Opinion ID: 2330498
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Corroboration of Other Information Concerning the Rabons

Text: [¶ 33] The MDEA agent's affidavit also corroborates other information provided by the informant, such as the Rabons' names, telephone number, address, car, the color of their apartment building, and the fact that Charles Rabon had received a summons for excessive noise and had not been subject to a search. The corroboration of this readily available information reveals that the informant, or the persons providing information to the informant, were familiar with the Rabons. See 2 WAYNE R. LAFAVE, SEARCH AND SEIZURE § 3.3(f) at 179-80 (4th ed.2004). The informant's identification of two bars in the area known to the police as sites where drugs are trafficked establishes that either the informant, or the persons providing information to the informant, were generally familiar with drug activity in the area. The affidavit contains no corroboration of the informant's claim that Charles Rabon has a karaoke business, nor does it contain information that corroborates whether Charles Rabon was ever present at the two bars where the informant alleges the drugs were sold. [¶ 34] None of the preceding information qualifies as inside information that would be uniquely available to an informant with direct knowledge of otherwise uncorroborated criminal activity. See State v. Lafond, 2002 ME 124, ¶¶ 9-10, 802 A.2d 425, 428-29. An informant's accurate description of readily available information establishes reliability in the limited sense [that it] will help the police correctly identify the person whom the tipster means to accuse, but it does not show that the tipster has knowledge of concealed criminal activity. Florida v. J.L., 529 U.S. 266, 272, 120 S.Ct. 1375, 146 L.Ed.2d 254 (2000). Here, the informant's accurate description of readily available information concerning the Rabons establishes that the informant, or the persons supplying information to the informant, were familiar with the Rabons and with drug trafficking in the vicinity.