Opinion ID: 557798
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Warrants and the Searches

Text: 4 On January 7, 1987, defendant James J. Boylan, a New York State Police Investigator assigned to the New York Drug Enforcement Task Force (NYDETF), applied to a United States magistrate for a warrant to search certain apartments, including seven at 143 Bruce. Boylan submitted an affidavit dated January 7 (Boylan affidavit), detailing the basis for the application and stating, in pertinent part, as follows. 5 Boylan had been working for several months on an ongoing investigation of what he believed to be a major cocaine and crack distribution organization in the Bronx, New York, supervised by citizens of the Dominican Republic (Dominican organization). He had received information from several confidential sources, one of whom (the informant) had previously supplied him with information related to this and other investigations. The informant's information in other matters had led to raids in the Bronx in October 1986, resulting in the seizure of weapons and large quantities of narcotics, and the arrest and prosecution of drug suspects. 6 Subsequent to those October raids, the informant had learned from Carlos Molina, one of the leaders of the Dominican organization, that the organization was moving its headquarters from the Bronx to 143 Bruce. Boylan knew that that building had a history of narcotics activity, although as far as he knew, none of that activity had been connected to the Dominican organization. 7 The Boylan affidavit stated that in the past week the informant had reported to Boylan that one of the members of the Dominican organization had said the group was expecting a shipment of cocaine to arrive at 143 Bruce on January 7. The informant provided information with respect to seven apartments in the building. Apartment 4F was Molina's residence; the informant had been in 4F several times within the past several weeks, had seen 1/8 kilogram of cocaine there, and had observed sales of cocaine totaling several kilos; in addition, he had observed cocaine and another member of the Dominican organization in apartment 3B; had observed Molina in apartments 3B and 2A; and had observed another Hispanic male carry cocaine from apartment 2H to apartment 2A. Subsequent to these observations, Molina had told the informant in substance that apartments 2A, 2F, 2H, 2J, and 3D were used in the drug operation. The informant also observed Molina use keys to open the doors to three of those apartments, including 2F and 2J. 8 The application sought search warrants for, inter alia, the seven apartments at 143 Bruce as to which the informant had provided information. The affidavit stated that Boylan had checked the Con Edison records for each of these apartments but that, except for apartment 4F, none of the names in those records was familiar to him. In Boylan's experience, however, the unfamiliarity of the names was not unusual since sophisticated drug traffickers frequently use other people, real or fictitious, as subscribers, registrants, and/or agents, in order to conceal their own identities. 9 The requested search warrants were issued by the magistrate. In addition to authorizing the seizure of narcotics and narcotics paraphernalia, they authorized the seizure of documents and other evidence of violations of the federal narcotics laws or the fruits of such offenses. The warrants allowed the searches to take place at any hour of the day or night. 10 The searches of the seven targeted apartments at 143 Bruce took place virtually simultaneously, shortly before 6 a.m. on January 8. With respect to plaintiffs' apartments, 2F, 2J, and 3D, teams of officers entered forcibly and restrained plaintiffs for as much as two hours while they searched the apartments thoroughly. The degree of force used to enter, restrain, and search is in dispute. It is undisputed, however, that though the searches turned up small amounts of marijuana in apartments 2A and 2F, and about 102 grams of cocaine in apartment 2H, the officers found no semblance of the anticipated shipment of cocaine in any apartments at 143 Bruce.