Opinion ID: 2330498
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Probable Cause Standard Applied to the Warrant Affidavit for the Search of the Rabons' Apartment

Text: [¶ 25] The warrant affidavit signed by the MDEA agent is based largely on information provided to him by the confidential informant. In viewing the affidavit, as redacted, in its most positive light, we assess the information in the affidavit regarding the informant's: (a) reliability and basis of knowledge; (b) claims regarding the Rabons' criminal activities; and (c) reports of other information concerning the Rabons. We conclude the analysis by applying the totality of the circumstances test.
[¶ 26] The warrant affidavit reveals very little about the informant's background. It reports that the confidential informant contacted the police wishing to share information about drug trafficking occurring in Rumford in order to receive prosecutorial consideration if any information provided is helpful in a drug trafficking case. The informant is described as not being on probation, but as being on bail for non-drug related offenses; as not receiving any remuneration in exchange for information; and as having provided additional information on other drug trafficking in the area. The affidavit does not provide any details regarding this additional information, or whether it had been found to be accurate. [¶ 27] The affidavit fails to explain the basis for the informant's knowledge that the Rabons were engaged in drug trafficking. See State v. Crowley, 1998 ME 187, ¶¶ 6-7, 714 A.2d 834, 837. The affidavit does not assert that the informant had actually seen firsthand any contraband or criminal activity. The affidavit also does not contain any statement to the effect that the informant has been found or is otherwise believed by the MDEA agent or other law enforcement officials to be a reliable reporter of information. See id. ¶ 6, 714 A.2d at 837. [¶ 28] The informant is not a disinterested citizen informant, but is instead a confidential informant who disclose[d] information to the authorities in hopes of lessening his or her own exposure to criminal sanctions. State v. Perrigo, 640 A.2d 1074, 1076 (Me.1994). Courts are much more concerned with veracity when the source of the information is an informant from the criminal milieu rather than an average citizen who has found himself in the position of a crime victim or witness. 2 WAYNE R. LAFAVE, SEARCH AND SEIZURE § 3.4 at 219 (4th ed.2004). In addition, the affidavit does not report that the informant provided any information against the informant's own penal interests, which is another basis on which to infer the reliability of information provided by an informant. See State v. Dignoti, 682 A.2d 666, 670 (Me.1996). [¶ 29] In short, the affidavit offers no information of the type commonly presented in search warrant affidavits that would allow a magistrate to form an opinion regarding an anonymous or confidential informant's reliability or basis of knowledge. In all but a few of the warrant affidavits involving confidential or anonymous informants we have considered since Gates, the affidavits included at least a modicum of information that addressed the informant's reliability or basis of knowledge. [6] An affidavit that supplies no information about an informant's reliability or basis of knowledge fails to provide information that is highly relevant to the probable cause determination. See Crowley, 1998 ME 187, ¶ 6, 714 A.2d at 837. The absence of such information does not preclude a finding of probable cause, but, as established in Gates, absent that information, something more is required. 462 U.S. at 227, 103 S.Ct. 2317.
[¶ 30] Our decisions establish that something more is frequently supplied by police corroboration of the informant's reports regarding suspicious or criminal activities by the person suspected of wrongdoing. See, e.g., State v. Thibodeau, 2000 ME 52, ¶¶ 3, 7, 747 A.2d 596, 598-99 (corroborating informant tip without information about veracity or basis of knowledge by analysis of utility records, and infra-red observation of apartment); State v. Lutz, 553 A.2d 657, 658-59 (Me.1989) (corroborating informant tip by observation of four marijuana gardens with path leading to seasonal camp and partially corroborating information from named informant that defendant resided at seasonal camp); State v. Nason, 498 A.2d 252, 253 (Me.1985) (corroborating informant tip through police observation of suspicious activity at residence for eleven-day period). Indeed, in every search warrant affidavit we have addressed since Gates, the affidavit included information depicting contextually suspicious or overtly criminal activity by a suspect who was observed by someone in addition to or other than an anonymous or confidential informant. [7] [¶ 31] An affidavit's inclusion of information regarding the observations of a person in addition to an informant is by no means required to establish probable cause under the totality of the circumstances test. As demonstrated in our decisions, however, it is a form of corroboration that is frequently included in warrant affidavits. [¶ 32] The affidavit in this case reveals that the police corroborated, to a limited degree, the informant's report that Charles and Sharon Rabon had recently left Florida and were en route back to Rumford in their van in possession of cocaine. Specifically, the police observed that the Rabons' van was not parked at their apartment on August 11 and 12, and that the van returned on August 13. This partial corroboration of the informant's information, considered positively, is somewhat supportive of probable cause because it lends support to the reliability of the informant. [8] The absence of the Rabons' van on August 11 and 12, and its return on August 13 was not, however, contextually suspicious.
