Opinion ID: 557342
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Plain View Seizure of Documents.

Text: 56 There are two other questions we must answer concerning Berkowitz's motion to suppress, assuming that if on remand the court determines Berkowitz's arrest was legal. Both center around whether Shearer legally seized documents from Berkowitz's home office at the time of his arrest. Since Shearer did not have a warrant to seize those documents, the seizure was proper only under the plain view exception to the warrant requirement. A warrantless seizure is justified under the plain view doctrine if the officer has a legal right to be in the place from where he sees the object subject to seizure and a lawful right of access to the object itself, and if  'the object's incriminating nature is immediately apparent.'  Horton v. California, --- U.S. ----, 110 S.Ct. 2301, 2308, 110 L.Ed.2d 112 (1990). The two questions we must answer (assuming the arrest to be legal) are whether Shearer had a right to be in Berkowitz's office when he discovered the documents, and whether it was immediately apparent to Shearer that those were government documents. (There is no dispute, assuming Shearer's presence in the office was legal, about whether Shearer had a lawful right of access to the documents he seized, since they were lying in the open in a place he had a right to be.)There is no material factual dispute about Shearer's presence in Berkowitz's office. Both parties agree that Berkowitz told the agents that he wanted to get his keys, and that Shearer followed Berkowitz into his office where his keys were. While the government asserts that Berkowitz consented to being followed and Berkowitz asserts he did not consent, this factual dispute is unimportant. In Washington v. Chrisman, 455 U.S. 1, 102 S.Ct. 812, 70 L.Ed.2d 778 (1982), the Supreme Court held that when police lawfully arrest a person, they may follow that person into his home to monitor him, and seize any contraband they find in plain view. That is exactly what occurred here. The officer's authority to monitor a suspect does not depend on the suspect's consent; a suspect under arrest has no right to wander off on his own. Thus, the district court correctly held that Shearer could legally follow Berkowitz into his office. 57 The second requirement, that an object's incriminating nature be immediately apparent, is met where a police officer, upon seeing the object, has probable cause to believe the object is contraband or evidence of a crime. Arizona v. Hicks, 480 U.S. 321, 327, 107 S.Ct. 1149, 1153, 94 L.Ed.2d 347 (1987). In this case, Shearer stated in his affidavit he observed numerous files on top of the desk in Berkowitz's office and under the desk's alcove area. Shearer stated that he immediately recognized the files as those that had been stored in the USA's office. He knew the files were from the USA's office because, among other things, he recognized his own handwriting on some of the files. Shearer also stated that he saw some original income tax returns. 58 Shearer's affidavit is sufficient to show that it was immediately apparent to him the files he saw in and seized from Berkowitz's office were taken from the USA's office. Berkowitz, however, disputes several of the facts in Shearer's affidavit. The question, therefore, is whether these disputed facts are material, so that the district court should have taken evidence concerning the seizure. 59 None of the factual disputes concerning the documents' seizure is material. Berkowitz states that it would not have been immediately apparent from looking at any files on his desk that they were government files. However, Berkowitz cannot contest what would have been apparent to Shearer (who was the agent responsible for investigating the tax fraud case) just by baldly asserting what he thinks would have been apparent. 60 Berkowitz also stated that there were no papers in the alcove area under his desk. But Shearer stated he saw files in the alcove area, not papers. In any event, even if Shearer was mistaken about seeing files in the alcove area, the fact remains that Shearer did seize files from Berkowitz's office that were in plain view. Any dispute about precisely where Shearer actually found the files is not relevant to the question of whether it was immediately apparent to Shearer that the files he did find were government files. 61 Finally, Berkowitz stated that there were no original tax returns on top of his desk. However, Berkowitz does not contest that Shearer actually seized original tax returns. Even if those tax returns were in the files, they were seizable because the files themselves were seizable. Berkowitz does not dispute that Shearer's handwriting was on the files, or that there were other reasons for him to recognize the files. Thus, the fact that there may have been no original tax returns on top of the desk is not material to whether Shearer legally seized the documents he found in plain view in Berkowitz's office. Since there is no material factual dispute concerning Shearer's seizure of documents at the time of the arrest, if Berkowitz's arrest was legal, the seizure of the documents was legal. 1 IV. Sentencing 62 A. Offense Level Increase for Destroying Documents. 63 Since Berkowitz's conviction may still stand after the district court holds an evidentiary hearing concerning his arrest, we consider Berkowitz's challenges to his sentence. Berkowitz first argues that the district court erred by increasing his offense level for the obstruction of justice counts eight levels because he destroyed documents. Sentencing Guideline Sec. 2J1.2(b)(1) provides for an eight-level increase for obstruction of justice offenses [i]f the defendant obstructed or attempted to obstruct justice by causing or threatening to cause physical injury to a person or property.... Berkowitz argues that Sec. 2J1.2(b)(1)'s eight-level increase applies only when property damage is used to intimidate a witness or inflict emotional distress. That is not, however, what the guideline says, and there is nothing in the commentary to Sec. 2J1.2 to support Berkowitz's argument. Section 2J1.2(b)(1) provides for an eight-level increase where the offense involves property damage; since Berkowitz destroyed government documents, that increase applies here. 64 B. Amount of Loss. 65 Berkowitz next argues that the district court erred by increasing the offense level for his theft conviction by eight levels. Guideline Sec. 2B1.1 provides a base offense level of four for theft, and then increases the offense level as the amount of loss from the theft rises. For losses between $100,001 and $200,000, Sec. 2B1.1(b)(1)(I) provides for an eight-level increase. Berkowitz argues that the government did not introduce sufficient evidence to support the district judge's finding that the government's loss from his theft amounted to more than $100,000. 66 Section 2B1.1, Application Note 2, provides that loss ordinarily means the market value of the property stolen. However, [w]here the market value is difficult to ascertain or inadequate to measure harm to the victim, the court may measure loss in some other way, such as reasonable replacement cost to the victim. Id. The government estimated that the replacement cost of the documents Berkowitz stole would be more than $100,000. The government based its estimate on the effort it would take to duplicate the missing documents, including the time at least a dozen banks would have to spend duplicating documents, and the time the government would have to spend reorganizing the documents, reinterviewing witnesses, obtaining new copies of documents the witnesses had previously supplied, and recopying stolen undercover tape recordings. Time is money, and the value of the labor involved in replacing the stolen documents is part of the cost of replacing them. Moreover, time a person spends doing one thing is time that person cannot spend doing something else; therefore, opportunity costs must also be factored into the cost of replacing the documents. [L]oss need not be determined with precision, and may be inferred from any reasonably reliable information available.... Guideline Sec. 2B1.1, Application Note 3. Given that Berkowitz produced no evidence to challenge the government's assertions about replacing the documents, those assertions were sufficient to support the trial judge's finding that the loss exceeded $100,000. 67 Berkowitz also argues that the district court in determining the amount of loss should have considered the government's failure to mitigate. This argument is meritless. Berkowitz's crime is the same whether or not the government mitigated its loss, and the government's lack of mitigation is irrelevant to Berkowitz's culpability. Besides, Application Note 2 indicates that mitigation is not required. For example, the note provides that if a defendant steals a car, the loss refers to the value of the car even if the vehicle is recovered immediately. In that case, the victim's true loss is the value of not having his car for a certain amount of time, and any other losses flowing from not having the car. In the case where the car is returned immediately, that loss is likely to be very small. Yet, loss is still measured by the car's market value. Similarly, even though the government might have been able to mitigate its loss, the loss should still be measured by the value of the documents stolen--in this case, the documents' replacement cost. 68