Opinion ID: 360868
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Crowell's Other Search Contentions

Text: 18 We think that the Maryland warrant for the search of Crowell's U-haul truck on January 16, 1976 was valid because the affidavit on which it was issued established probable cause to believe that a crime had been committed under Maryland law. In the course of this search, it was proper to seize non-controlled chemicals which could be used for the manufacture of PCP. Similarly, we think that the affidavit for the search of his residence on April 3, 1975 established probable cause justifying the issuance of a warrant. The affidavit was not rendered deficient by proof that the affidavit erroneously stated that PCP found in the trash was in the form of white crystalline material rather than, as was the fact, in the form of brown flakes. The variance appears innocent and a result of simple carelessness; it does not demonstrate perjury on the part of the affiant or reckless disregard of the true facts. Franks v. Delaware, --- U.S. ----, 98 S.Ct. 2674, 57 L.Ed.2d 667 (1978); United States v. Lee, 540 F.2d 1205, 1209 (4 Cir.), Cert. denied, 429 U.S. 894, 97 S.Ct. 255, 50 L.Ed.2d 177 (1976). Thus, we reject the attacks on the validity of both warrants. 19 Crowell's attacks on the validity of four searches, i. e. search of a residence in Spotsylvania County, Virginia in April 1975, search of a farmhouse in Greenbrier, West Virginia on October 22, 1975, search of the residence of Milton Warren in Wheaton, Maryland in December 1975, and search of an outbuilding in Essex County, Virginia on April 1, 1976, were rejected by the district court on the ground that Crowell lacked standing to contest their validity. We think that the district court ruled correctly. 20 Before us, Crowell contends that he had standing both because he had a possessory interest in the items seized, and because he had a possessory interest in the premises searched. Were Crowell charged with a crime an essential element of which is possession of the items seized, he would have standing to contest the validity of the searches. Brown v. United States, 411 U.S. 223, 229, 93 S.Ct. 1565, 36 L.Ed.2d 208 (1973). But Crowell was not charged with such a crime; he was charged with (a) conspiracy which is not a possessory crime, even where the conspiracy is one to manufacture and possess a controlled substance, United States v. Hutchinson, 488 F.2d 484, 492 (8 Cir. 1973), Cert. denied, 417 U.S. 915, 94 S.Ct. 2616, 41 L.Ed.2d 219 (1974), and (b) traveling in interstate commerce in aid of a racketeering enterprise which again involves no element of possession. Absent accusation of a crime an essential element of which is possession of the items seized as a result of a search, we have held that an allegation of a possessory interest in the items seized, standing alone, does not confer standing to object to a search. United States v. Jackson, 585 F.2d 653 (Nos. 77-2530/31, 1978). 21 Crowell's assertion of a possessory interest in the premises searched, if sustained by the proof, would confer standing on him. Brown v. United States, supra. His motion to suppress, however, alleged no direct proprietary or possessory interest in any of the four premises; the proof showed that they were owned or rented by others; and he was not present on any of the four premises when the searches were conducted. Crowell's assertion of a possessory or proprietary interest in the premises searched depends upon his claim that the other evidence showed that he was the kingpin in the overall conspiracy and, since the various premises were rented or used to further the conspiracy, under the law of agency, the acts of Crowell's co-conspirators in acquiring leases and proprietary interests became his acts so as to give him standing. 22 In United States v. Hunt, 505 F.2d 931 (5 Cir. 1974), Cert. denied, 421 U.S. 975, 95 S.Ct. 1974, 44 L.Ed.2d 466 (1975), the identical argument was rejected, and we are persuaded of the correctness of that decision. In Hunt, Judge Goldberg made a thorough and scholarly analysis of recent Supreme Court decisions relating to standing to assert a violation of the fourth amendment, concluding that the key to standing is whether the person asserting it was a victim of the search, the 'one against whom the search or seizure was directed.'  505 F.2d at 938. He stressed the correlation between the scope of the amendment's protection and the concept of privacy. Then he added: 23 One of the most significant aspects of the law of standing in search and seizure cases, and one that clearly reflects the intensely personal nature of Fourth Amendment rights, is the rule that interpersonal relationships cannot make a victim of one who is not otherwise one against whom the search or seizure is directed. . . . Alderman v. United States (394 U.S. 165, 89 S.Ct. 961, 22 L.Ed.2d 176 (1969)) dictates that co-defendants and co-conspirators may not assert the Fourth Amendment rights of their alleged partners in crime solely on the basis of their interpersonal association, because Fourth Amendment rights are personal ones. 505 F.2d at 939. 24 More specifically, Judge Goldberg rejected the argument that defendants had standing to object to a search because the parties searched were their agents: 25 Fifteen years of Supreme Court decisions stand squarely in the way of defendants' attempt to create a rule of Per se standing for parties in a principal-agent relationship. This claim of privacy by agency is just the sort of vicarious assertion of Fourth Amendment rights that Alderman (Alderman v. United States, 394 U.S. 165, 89 S.Ct. 961, 22 L.Ed.2d 176 (1969)) and Brown (Brown v. United States, 411 U.S. 223, 93 S.Ct. 1565, 36 L.Ed.2d 208 (1973)) forbid. If we were to adopt the position urged by defendants, any criminally-inclined individual could earn a double dividend by hiring private investigators to complete his schemes: not only could the principal disassociate himself from any physical unpleasantness or risk involved in the criminal activity and at the same time cover his own tracks, but he could claim a privacy interest in any instrumentalities of the crime, no matter whether he had the slightest idea of the existence of such instrumentalities before the unpleasant epiphany of arrest. 505 F.2d at 942. 26 To like effect is United States v. Potter, 419 F.Supp. 1151, 1154-56 (N.D.Ill., 1976), Aff'd, 567 F.2d 392 (7 Cir. 1977). 27 Thus we conclude that, without proof that Crowell selected the various premises and directed that they be acquired by purchase or lease in his name or in the name of a nominee, he did not acquire a sufficient right of privacy therein to give him standing to object to their search. 3