Opinion ID: 676438
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Insertion of Ruis's Key into the Storage Unit Lock

Text: 28 Ruis argues that the police violated his Fourth Amendment rights when, without a warrant, they inserted a key they found on his person into the lock on the storage unit. Ruis relies on United States v. Portillo-Reyes, 529 F.2d 844 (9th Cir.1975), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 899 (1976), where this court stated that the insertion of a key into a car door constituted the beginning of [a] search. Id. at 848. As the government points out, however, this court has subsequently concluded that Portillo-Reyes has been undermined by intervening decisions of the Supreme Court and this court. United States v. Grandstaff, 813 F.2d 1353, 1358 n. 5 (9th Cir.) (citing, inter alia, United States v. Jacobsen, 466 U.S. 109, 120 (1983), United States v. Place, 462 U.S. 696, 706-07 (1983), and United States v. White, 766 F.2d 1328, 1330-32 (9th Cir.1985)), cert denied, 484 U.S. 837 (1987). 29 The Grandstaff court itself stopped short of holding that the insertion of the key was not a search under the Fourth Amendment. The court assumed without deciding that the insertion constituted a search, and then concluded that a search of such a limited nature as the insertion of a key into a lock is not unreasonable, and that under the automobile exception, there was no requirement for a warrant. Id. at 1358. 30 In this case, since the lock in question was on a storage unit rather than an automobile, the automobile exception is not available, and the question of whether or not the insertion of the key was a search is squarely presented. We need not resolve it, however. Even if Ruis's Fourth Amendment rights were violated by the insertion of the key, the district court would have been correct in denying the motion to suppress. The fact that the key fit the lock was one piece of evidence included in the application for a warrant to search the storage unit. But even without that fact, there was abundant evidence in the warrant affidavit to establish probable cause to search the storage unit--i.e., the evidence about the bribery scheme, the description of the load car, and the placing of the car in the storage unit. In addition, the warrant affidavit made reference to Dolores's post-arrest confession, in which Dolores admitted that he had agreed to smuggle drugs in the blue Buick in exchange for $10,000. Given the existence of these independent routes to the evidence which Ruis seeks to suppress, suppression is inappropriate. See United States v. Miller, 812 F.2d 1206, 1208 (9th Cir.1987) (applying independent source rule in a situation where probable cause existed even if illegally obtained information was cancelled out). 31