Opinion ID: 2780753
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Moore’s Appeal

Text: The evidence at the second trial established that Moore was involved in the widespread bank fraud conspiracy for many years, making false identification documents and distributing them to other conspirators, recruiting check cashers and traveling with them to conduct fraudulent retail transactions, and recruiting a Board of Psychology employee to copy checks submitted to pay annual licensing fees. Moore was convicted of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and aggravated identity theft and sentenced to 300 months in prison. The issues he raises on appeal relate to -14- the denial of his motion to suppress evidence seized during a May 2009 warrant search of an apartment in Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota. The affidavit supporting the warrant application stated: Your affiant, Thomas Steffen, has been a police officer for the City of W St Paul for more than twenty years and has conducted numerous search warrants in which evidence has been obtained and used in successful prosecutions. In March 2009 John Curtis Clark . . . was arrested for commit[t]ing numerous thefts from person[s]. Clark, during an interview, said he usually sold the wallets he stole to someone named “Lucky.” Clark said Lucky would take these wallets and using items he found in the wallets, would make identification bearing the wallet owners names. Clark said Lucky lives in an apartment complex, on the second floor, on Ashley Ln in Inver Grove Hts, near Best Buy. Clark said Lucky drove a new looking, black Yukon. Only one black Yukon was found parked in the apartment complex. The license plate on this vehicle was VXX017. Through investigation, and another interview with Clark, “Lucky” was identified as Gordon Lamarr Moore . . . living at 4895 Ashley Ln #234, and the owner of the black Yukon. Based on the foregoing information, your affiant requests authorization to search . . . the entire premises . . . at 4895 Ashley Ln #234 Inver Grove Hts MN. Prior to trial, Moore moved to suppress evidence seized during the warrant search. At the start of the suppression hearing, the government advised that it would contest Moore’s Fourth Amendment standing to challenge the search at Apartment 234. The government then presented testimony by affiant Thomas Steffen to show that, “should [the court] decide at a later time that there’s not sufficient probable cause -15- on the four corners” of the warrant affidavit, the warrant search “would be saved under the Leon good faith exception.” During cross examination of Steffen, questioning by defense counsel and by the magistrate judge established that Clark did not identify Moore as “Lucky,” that Clark did not identify Moore’s address as 4895 Ashley Lane, Apt. 234, and that Moore was not the registered owner of the black Yukon. Moore introduced no evidence addressing the issue of Fourth Amendment standing. The magistrate judge issued a Report and Recommendation that the motion to suppress evidence seized pursuant to the warrant search be granted “under Franks v. Delaware,” 438 U.S. 154 (1978), because three false statements in the warrant affidavit were made with reckless disregard for the truth and, with those statements redacted from the affidavit, “there are no facts upon which an issuing judge could conclude that it was more probable than not that this particular apartment . . . would contain evidence of a crime.” Moore had Fourth Amendment standing to challenge the warrant search, the magistrate judge concluded, because “the affidavit in support of the search warrant states that Defendant Moore ‘li[ves] at 4895 Ashley Lane #234.’” The government urged the district court to reject this Recommendation, both on the merits and because Moore lacked Fourth Amendment standing. The district court denied the motion to suppress. Although “infirmities” in the affidavit supported a conclusion that the search was of “questionable constitutional validity,” the court determined that Moore “failed to meet his burden of establishing his privacy interest in the apartment,” because he relied solely on the warrant affidavit. “[T]he affidavit is of dubious veracity, which limits its use for this purpose. Moreover, the record ... does nothing to tie Moore to the apartment.” Moore moved to reopen the record to bolster his claim of Fourth Amendment standing. The district court denied that motion. At trial, the government introduced items seized from the apartment connecting Moore to criminal activity. -16- On appeal, Moore argues the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress under Franks v. Delaware. At the outset, we note that the magistrate judge’s Recommendation was procedurally flawed: When a search warrant is based upon an affidavit setting forth a facially sufficient showing of probable cause, as in this case, the defendant is nonetheless entitled to an evidentiary suppression hearing if he makes a “substantial preliminary showing” that a false statement necessary to the finding of probable cause was “knowingly and intentionally, or with reckless disregard for the truth,” included in the warrant affidavit. United States v. Freeman, 625 F.3d 1049, 1050 (8th Cir. 2010), quoting Franks, 438 U.S. at 155. A “Franks hearing” is what the Fourth Amendment requires. A full evidentiary hearing is essential to determine whether the government can show that the affidavit did not contain false statements, or that any false statements were not necessary to the showing of probable cause, or were not made intentionally or with reckless disregard for the truth, as the government established in Freeman, 625 F.3d at 1052. Here, Moore did not request a Franks hearing in his motion to suppress. Thus, if errors in the warrant affidavit were exposed during cross examination of Officer Steffen at the suppression hearing, Moore should have moved for a Franks hearing. If the magistrate judge determined that the cross examination had established the “substantial