Opinion ID: 719610
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Search of Apartment 2B.

Text: 15 Camacho contends that the district court should have granted his pretrial motion to suppress the evidence seized during the NYPD officers' search of Apartment 2B. Camacho argues that Judge Cataldo's warrant was not supported by probable cause because the information provided by the confidential informant--the sole evidence on which the probable cause determination was based--was not corroborated by an independent police investigation. 16 On an appeal from the denial of a motion to suppress, we review de novo the legal determination of whether there existed probable cause for a search warrant. See United States v. Smith, 9 F.3d 1007, 1011 (2d Cir.1993). In the case of a warrant supported by information obtained from a confidential informant, we examine the totality of the circumstances bearing upon the reliability of that information. See Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 230-31, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 2328-29, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983); Smith, 9 F.3d at 1012. 17 In the present case, Judge Cataldo's probable cause determination was based upon the detailed, specific, and sworn testimony of the confidential informant. The CI testified as to events that he claimed to have witnessed first-hand. Here, as in Smith, the CI corroborated his allegations that the Apartment was used as a retail location for narcotics sales by describing in detail the Apartment, its occupants, and the purchase transactions. 9 F.3d at 1013. In fact, the CI's allegations are significantly more reliable in this case than in Smith because the CI testified under threat of the criminal sanction for perjury. We think that such [a] detailed eye-witness report of a crime is self-corroborating; it supplies its own indicia of reliability. United States v. Elliott, 893 F.2d 220, 223 (9th Cir.) (internal quotation omitted), modified, 904 F.2d 25 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 904, 111 S.Ct. 268, 112 L.Ed.2d 224 (1990); see also Smith, 9 F.3d at 1013 (citing Elliott ). Accordingly, we conclude that the warrant to search Apartment 2B was supported by probable cause. 18 Even if we were to accept Camacho's contention that the CI's testimony was insufficient to establish probable cause, however, the subsequent reliance on the warrant by NYPD officers was objectively reasonable. Thus, the evidence found in the apartment would in any event have been admissible under the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule. See United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897, 922-23, 104 S.Ct. 3405, 3420-21, 82 L.Ed.2d 677 (1984); Smith 9 F.3d at 1015-16. 19