Opinion ID: 2994101
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Roth’s Request For A Franks Hearing

Text: Roth first contends that under the holding of Franks v. Delaware, 438 U.S. 154, 98 S.Ct. 2674, 57 L.Ed.2d 667 (1978), he was entitled to a full evidentiary hearing on his motion to quash and suppress evidence. In Franks, the Supreme Court held that the Fourth Amendment requires an evidentiary hearing into the truthfulness of an allegation contained in an affidavit supporting an application for a search warrant where the defendant makes a substantial preliminary showing that a false statement knowingly and intentionally, or with reckless disregard for the truth, was included by the affiant in the warrant affidavit, and if the allegedly false statement is necessary to the finding of probable cause. 438 U.S. at 155-56, 98 S.Ct. at 2676. Franks makes clear that it is the state of the mind of the affiant that is at issue. Here, Roth challenges the veracity of certain statements made by Rhoda. But the affiant was DNE Special Agent Dave Matthews, not Robert Rhoda. The question of whether Rhoda made untrue statements is not relevant unless Roth can show that Agent Matthews included them in his supporting affidavit despite his knowledge that they were false or with reckless disregard for the truth. United States v. Pritchard, 745 F.2d 1112, 1119 (7th Cir. 1984) (citation omitted). This Roth cannot do and he makes no attempt to do so. Moreover, we note in passing that Rhoda was present during the presentment to the Magistrate and was obviously available to answer any judicial inquiry. Instead, he merely argues that [f]alse statements can be stricken when one government agent deliberately or recklessly misrepresents information to a second agent, who in turn, then includes the representation in an affidavit, citing United States v. McAllister, 18 F.3d 1412 (7th Cir. 1994). Roth, however, offers no supporting authority for his belief that Rhoda became a governmental agent once he gave his statements to the DNE and we decline to make such a finding. We believe that Roth’s challenge to the District Court’s denial of his request for a Franks hearing is misdirected. Whether or not Rhoda provided false information is not the issue in deciding whether Roth is entitled to such a hearing. The issue is whether Agent Matthews knowingly gave false information in his sworn affidavit or swore to information with a reckless disregard for its truth. We do not believe the District Court erred in deciding that Agent Matthews did not do so and thus we affirm the District Court’s denial of the request for a Franks hearing.