Opinion ID: 389313
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Defendant's Motion to Suppress Evidence at Trial

Text: 33 Evidence presented during the trial caused the District Judge to doubt the correctness of his rulings on the pretrial suppression motion that defendant lacked standing to challenge the legality of the search at Klinger and that the search of the barbershop complied with the requirements of § 3109. To insure fairness he reopened the hearing with respect to the legality of the execution of both searches. Defendant sought to expand this hearing to reconsider also the question whether there was probable cause to issue the search warrants. The District Court denied defendant's attempt as untimely. Defendant urges us to find that the denial was an abuse of discretion. 34 Fed.R.Crim.P. 12(b) requires that a motion to suppress be made before trial. Only in a case of the most flagrant abuse will a court of appeals review a trial court's discretionary denial of a motion to suppress as untimely. United States v. Maloney, 402 F.2d 448, 449 (1st Cir. 1968) cert. denied, 394 U.S. 947, 89 S.Ct. 1283, 22 L.Ed.2d 481 (1969). Defendant fully aired the question of probable cause in the pretrial evidentiary hearing. Defendant's trial motion was grounded on the claim that the material allegations in the affidavit leading to the search warrant were false. A careful reading of the trial transcript discloses that all of the testimony that defendant relied on to challenge the affidavit relates to a buy of narcotics made after the search warrant was procured but before it was executed. Whether the testimony relating to this buy is true or false can have no possible bearing on the adequacy of the affidavit that led to the search warrant. 35 Defendant has adduced no other evidence to show that the affidavit was false, or that the information on which the search warrant was based was presented to the magistrate by the affiant with knowledge of or reckless disregard for its falsity. He thus has failed to meet the test of Franks v. Delaware, 438 U.S. 154, 171, 98 S.Ct. 2674, 2684, 57 L.Ed.2d 667 (1978), for quashing a search warrant before trial. The able trial judge was very careful to preserve defendant's rights. There was no abuse of discretion in reopening the suppression hearing only with respect to the legality of the execution of the search warrants. 36