Opinion ID: 793369
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Reexamination of the Motion to Suppress

Text: 127 Defendant urges this Court to reexamine the district court's decision on the motion to suppress. His argument is based on his perceived inconsistency between the affidavit and the affiant's testimony at trial, and testimony at trial that contradicted the affidavit. 128 We disagree with Defendant that the affiant's testimony at trial contradicted the affidavit. In his testimony, the affiant expressly affirmed what he stated in the affidavit; he testified that when he spoke to the magistrate, he stated that he believed or concluded that certain bank officials intentionally withheld information, and that one bank official devised a scheme to recoup the losses of Defendants' scheme without informing the FBI of any losses. The affiant later testified that charges were not brought against these bank officials. 129 The cogency of Defendant's argument is somewhat suspect; Defendant seems to be asserting that because charges were not brought against the bank officials, the affiant was less than forthright in his statements to the magistrate that the bank officials were withholding information from the FBI. If this is the case, then Defendant's argument fails; the fact that the bank officials were not prosecuted does not necessarily mean that the affiant lied to the magistrate when he stated that he suspected dishonesty on the part of the bank officials. In fact, Defendant's own cross-examination insinuated that these charges were not brought because of the bank officials' cooperation with Defendant's prosecution, not because the charges were baseless. 130 Defendant then relies on the trial testimony of Keith Swaney, an officer at PVF, where Swaney stated that he disagreed with the affiant's statement in the affidavit that the bank officials intentionally withheld information from the FBI. Again, Defendant seems to argue that the affiant lied to the magistrate. As explained above, to obtain a Franks hearing, Defendant has the burden to prove the falsehoods made in the affidavit. The mere fact that a bank official disagreed with the affidavit is insufficient to meet this burden. 131