Opinion ID: 479235
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Impala

Text: 121 Defendant challenges the validity of two search warrants authorizing search of the Impala. He had made pre-trial motions to suppress. He was arrested by an FBI agent the afternoon of September 20 for impersonating a federal officer and misuse of the seal of the President. On the morning of the 21st, FBI Agent Lucas obtained the first warrant. The magistrate found probable cause to believe that official badges, identification cards, and other insignia of the design prescribed by the Department of Defense and facsimilies of the Seal of the President, possessed and used in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 701 and Sec. 713, were being concealed in the Impala. During the day the ATF agents who knew that defendant was a suspect in the bombings and the FBI agents involved in his arrest on the insignia charges became aware of each other's interest. ATF agents were present when the search was made. ATF Agent Donovan observed timers, lead shot, and a six-volt battery, among other things, in the trunk of the Impala. He then obtained the second warrant to search the car, and the search was made the evening of the 21st. 122 The challenge to the second warrant, obtained on the basis of observations during the first search, depends wholly on the alleged invalidity of the first warrant. 123 a. Defendant argues that Agent Lucas' affidavit for the first warrant did not demonstrate probable cause. 124 b. The affidavit was carefully detailed. Personal observations and information from named officers and others were described. Complete repetition here is unnecessary. Lucas had been called to a printing establishment. He observed defendant wearing clothing with badges and insignia. The insignia was identical to that of the Security Police of the Defense Department. Defendant had in hand a facsimile of the Presidential Seal and other documents, one or more of which he attempted to chew up. He had been at the establishment the day before to have copies of the documents printed. He had been wearing the same clothing. At the printer's instructions, he had returned to give final approval of the layout. Army investigators were also present. They had just previously observed defendant drive the Impala into the parking lot and enter the establishment. The Impala had remained there since defendant's arrest. 125 Concededly, Agent Lucas did not claim that anyone had observed badges, identification cards, insignia, or facsimiles within the Impala. The documents he had seen in defendant's possession had been in the print shop since the day before. Under the circumstances, however, it seems reasonable to believe that similar badges and documents and related items had been left inside the automobile. We think the magistrate could reasonably find probable cause. 126 In dealing with probable cause, ... as the very name implies, we deal with probabilities. These are not technical; they are the factual and practical considerations of everyday life on which reasonable and prudent men, not legal technicians, act. Brinegar v. United States, 338 U.S. 160, 175, 69 S.Ct. 1302, 1310, 93 L.Ed. 1879 (1949), quoted in Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 231, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 2328, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983). 127 In any event, the officers relied on the warrant, and if there be any gap between Agent Lucas' observations of defendant's possession of insignia and the like in the print shop, and the presence of similar items in the automobile, we think reliance was objectively reasonable. United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897, 926, 104 S.Ct. 3405, 3423, 82 L.Ed.2d 677 (1984). 128 c. The Impala remained at the printing shop after the arrest of defendant. On the morning of September 21, an FBI agent was sent to secure it until the search warrant could be obtained and the search conducted. Defendant's lawyer arranged to have the car towed, but the agent did not permit the removal. 129 Defendant argues that this interference with his control of the car was an unreasonable seizure in violation of the Fourth Amendment, requiring suppression of the results of the search. 130 We think it clear that when an officer has probable cause to search a vehicle, it is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment to prevent removal while obtaining a warrant. Chambers v. Maroney, 399 U.S. 42, 52, 90 S.Ct. 1975, 1981-82, 26 L.Ed.2d 419 (1970); Segura v. United States, 468 U.S. 796, 811, 104 S.Ct. 3380, 3389, 82 L.Ed.2d 599 (1984). 131 d. Defendant argues, in substance, that the officers cared nothing about additional evidence of impersonation and illegal use of official insignia and that the application for a search warrant for those items was only a subterfuge to search for evidence of the bombings. He cites Taglavore v. United States, 291 F.2d 262 (9th Cir.1961). In that case a vice squad officer suspected an individual of possessing marijuana cigarettes. He obtained an arrest warrant on the basis of having observed the individual commit two minor traffic violations. This was admittedly an unusual procedure. He gave the warrant to two officers for execution, warning them that the individual might well have marijuana cigarettes. The opinion indicates that the court was impressed by the use of considerable force in seizing a cigarette. The Ninth Circuit found a violation of a constitutional right by a subterfuge. Id. at 266. 132 The facts of this case are substantially different. Here Judge Steckler found that the first warrant was not obtained ... on the pretext to conduct an unlawful search and seizure of the timers and other evidence that was ultimately obtained through issuance of the second search warrant. Although the offenses indicated in the first warrant were only misdemeanors, they were not trivial, and the FBI had a legitimate interest in pursuing them. The search did yield materials relevant to these offenses. Although the original arrest charges were soon dismissed, they were included in the indictment five months later. 133 The ATF agents, for whom defendant had become a suspect in the bombings, were understandably interested in determining whether the Impala contained evidence which would assist in their investigation. We are not persuaded that their interest in and presence at the search, or even their having encouraged the search, if they did so, made the search under the first warrant unreasonable. Nor do we see any basis for defendant's contention that the interest of the ATF agents must be disclosed to the magistrate when the warrant was applied for.