Opinion ID: 382937
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Legality of the Search Pursuant to the Execution of the Arrest Warrant.

Text: 37 Appellants, on diametrically opposed grounds, challenge the legality of the limited search made pursuant to the execution of the arrest warrant. Williams presses the theory that the agents upon their entry into his home instantaneously realized their mistake, that further intrusion was consequently unwarranted and that the agents should have immediately and apologetically withdrawn. Manley, on the other hand, urges that the agents must have believed on entry that they had apprehended the fugitive, and with their mission accomplished, could not have lawfully rummaged through the house. 38 The conflict between appellants' contentions is enlightening, for it dramatically demonstrates that in all probability the agents did not reach any conclusion as to the success of their endeavor at the very moment they gained admission to Williams' home. Neither Agent Kobyra nor Agent Shea had ever seen Warren in person, and following their forcible entry, made under conditions which were reasonably perceived as dangerous, they did not engage Williams in a lengthy colloquy about his true identity, nor did Williams volunteer his name. On the contrary, Agent Kobyra almost immediately bolted to the rear of the house to admit the backup agents, and in the course of that activity observed cocaine and narcotics paraphernalia in plain view. Under the circumstances, there is every reason to credit Agent Kobyra's testimony, as Judge Pratt did, to the effect that it was only after completion of the initial search that he began to doubt that Williams was Warren, and even then was not prepared to concede his mistake until some dispositive procedure, such as fingerprinting, had verified Williams' true identity. 39 The agents' states of mind are irrelevant, however, for under either scenario posed by appellants, there is no doubt that they were entitled to conduct the limited, plain view search of the premises which Judge Pratt properly assumed to have been permissible. Accepting Williams' theory that the agents spontaneously realized their mistake, they were nonetheless entitled to look through the house given the strength of their justification in executing the warrant and their having glimpsed, prior to entry, a second black male darting across the upstairs landing, who might have reasonably been thought to be the elusive Warren. Accepting Manley's contention that the agents were initially confident that they had captured the fugitive inside the front door they were nevertheless entitled to make a security check of the premises, a practice which this Court has most recently approved in United States v. Gomez, supra, 633 F.2d at 1008, and United States v. Agapito, 620 F.2d 324, 335-37 (2d Cir. 1980), cert. denied, --- U.S. ---, 101 S.Ct. 107, 66 L.Ed.2d 40 (1980). See also United States v. Christophe, 470 F.2d 865, 869 (2d Cir. 1972), cert. denied, 411 U.S. 964, 93 S.Ct. 2140, 36 L.Ed.2d 684 (1973). Under these cases, agents effecting an arrest upon private premises who reasonably fear that other persons are lurking within who pose a threat to their safety or are likely to destroy evidence, may conduct a pass-through of the premises to determine the presence of any such persons. The conditions warranting this type of limited search were plainly present in the instant case because the agents were aware both before and immediately after entry of the presence of other people, and because Warren was presumed to be of a violent nature, likely to be armed, and possibly accompanied by criminal coconspirators. Accordingly, the arresting agents had abundant reason for securing the premises and the evidence in plain view discovered during the course of this procedure was properly admitted at trial. United States v. Liberti, 616 F.2d 34, 36-37 (2d Cir. 1980). Judge Pratt's delineation between the materials seized pursuant to this search and those uncovered during the impermissible consent search was carefully made and his rulings in that regard are not clearly erroneous. 40