Opinion ID: 776532
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Independent Source Doctrine and Probable Cause

Text: 74 The District Court denied Appellants' motion to suppress evidence based in part on the long-standing independent source doctrine. That doctrine serves as an exception to the exclusionary rule and permits the introduction of illegally obtained evidence where the police had an independent source for the discovery of the evidence. 75 The essence of a provision forbidding the acquisition of evidence in a certain way is that not merely evidence so acquired shall not be used before the Court but that it shall not be used at all. Of course this does not mean that the facts thus obtained become sacred and inaccessible. If knowledge of them is gained from an independent source they may be proved like any others. 76 Silverthorne Lumber Co. v. United States, 251 U.S. 385, 392, 40 S.Ct. 182, 64 L.Ed. 319 (1920); see also Segura v. United States, 468 U.S. 796, 805, 104 S.Ct. 3380, 82 L.Ed.2d 599 (1984) (noting that evidence is not to be excluded if police had an independent source); Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 83 S.Ct. 407, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963) (same). The basis for the rule is the well-established principle that evidence is not to be excluded if the connection between the illegal police conduct and the discovery and seizure of the evidence is `so attenuated as to dissipate the taint'. Segura, 468 U.S. at 797, 104 S.Ct. 3380 (citing Nardone v. United States, 308 U.S. 338, 341, 60 S.Ct. 266, 84 L.Ed. 307 (1939)). 77 The facts and legal issues presented in this case are similar to those in Segura. There, New York Drug Enforcement Task Force agents began surveillance of Segura based on information that he and another petitioner were probably trafficking in cocaine from their apartment. 468 U.S. at 799, 104 S.Ct. 3380. After observing the delivery of a bulky package suspected to be cocaine as per an informant's tip, the officers stopped the recipient couple, found them to possess cocaine, and placed them under arrest. From this couple, the officers learned that they had purchased cocaine from Segura. Given that Segura was to call the couple at approximately 10:00 p.m. to learn if they had sold the cocaine, and that because of the lateness of the hour a search warrant could not be obtained, the officers decided to secure Segura's apartment to prevent destruction of the evidence. The officers knocked and entered without the consent of the woman who opened the door. They conducted a limited security check while others went to obtain a search warrant. After nineteen hours, the warrant was issued and the search performed. In concluding that probable cause existed, although not ruling on the lower courts' conclusion that the entry and initial search were not justified by exigent circumstances, the Supreme Court held that 78 the evidence discovered during the subsequent search of the apartment the following day pursuant to the valid search warrant issued wholly on information known to the officers before the entry into the apartment need not have been suppressed as `fruit' of the illegal entry because the warrant and the information on which it was based were unrelated to the entry and therefore constituted an independent source for the evidence.... 79 468 U.S. at 799, 104 S.Ct. 3380. 80 The Supreme Court did not answer directly the question presented by this case — whether probable cause exists if it was not clearly established that drugs were in the apartment. But it did conclude that probable cause existed under the facts of that case, and noted that [t]he illegality of the initial entry ... has no bearing on ... whether the evidence first discovered during the search of the apartment pursuant to a valid warrant issued the day after the entry should have been suppressed as `fruit' of the illegal entry. Id. at 798, 104 S.Ct. 3380. But see United States v. Dice, 200 F.3d 978 (6th Cir.2000) (holding that violation of knock-and-announce rule during execution of valid search warrant warranted suppression of evidence seized in search following violation). 81 Our case law follows the reasoning in Segura. In United States v. Herrold, we found that the affidavit for the warrant in question contained sufficient probable cause to justify the search apart from information the officers learned in the initial entry. 962 F.2d 1131 (3d Cir.1992). 82 In sum, the district court should have asked two questions: (1) whether a neutral justice would have issued the search warrant even if not presented with information that had been obtained during an unlawful search and (2) whether the first search prompted the officers to obtain the search warrant. If the answers to these questions are yes and no respectively, which they are in this case, then the evidence seized during the warranted search, even if already discovered in the original entry, is admissible. Otherwise the police would indeed be in a worse position than they would have been in had they not violated Herrold's Fourth Amendment rights. 83 Id. at 1144. Our ruling in Herrold harmonized the tainted warrant and independent source doctrines. See id. In response to the fear that police will have an incentive to avoid the warrant requirement, we noted that the independent source doctrine 84 by its very nature ... is only applicable where the police have in fact obtained a warrant. In addition, it will not give the police incentive to search first without a warrant, because any information discovered in an unlawful search is useless to the police in a subsequent warrant application. Moreover, our result is dependent upon our conclusion that the police would have obtained the warrant even if Hill had not made his original entry. 85 Id. This reasoning applies with equal force to the case before us. 86 Thus we turn to whether the tainted information from the illegal entry improperly influenced the issuing of the warrant. The Court in United States v. Restrepo, 966 F.2d 964 (5th Cir.1992), was presented with a warrantless security sweep of a residence and the subsequent search of that same residence pursuant to a warrant. It held that in all such cases the district court should consider whether the warrant affidavit, once purged of tainted facts and conclusions, contains sufficient evidence to constitute probable cause for issuance of the warrant. Id. at 970. Separate and apart from this determination, the court must also determine whether information gained through the illegal search influenced or motivated the officers' decision to procure a warrant. Id. at 971. This latter point resulted in a remand to the district court. 87 In our case, Officer Koehler testified during the suppression hearing that he had enough probable cause based on the information provided from CI-1 and Zoletta to convince an Assistant District Attorney to issue him the search warrant even if he had never gone into the apartment. But during his testimony Koehler acknowledged that the affidavit in support of the search warrant included things seen in the apartment after an entry not justified by exigent circumstances (and therefore tainted). 88 Q: You included in that affidavit, did you not, the things you or others had seen in that apartment? 89 A: Yes. 90 Q: You included the methamphetamine that was in plain view in the living room? 91 A: Right. 92 Q: Did you include those things because you felt they were substantial information towards getting the search warrant? 93 A: They would just be more helpful, more information. 94 We nonetheless conclude that probable cause for the search warrant existed before the officers decided to enter Del Rosario's apartment. See Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 238, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983). Similar to the situation in Segura, the officers in this case had the apartment under surveillance based on tips from confidential informants that Del Rosario was trafficking methamphetamine from his apartment. The officers were also informed that a woman named Linette would be arriving at J.F.K. Airport from the Philippines with bulky packages on February 24, 1999. This information and Linette's description were corroborated by customs agents. While surveilling Del Rosario's apartment the next day, officers observed a stream of cars stop outside the apartment building, remain for a few minutes, then leave. In similar fashion, Zoletta and Abaia then pulled up and parked outside the apartment building. After observing Zoletta leave the building with a suspicious package and drive away with Abaia, the officers trailed and then stopped their car. The package contained approximately 200 grams of methamphetamine. Zoletta independently confirmed that he dealt drugs for Del Rosario for two years in New York and New Jersey, that he had received these drugs from Del Rosario, and that he was to deliver them on Del Rosario's behalf. Zoletta also confirmed the apartment number and that additional people remained in the apartment. This information was sufficient to establish probable cause to seek a search warrant for the apartment irrespective and independent of those items discovered within the apartment in connection with the tainted police entry. With this independent support, a valid search warrant issued, the fruit of that search was not tainted, and thus there was no violation of Appellants' Fourth Amendment rights.