Opinion ID: 176775
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Use of an alias by the agent

Text: Like its agent argument, we find unpersuasive the government's argument premised on United States v. Carr, 939 F.2d 1442 (10th Cir.1991)that the agent's use of an alias forecloses the Domenech brothers from holding any reasonable privacy expectations. In Carr, after the defendant failed to present any evidence to establish his expectation of privacy, the district court denied his motion to suppress, citing the failure of proof. The defendant sought to remedy the evidentiary shortcoming later with an affidavit. The Tenth Circuit affirmed the district court's refusal to consider the affidavit, but went onobviously in dictato explain that even if the properly-rejected affidavit were considered, the same result would obtain due to the defendant's inability to demonstrate that the room was registered to him... or that he was sharing it with someone to whom the room was registered. Id. at 1446. Carr's dicta lends support to the government's general contention that rental through an alias militates against deeming the occupant's expectation of privacy legitimate, as does dicta from our decision in United States v. Bruce, 396 F.3d 697, 709 n. 7 (6th Cir.2005), vacated on other grounds, 405 F.3d 1034 (6th Cir.2005), where we suggested that using an alias or false documents to secure lodging diminishes the legitimacy of the expectation of privacy. Yet, the Tenth Circuit's dicta does little for the government in the specific factual setting presented here. We do not read Carr as espousing the registration-required-for-privacy rule applied by the district court, but, instead, understand it to confirm that [i]mportant considerations in the expectation of privacy equation include ownership, lawful possession or lawful control of the premises searched. Carr, 939 F.2d at 1446; see also United States v. McRae, 156 F.3d 708, 711 (6th Cir.1998) (relying on Carr's list of considerations). Carr and Bruce easily reconcile with suppression of the evidence garnered from Room 22 at the Green Acres Motel. The Domenech brothers demonstrated lawful control/possession with evidence that they procured the room for their own use through their agent, paid for the room, possessed the key to the room, and occupied it both physically and with belongings. Cases from other Circuits also hold that the use of an alias does not eliminate Fourth Amendment protections. The Eleventh Circuit, for example, recognized a reasonable expectation of privacy in a hotel room registered under an alias. United States v. Newbern, 731 F.2d 744, 748 (11th Cir.1984). And the Fifth, Seventh, and Eighth Circuits similarly acknowledged privacy expectations as legitimate in analogous circumstances. See United States v. Villarreal, 963 F.2d 770, 774 (5th Cir.1992) (packages delivered under fictitious name); United States v. Watson, 950 F.2d 505, 507 (8th Cir.1991) (defendant possessed expectation of privacy in house purchased under an alias); United States v. Richards, 638 F.2d 765, 770 (5th Cir.1981) (packages); see also United States v. Pitts, 322 F.3d 449, 457-59 (7th Cir.2003) (the expectation of privacy for a person using an alias in sending or receiving mail is one that society is prepared to recognize as reasonable).