contained in the tip. Beyond the mere presence of a chemist on a plane, it also lacks any predictive information, the occurrence of which would verify the tip. Although the government argues that Luong and Jao’s comings and goings from the house to the backyard support a theory that methamphetamine production was underway in the garage, the affidavit does not allege (let alone set forth evidence) that methamphetamine operations are commonly set up in residential yards, or that Luong’s garage was accessible through the backyard. The affidavit does not assert that officers saw a vacuum pump at the residence, only that such a pump is commonly used with a high pressure hose. There is also no evidence that the hose was obtained from the backyard or the garage, or — despite seven additional hours of surveillance — that the fitting purchased at Home Depot was ever taken into the backyard.