Opinion ID: 498214
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: validity of the warrant search

Text: All evidence Officer Jensen seized during the illegal warrantless search was tainted and should not have been included in the affidavit for a search warrant. Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 83 S.Ct. 407, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963). The mere inclusion of tainted evidence in an affidavit does not, by itself, taint the warrant or the evidence seized pursuant to the warrant. United States v. Driver, 776 F.2d 807 (9th Cir.1985). A reviewing court should excise the tainted evidence and determine whether the remaining, untainted evidence would provide a neutral magistrate with probable cause to issue a warrant. Id. The district court found in its Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law that once any reference to the $5,000 and the gold watch discovered in the warrantless search was excised from the affidavit, the remaining statements of fact in the affidavit would not establish probable cause to issue the warrant. Reviewing the affidavit de novo, we concur. The affidavit contained the following untainted facts: (1) As Officer Jensen approached the vehicle, he noticed Vasey stuffing his hand between the seats and handling something furtively on the right rear floorboard. Vasey contends he was reaching for his wallet and unfastening his seatbelt; (2) Vasey had an outstanding warrant for his arrest on a drug-related charge; (3) Vasey was carrying $1,128 in cash; (4) Officer Jensen noticed a sealed container of pills and a small, cassette-sized container holding three pills. The three pills were imprinted with the word aspirin, but it is unclear to what extent Officer Jensen saw this imprintation; and (5) Officer Jensen had several years of police experience. This evidence must be viewed in light of the district court's finding that in his affidavit and in his testimony at the suppression hearing, Officer Jensen lied when he said he gave Vasey the option of not having his car impounded as he was required to do by local police procedures. The five factors set out above are insufficient to establish probable cause for the issuance of a warrant. There is little or no evidence indicating that Vasey's car contained contraband. Although Officer Jensen was justified in his suspicion that Vasey was involved in narcotics-related activity, mere suspicion does not rise to the level of probable cause. United States v. Condo, 782 F.2d 1502, 1507 (9th Cir.1986); United States v. 1982 Yukon Delta Houseboat, 774 F.2d 1432, 1434 (9th Cir.1985). 2 V. GOOD FAITH EXCEPTION The government argues that even if the affidavit in support of the search warrant did not contain sufficient facts to establish probable cause, the evidence seized in the search conducted pursuant to the warrant should be deemed admissible by operation of the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule, United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897, 104 S.Ct. 3405, 82 L.Ed.2d 677 (1984). This argument is without merit. The Leon Court held that the Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule should not be applied so as to bar the use in the prosecutor's case-in-chief of evidence obtained by officers acting in reasonable reliance on a search warrant issued by a detached and neutral magistrate but ultimately found to be invalid. Leon at 900, 926, 104 S.Ct. at 3409, 3422. The Leon analysis and good faith exception are not applicable to this case. The fact that Officer Jensen conducted a warrantless search of the vehicle which violated Vasey's Fourth Amendment rights precludes any reliance on the good faith exception. In Leon, the officer presented lawfully obtained evidence to a neutral magistrate. The magistrate erroneously found that this evidence established probable cause and consequently issued a warrant. Subsequently, a reviewing court ruled that the evidence presented to the magistrate did not establish probable cause and the warrant should not have been issued. The evidence obtained in the warrant search was deemed admissible by the Leon Court, however, because the officer acted in good faith. The officer acted in good faith both in gathering and presenting evidence to a neutral magistrate. The only error in the entire process was the magistrate's erroneous finding that the evidence established probable cause. The instant case differs. Officer Jensen conducted an illegal warrantless search and presented tainted evidence obtained in this search to a magistrate in an effort to obtain a search warrant. The search warrant was issued, at least in part, on the basis of this tainted evidence. The constitutional error was made by the officer in this case, not by the magistrate as in Leon. The Leon Court made it very clear that the exclusionary rule should apply (i.e. the good faith exception should not apply) if the exclusion of evidence would alter the behavior of individual law enforcement officers or the policies of their department. Leon at 918, 104 S.Ct. at 3418. See also United States v. Whiting, 781 F.2d 692 (9th Cir.1986) (finding Leon inapplicable to warrantless search). Officer Jensen's conducting an illegal warrantless search and including evidence found in this search in an affidavit in support of a warrant is an activity that the exclusionary rule was meant to deter. Further, we conclude that the magistrate's consideration of the evidence does not sanitize the taint of the illegal warrantless search. A magistrate's role when presented with evidence to support a search warrant is to weigh the evidence to determine whether it gives rise to probable cause. A magistrate evaluating a warrant application based in part on evidence seized in a warrantless search is simply not in a position to evaluate the legality of that search. Typically, warrant applications are requested and authorized under severe time constraints. Moreover, warrant applications are considered without the benefit of an adversarial hearing in which the evidentiary basis of the application might be challenged. 3 Although we encourage magistrates to make all possible attempts to ensure that a warrantless search was legal before relying on the fruits of that search, we are mindful of the limitations on a magistrate's fact-finding ability in this context. We therefore conclude that a magistrate's consideration does not protect from exclusion evidence seized during a search under a warrant if that warrant was based on evidence seized in an unconstitutional search. Accordingly, the good faith exception should not and will not be applied to the facts of this case. 4 REVERSED and REMANDED.