Opinion ID: 172456
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Ecstasy

Text: 4. Drug paraphernalia included but not limited to scales, packaging material, baggies, smoking pipes and any other means of injecting, inhaling or ingesting narcotics[] 5. Any documents, letters or records indicating computer hardware, i.e. hard drives computer files attached to and or on disks. Any security equipment i.e. cameras, monitors, and or warning devices, and firearms. Any documents letters or records indicating ownership of real estate, bank accounts, vehicles, firearms, weapons, and/or other property from residences and storage buildings. R., Vol. 4 at D-1 to D-2. The warrant concluded there was “probable cause to believe that the above-described articles to be seized are located in or on the above described premises or person to be searched.” Id. at D-2. Thereafter, Deputy Clemmons and others executed the search warrant at the Scotland Avenue address, where they encountered Mr. Timley, found 116.9 grams of marijuana and two digital scales in the residence, and also discovered, in the master bedroom, documents belonging to Mr. Timley and 74 gross grams, or 67.5 net grams, of a mixture containing cocaine base on top of a dresser. Following his arrest, a grand jury indicted Mr. Timley on one count of possession with intent to distribute approximately 74 grams of cocaine base (“crack cocaine”), in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), and one count of knowingly and intentionally possessing with intent to distribute approximately 114 grams of a mixture or substance containing a detectable quantity of -8- marijuana, also in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1). Thereafter, Mr. Timley filed a motion to suppress all evidence seized from his residence, alleging Deputy Clemmons’s affidavit failed to establish probable cause necessary for the search warrant and seizure of certain items listed in the warrant, resulting in a violation of his Fourth Amendment rights. Specifically, Mr. Timley claimed the affidavit: (1) was based on stale information because the controlled marijuana purchases occurred six months prior to the search warrant; (2) did not establish the required nexus between the crime and the place to be searched because the six-month-old controlled buys did not occur at the residence searched, officers believed he lived at a different residence than searched, and the trash seized could have included items from passersby going through the alley; (3) was based on evidence that Deputy Clemmons illegally collected from the trash without a warrant; and (4) did not support paragraph five of the warrant, which was overly broad, allowing seizure of computer hardware, security equipment, firearms, and documents indicating ownership of real estate, bank accounts, vehicles, firearms, and other property from residences and storage buildings. After the government filed its response opposing Mr. Timley’s motion to suppress, the district court held a hearing on the motion at which both parties -9- presented argument. Following the hearing, the district court issued an order and memorandum denying Mr. Timley’s motion. With regard to the issue of staleness, it held the drug activity in question was ongoing and continuing, based on: (1) Mr. Timley’s history of drug arrests and convictions dating from 1993 to 2006, when the controlled drug purchases occurred; and (2) the “trash pull,” which revealed current ongoing drug dealings and abuse in the residence, as demonstrated by the thirty plastic baggies with the corners missing, known to be consistent with drug packaging. On the nexus issue, it found the affidavit sufficiently established a nexus between the objects seized and the place searched because the trash bags contained both evidence of drug packaging and the bank statement addressed to Mr. Timley’s wife. It also discounted Mr. Timley’s assertion passersby could have placed all of the incriminating evidence in those bags, noting the unlikelihood someone would have opened the trash bags and placed the incriminating items inside. It also rejected Mr. Timley’s contention the affidavit was based on impermissible evidence because Deputy Clemmons searched his trash for evidence of a crime, in violation of the Fourth Amendment. It found Deputy Clemmons’s statements he took the trash on the normal pick-up day in the neighborhood and that it was taken from a receptacle in the alley behind the residence, rather from the curtilage of the home, sufficient to establish no Fourth -10- Amendment violation occurred. Finally, with regard to the particularity of the scope of the warrant and whether paragraph five was overly broad, the government conceded portions of the paragraph were overly broad and should be redacted, but that the balance of that paragraph and the rest of the warrant were valid. The district court agreed, determining the appropriate remedy was “to strike the offending paragraph,” but the rest of the warrant remained valid. R., Vol. 1, Doc. 37 at 7-8. Thereafter, Mr. Timley entered into a conditional plea agreement, pleading guilty to count one of the indictment charging him with possession of cocaine base but reserving his right to appeal the district court’s denial of his motion to suppress. In turn, the government agreed to dismiss the remaining marijuana distribution count. Following a plea hearing, the district court accepted Mr. Timley’s guilty plea and sentenced him to 240 months imprisonment and ten years supervised release. Mr. Timley does not appeal his sentence.