Opinion ID: 775404
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The 1997 Search Pursuant to Warrant

Text: 72 The district court found that even were the results of the 1995 search subject to exclusion, the remainder of the 1997 warrant provided probable cause and the information in it would inevitably have been discovered through independent means. We need not reach that argument given our conclusion that the 1995 search should not have been suppressed. The information from 1995 and thereafter provided sufficient probable cause. 73 Scott makes an independent argument that the affidavit was nonetheless materially misleading. We agree with the district court's reasoning that none of the claimed errors were material, none of the claimed omissions contradicted the sworn facts, and neither the errors nor the omissions affected the probable cause determination. The district court was therefore also correct to conclude that Scott had not made a sufficient showing to warrant a hearing under Franks v. Delaware, 438 U.S. 154 (1978), which established the right to such a hearing for a defendant who shows some evidence of intentional or reckless material misrepresentation in the affidavit supporting a search warrant. 10 See id. at 171-72 ([I]f, when material that is the subject of the alleged falsity or reckless disregard is set to one side, there remains sufficient content in the warrant affidavit to support a finding of probable cause, no hearing is required.). 74 Scott also argues that there was no probable cause to search his car, a Mercury Mountaineer, even if there was cause to search his house. As did the magistrate and the district court, we disagree. The warrant affiant had seen a three-inch-thick stack of documents in the back seat, hidden by a newspaper, and had seen other codefendants load things into the car. There was ample reason -- especially in light of the 1995 search, which had revealed incriminating documents in the trunk of another of Scott's cars -- to think the car was used to transport his runners and, likely, the documents essential to his trade. That is particularly so when the initial reasoning was that of an experienced field agent who had watched the growing sophistication of Scott's schemes over the years. The magistrate who issued the warrant was entitled to consider the agent's expertise. United States v. Zayas-Diaz, 95 F.3d 105, 111, 116 (1st Cir. 1996).