Opinion ID: 577111
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Admissibility of Results of Searches

Text: 107 Jakobetz next contends that the district court should have suppressed all the evidence resulting from searches of his residence, personal vehicle, and tractor-trailer cab. He argues that the affidavits in support of the search warrants stated that he had been arrested for sexual assault in New York, but did not mention that the charges had been dismissed; that these previously dismissed charges were used as a basis to assume that he was a pattern sexual offender; that as a pattern sexual offender, Jakobetz would tend to retain various items of personal property to remind him of his crimes; and that the affidavits included the information that the victim had identified Jakobetz in an unlawful photographic lineup. He also argues that since there was no evidence to suggest that he would retain any items used in the commission of this crime, the information relied on by the magistrate was stale. 108 These arguments lack merit. Determinations by magistrates and judges who issue warrants are accorded great deference and 'any doubts should be resolved in favor of upholding the warrant[s].'  United States v. Vasquez, 634 F.2d 41, 45 (2d Cir.1980) (quoting United States v. Jackstadt, 617 F.2d 12, 14 (2d Cir.) (per curiam), cert. denied, 445 U.S. 966, 100 S.Ct. 1656, 64 L.Ed.2d 242 (1980)). Here, Jakobetz does not even raise doubts. 109 First, the affidavits supporting the search warrants contained no misleading information about Jakobetz's prior record. They correctly stated that Jakobetz had been arrested for sexual assault in 1986, and the magistrate surely appreciated the difference between arrest and conviction. Moreover, the fact that, in determining probable cause, a judicial officer may take into account a prior similar arrest is not error. See United States v. Harris, 403 U.S. 573, 582, 91 S.Ct. 2075, 2081, 29 L.Ed.2d 723 (1971). 110 Second, the affidavits properly reported that the victim had previously identified Jakobetz; but even if the photo array were unduly suggestive, including that evidence in the affidavit supporting the warrant would not necessarily undermine a finding of probable cause where other evidence is sufficient to establish probable cause. See Vasquez, 634 F.2d at 44-45; United States v. Giordano, 416 U.S. 505, 555, 94 S.Ct. 1820, 1845, 40 L.Ed.2d 341 (1974). Here, there was an overwhelming amount of additional evidence in the affidavit which supported the probable cause determination: the telephone call made to Jakobetz's spouse from a telephone in the same rest area from which the victim was abducted; Jakobetz's prior criminal record which revealed he had been arrested for the same type of sexual offense; interviews with the owner of Wildcat Construction Company, whose records revealed that Jakobetz had been assigned to drive a tractor-trailer to Long Island on the date of the kidnapping; and the results of a consensual search of the Wildcat trailer where strands of the victim's hair were found. 111 Finally, we reject Jakobetz's claim that the search warrants were based on stale information. Probable cause exists for issuance of a search warrant when there is a fair probability that the premises will yield the object specified in the search warrant. United States v. Travisano, 724 F.2d 341, 346 (2d Cir.1983). The three warrants sought to discover items that Jakobetz could reasonably be expected to retain. An FBI agent asserted that, in his experience as an investigator of sexual assaults, individuals who commit such crimes frequently retain evidence of their crimes. He also reported that about a month before the abduction of the victim in this case, Jakobetz had brandished a pair of handcuffs at his place of work. This fact established that the handcuffs used in the commission of this crime may not have been obtained solely to commit this crime and were probably being retained by Jakobetz. Together, these considerations provide sufficient basis for determining that the information supplied in the affidavit was not stale. We therefore find no error in the issuance of the search warrants.