Opinion ID: 576300
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Warrantless Entry

Text: 20 The agents' warrantless entry securing the residence was a seizure subject to the requirements of the Fourth Amendment. United States v. Howard, 828 F.2d 552, 554 (9th Cir.1987). The government has the burden of justifying the seizure under one of a few specifically established exceptions to the warrant requirement. To justify a warrantless entry, the government must demonstrate both probable cause and the existence of an exception to the warrant requirement, such as exigent circumstances. Lindsey, 877 F.2d at 780. Because we find that there was no probable cause, we need not consider whether exigent circumstances existed. 21 In reviewing a warrantless entry, it is up to this court to make a practical, common-sense decision whether based on the totality of the circumstances as known by the agents when they entered the residence there was a fair probability that contraband or evidence of a crime would be found inside. Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 238, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 2332, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983); Lindsey, 877 F.2d at 780. 22 The agents observed facts during the course of the investigation giving rise to a suspicion of illegal activity. However, the only evidence of narcotics ever uncovered during the vehicular stops--the narcotics detection dog alerting to the suitcases in the Mercury on April 29th--was discredited when a search of the suitcases failed to turn up any narcotics. In addition, as the agents themselves admitted, there was no connection between the suitcases and the residence--the occupants of the Mercury had entered the residence empty handed and had returned with only a bag, itself found to be empty. 23 The only other circumstance supporting an inference that the residence housed narcotics or evidence of narcotics trafficking was the ability of agents to trace automobiles frequenting the residence to affiliates of narcotics organizations or facilitators of narcotics trafficking. While such evidence is certainly relevant, it alone is not sufficient to transform otherwise legal (albeit suspicious) activity into circumstances supporting probable cause. This is especially true where, as here, the visitors to the residence had at best a tenuous and undefined relationship to narcotics trafficking. 2 Such allegations show only that the residents of the house at 3701 East Dover Stravenue were acquaintances of acquaintances of individuals involved in the narcotics trade. Such twice-removed evidence, while not wholly irrelevant, cannot reasonably give rise to a fair probability that the residence was the locus of criminal activities. 3 This is true even when combined with the unusual amount of vehicular traffic. 24 Since there was not probable cause supporting the warrantless entry of the residence, the evidence seized as a direct result of this illegal entry should have been suppressed. Segura v. United States, 468 U.S. 796, 812, 104 S.Ct. 3380, 3389, 82 L.Ed.2d 599 (1984).