Opinion ID: 3015381
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Other Evidence Seized and Suppressed

Text: We now turn to the additional conclusions of law made by the District Court regarding defendant Dale Ritter’s claims that 1) the scope of the search warrant was exceeded by the government’s search of his oven and broiler and 2) he should not have been patted down absent reasonable suspicion that he was armed and dangerous. As to the first claim, the District Court determined that the issue was moot based on its conclusion that the entire search was unlawful. Under Garrison, however, only that evidence seized after officers have - 27 - discovered the multi-unit character of the premises should be suppressed. Here, again, we need the District Court to make factual findings. Officer Howell testified that “there was a trail of the marijuana leading from the front of the residence to the oven,” but, when counsel asked him if that trail was what led officers to look in the broiler for money, Officer Howell reiterated, “Again, I didn’t search it, the agent that did would be better, be a better one to ask these questions.” We will REMAND for the District Court to make findings and render conclusions on this issue based on the evidence presently in the record and Officer Howell’s credibility. Second, the District Court agreed with defendant Dale Ritter that the marijuana discovered on his person as a result of a patdown should be suppressed. The Court reasoned that, under Ybarra v. Illinois, 444 U.S. 85, 92-93 (1979), the officers needed reasonable suspicion that Dale Ritter was armed and dangerous, of which the government offered no proof. In Ybarra, police officers, who had obtained a warrant to search a tavern and its owner for evidence of drugs, announced upon entering the tavern that all present would be subject to a “cursory search for weapons.” 444 U.S. at 88. One of the officers frisked the defendant and felt “a cigarette pack with objects in it”; after frisking other patrons, the officer returned to the defendant, removed the cigarette pack from defendant’s pocket and found it to contain heroin. Id. at 88-89. In reviewing the constitutionality of the defendant’s patdown, the Supreme Court explained: - 28 - The Terry case created an exception to the requirement of probable cause, an exception whose “narrow scope” this Court “has been careful to maintain.” Under that doctrine a law enforcement officer, for his own protection and safety, may conduct a patdown to find weapons that he reasonably believes or suspects are then in the possession of the person he has accosted. Nothing in Terry can be understood to allow a generalized “cursory search for weapons” or, indeed, any search whatever for anything but weapons. The “narrow scope” of the Terry exception does not permit a frisk for weapons on less than reasonable belief or suspicion directed at the person to be frisked, even though that person happens to be on premises where an authorized narcotics search is taking place. - 29 - Id. at 93-94 (footnote and citation omitted).12 At the suppression hearing in this case, Office Howell testified that when people are encountered on the premises of property to be searched during the course of executing a search warrant, usually they are “secured” and “padded [sic] down for weapons” primarily to ensure officers’ safety. Though he was not in the area where Dale Ritter was apparently patted down, which Officer Howell described as “more towards the front,” Howell testified that he assumed Dale Ritter had been patted down for this reason. Under Ybarra, this “cursory search for weapons” clearly is not permitted absent a reasonable belief or suspicion that an individual encountered is armed, 444 U.S. at 88, 96. Therefore, the evidence discovered on Dale Ritter’s person should be suppressed. See also Doe v. Groody, 361 F.3d 232, 243 (3d Cir. 2004) (“A search warrant for a premises does not constitute a license to search everyone inside.”). We will AFFIRM this aspect of the District Court’s order. 12 In so concluding, the Supreme Court also rejected the government’s alternative argument that, based on governmental interest in “effectively controlling traffic in dangerous, hard drugs,” the Terry “reasonable belief or suspicion” standard should be made applicable “to aid the evidence-gathering function of the search warrant” such that persons present on “compact” areas to be searched can be searched for drugs based on reasonable suspicion they are somehow connected with drug trafficking. Ybarra, 444 U.S. at 343-44 (citing United States v. Di Re, 332 U.S. 581, 583-587 (1948)). - 30 - Finally, the government argues that evidence seized from “the stable” and “elsewhere on the grounds” was lawful notwithstanding the discovery of multiple units inside the house. (Brief of Appellant at 17.) Because the record is devoid of details concerning the discovery of this additional evidence, we will REMAND for further fact-finding by the District Court.