preliminary showing” that Franks and our prior cases require, a full evidentiary Franks hearing should then have been ordered. Only at the conclusion of that hearing could the magistrate judge appropriately have made the ultimate Franks determinations of recklessly false statements on which the finding of probable cause depended. Thus, if the district court had addressed the merits of the magistrate judge’s Recommendation, it might have ordered a full Franks hearing but could not properly have granted the motion to suppress. And as the evidence at trial later -17- established that all the facts in the warrant affidavit were true -- except that Moore’s girlfriend, not Moore, was the registered owner of the black Yukon -- there is little if any likelihood that evidence seized in the warrant search would have been suppressed. Turning to the district court’s ruling, it is undisputed “that suppression of the product of a Fourth Amendment violation can be successfully urged only by those whose rights were violated by the search itself, not by those who are aggrieved solely by the introduction of damaging evidence.” Alderman v. United States, 394 U.S. 165, 171-72 (1969); see United States v. Salvucci, 448 U.S. 83, 86-87 (1980), and cases cited. “The defendant moving to suppress has the burden of proving a reasonable expectation of privacy in the area searched.” United States v. Gomez, 16 F.3d 254, 256 (8th Cir. 1994). The defendant may not rely on “positions the government has taken in the case” but must “present evidence of his standing, or at least . . . point to specific evidence in the record which the government presented [that] established his standing.” United Stats v. Zermeno, 66 F.3d 1058, 1062 (9th Cir. 1995). Whether defendant has an expectation of privacy is a question of fact we review for clear error; whether the expectation is reasonable is a question of law. See United States v. Kiser, 948 F.2d 418, 423 (8th Cir. 1991), cert. denied, 503 U.S. 983 (1992). Here, the district court found that Moore failed to prove he had an expectation of privacy in Apartment 234. 1. Moore argues the district court clearly erred because Officer Steffen’s warrant affidavit averring that Moore is “living at 4895 Ashley Ln #234” was sufficient evidence to establish his standing. We agree with Moore (and reject the government’s contrary argument) that a warrant affidavit is evidence that must be weighed in determining this issue of fact, unlike the pleadings and litigation “positions” at issue in Zermeno. But the district court did not refuse to consider the warrant affidavit; it found that the affidavit, being of “dubious validity,” did not satisfy Moore’s burden of proof. This finding was not clearly erroneous. Despite the government advising at the start of the suppression hearing that standing was an issue, -18- Moore introduced no affirmative evidence supporting his claim that he lived at or otherwise had a sufficient interest in Apartment 234, the premises to be searched. Instead, he relied entirely on one of the three statements in the Steffen affidavit that Moore had discredited by contending they were recklessly and materially false.4 2. Moore further argues the district court abused its discretion by denying his motion to reopen the suppression hearing. The court concluded that Moore simply wished to reopen the record to bolster his standing argument, raised no newly discovered evidence, and failed to explain why he did not fully address the issue at the prior hearing. We agree this ruling was not an abuse of discretion. Had Moore moved for a full Franks hearing, arguing he had made the required substantial preliminary showing and standing was one of the issues to be addressed, the district court might have ruled differently. But Moore did not proceed in that fashion. 3. Alternatively, Moore argues the district court abused its discretion in denying his pretrial motion in limine precluding the government, on grounds of judicial estoppel, from introducing evidence connecting Moore to Apartment 234, including testimony that he lived there, because that was contrary to its position in opposing his motion to suppress. This contention is without merit. “[I]t is well settled 4 Moore further argues the district court abused its discretion by permitting the government to challenge his standing because it obtained the warrant by representing that Moore lived there. The record does not support this contention. Central to the affidavit’s showing of probable cause was that Clark told Officer Steffen that he brought stolen wallets to the apartment where “Lucky lives.” The affidavit then averred that the precise address, and that Moore was the person “living” there, were facts uncovered by “further investigation, and another interview with Clark.” In the warrant application, the first paragraph describing property that would be found at the premises to be searched recited, “Any/all identification belonging to people that do not reside at 4895 Ashley Ln #234.” This refutes the contention that Moore living there was the factual basis on which the warrant was obtained. The warrant issued on probable cause that “Lucky” was engaged in criminal activity at Apartment 234. -19- that the Government may not be estopped on the same terms as any other litigant” because of “the interest in the citizenry as a whole in obedience to the rule of law.” United States v. Grap, 368 F.3d 824, 830 (8th Cir. 2004) (quotation omitted). Here, at the suppression hearing, the government contested Moore’s standing and defended the warrant on the merits, as it was entitled to do. When the motion to suppress was denied, the government was free to introduce relevant evidence that had been seized in the warrant search. Nothing precluded the government from introducing evidence linking Moore to Apartment 234 and its contents, whether the evidence showed he lived there or simply used the apartment to conduct criminal activities. There was no abuse of the district court’s substantial evidentiary discretion.