[¶ 33] The MDEA agent's affidavit also corroborates other information provided by the informant, such as the Rabons' names, telephone number, address, car, the color of their apartment building, and the fact that Charles Rabon had received a summons for excessive noise and had not been subject to a search. The corroboration of this readily available information reveals that the informant, or the persons providing information to the informant, were familiar with the Rabons. See 2 WAYNE R. LAFAVE, SEARCH AND SEIZURE § 3.3(f) at 179-80 (4th ed.2004). The informant's identification of two bars in the area known to the police as sites where drugs are trafficked establishes that either the informant, or the persons providing information to the informant, were generally familiar with drug activity in the area. The affidavit contains no corroboration of the informant's claim that Charles Rabon has a karaoke business, nor does it contain information that corroborates whether Charles Rabon was ever present at the two bars where the informant alleges the drugs were sold. [¶ 34] None of the preceding information qualifies as inside information that would be uniquely available to an informant with direct knowledge of otherwise uncorroborated criminal activity. See State v. Lafond, 2002 ME 124, ¶¶ 9-10, 802 A.2d 425, 428-29. An informant's accurate description of readily available information establishes reliability in the limited sense [that it] will help the police correctly identify the person whom the tipster means to accuse, but it does not show that the tipster has knowledge of concealed criminal activity. Florida v. J.L., 529 U.S. 266, 272, 120 S.Ct. 1375, 146 L.Ed.2d 254 (2000). Here, the informant's accurate description of readily available information concerning the Rabons establishes that the informant, or the persons supplying information to the informant, were familiar with the Rabons and with drug trafficking in the vicinity.
[¶ 35] When the police saw the Rabons' van return on August 13, they were in the middle of a promising investigation. Considered in its totality, however, the warrant affidavit, as redacted, does not contain information that establishes the informant's reliability or basis of knowledge, or corroborate in any significant way the informant's claim that the Rabons purchased cocaine in Florida for resale in Maine. The partial corroboration associated with the police observation of the van's absence from, and return to, the Rabons' apartment is not a strong showing as to . . . some other indicia of reliability as contemplated by Gates that would justify a magistrate in crediting the otherwise unsupported claims of criminal activity by the Rabons made by an informant for whom the warrant affidavit provides no information concerning the informant's reliability or basis of knowledge. See Gates, 462 U.S. at 233, 103 S.Ct. 2317. Before the police could enter the Rabons' apartment, something more was required. [9] [G]iven all the circumstances set forth in the affidavit . . . including the veracity and basis of knowledge of persons supplying hearsay information, the affidavit does not establish that there is a fair probability that contraband or evidence of a crime would be found in the Rabons' apartment. See Wright, 2006 ME 13, ¶ 8, 890 A.2d at 705 (quotation marks omitted). [¶ 36] Because probable cause did not exist to search the apartment without the information gained from the warrantless entry into the apartment, none of the above discussed exceptions to the warrant requirement or the exclusionary rule apply, and the evidence seized from the Rabons' apartment during the initial warrantless entry and the subsequent search pursuant to the warrant should have been ordered suppressed. The entry is: Judgments of conviction vacated and remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.