Opinion ID: 540159
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Sufficiency of the Affidavit and Probable Cause

Text: 14 On January 20, 1988, FBI Agent Ann Todd applied for a warrant to search Jenkins' house. The affidavit accompanying the warrant application first recited the details of the theft. The affidavit then explained that Todd had interviewed the bank's cleaning staff and determined that none of them had been in the bank when the alarm was activated. The affidavit stated that the investigation had focused on Jenkins for four reasons: 15 1. Jenkins was the only person in the bank when the alarm sounded who had keys to the bank; 16 2. Jenkins was bitter at having his First Union employment terminated; 17 3. Jenkins told Officer Givens that he knew the alarm had sounded even though there was no indication of that within the bank; and 18 4. Jenkins was the only person with access to the night depository vault who refused to take a polygraph test. 5 19 The affidavit also stated that Todd had spoken with a 17-year veteran FBI agent who had worked on bank robbery and burglary matters for ten of those years. The agent told Todd that people who steal money are most likely to take it to their homes for safekeeping. Finally, the affidavit recited the contents of the depository vaults as listed by the bank employees, including depository bags and envelopes of varying sizes and shapes, deposit tickets, checks, stock certificates, and currency. Based on this affidavit, the magistrate issued a warrant to search Jenkins' home. 20 Jenkins argues that the fruits of the search should have been suppressed because the affidavit failed to mention certain facts, the inclusion of which would have precluded a finding of probable cause for the issuance of a warrant. Jenkins alleges that the affidavit did not state: (1) that January 4 was Jenkins' first night as the only security guard, and that he had previously worked on the fourth floor; (2) that there were no specific instructions telling Jenkins how to perform what had previously been a two-man job by himself; (3) that Jenkins had never been convicted of a crime; (4) that the total contents of the depository vault weighed approximately 30 pounds and would have been very difficult to carry; (5) that upon activation of the alarm a perpetrator would have had less than a minute to conceal any stolen items; (6) that Jenkins, White, and Gilmore all searched the immediate area and found nothing; (7) that there were no specific instructions to lock the doors from the lobby to the bank while checking the building next door; (8) that previously the fourth floor guard had checked the building next door; (9) that Officer Givens had observed a truck with a white male in the driver's seat parked on the opposite side of the street from the bank on both his visits to the bank; (10) that if Jenkins had refused employment with Sizemore, he would have received a full month's pay plus two weeks' leave; (11) that Jenkins told Agent Todd that he first became aware that the alarm had gone off when Officer Givens arrived on the scene; and (12) that Jenkins had related to Agent Todd that earlier in the evening a customer had a problem with the night depository, and that a bank employee took the customer's deposit. 21 We will not overturn a district court's factual findings on a motion to suppress unless those findings are clearly erroneous. United States v. Newbern, 731 F.2d 744, 747 (11th Cir.1984). Similarly, we will not overturn a district court's decision that omissions or misrepresentations in a warrant affidavit were not reckless or intentional unless clearly erroneous. United States v. Cancela, 812 F.2d 1340, 1343 (11th Cir.1987). In the present case, the district court's findings were not clearly erroneous. 22 In Franks v. Delaware, 438 U.S. 154, 171, 98 S.Ct. 2674, 2684, 57 L.Ed.2d 667 (1978), the Supreme Court held that affidavits supporting arrest warrants are presumptively valid. The Court stated: 23 There is, of course, a presumption of validity with respect to the affidavit supporting the search warrant. To mandate an evidentiary hearing, the challenger's attack must be more than conclusory and must be supported by more than a mere desire to cross-examine. There must be allegations of deliberate falsehood or of reckless disregard for the truth, and those allegations must be accompanied by an offer of proof. They should point out specifically the portion of the warrant affidavit that is claimed to be false; and they should be accompanied by a statement of supporting reasons. Affidavits or sworn or otherwise reliable statements of witnesses should be furnished, or their absence satisfactorily explained. Allegations of negligence or innocent mistake are insufficient. ... Finally, if these requirements are met, and if, when material that is the subject of the alleged falsity or reckless disregard is set to one side, there remains sufficient content in the warrant affidavit to support a finding of probable cause, no hearing is required. 24 Accordingly, [i]nsignificant and immaterial misrepresentations or omissions will not invalidate a warrant. United States v. Sims, 845 F.2d 1564, 1571 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 109 S.Ct. 395, 102 L.Ed.2d 384 (1988) (quoting United States v. Ofshe, 817 F.2d 1508, 1513 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 963, 108 S.Ct. 451, 98 L.Ed.2d 391 (1987)). 25 Thus, to be entitled to an evidentiary hearing on the allegedly omitted facts, Jenkins must prove (1) that Agent Todd knowingly or recklessly left out the facts Jenkins enumerates, and (2) that inclusion of the facts would have prevented a finding of probable cause. See United States v. Sims, 845 F.2d at 1571; United States v. Kirk, 781 F.2d 1498, 1502 (11th Cir.1986). The magistrate who heard the motion to suppress found that the alleged omissions did not represent material misrepresentations or misstatements; this conclusion is not clearly erroneous. Jenkins has produced no offers of proof indicating that Agent Todd deliberately excluded the information referred to. 26 Inclusion of the allegedly omitted facts, moreover, would not have precluded the finding of probable cause. As the Supreme Court has noted, probable cause is a fluid concept--turning on the assessment or probabilities in particular factual contexts--not readily or even usefully, reduced to a neat set of legal rules. Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 232, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 2329, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983). [I]f the apparent facts set out in the affidavit are such that a reasonably discreet and prudent man would be led to believe that there was a commission of the offense charged, there is probable cause justifying the issuance of a warrant. Dumbra v. United States, 268 U.S. 435, 441, 45 S.Ct. 546, 549, 69 L.Ed. 1032 (1925). Even had the omitted facts been included, probable cause would have existed. 27 Jenkins argues that while there may have been probable cause to suspect that he committed the crime, the affidavit did not establish a nexus between the crime and his residence. Jenkins argues that the only evidence contained in the affidavit which connects the stolen goods to his home is the statement by the veteran FBI agent that people who commit bank thefts usually stash the contraband in their homes. Jenkins alleges that this statement is insufficient to constitute probable cause to search his home. 28 Probable cause to search a residence exists when there is a fair probability that contraband or evidence of a crime will be found in a particular place. Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. at 238, 103 S.Ct. at 2332. [T]he nexus between the objects to be seized and the premises searched can be established from the particular circumstances involved and need not rest on direct observation. United States v. Lockett, 674 F.2d 843, 846 (11th Cir.1982). [E]vidence that a defendant has stolen material which one normally would expect him to hide at his residence will support a search of his residence. United States v. Maestas, 546 F.2d 1177, 1180 (5th Cir.1977), citing United States v. Lucarz, 430 F.2d 1051 (9th Cir.1970); United States v. Rahn, 511 F.2d 290 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 825, 96 S.Ct. 41, 46 L.Ed.2d 42 (1975). 29 Under the circumstances in this case, the affidavit provided the magistrate issuing the search warrant with sufficient reason to believe that the contraband would be found at Jenkins' residence. As discussed above, the affidavit clearly established probable cause that Jenkins committed the theft; he was the only employee in the bank at the time of the theft who had keys to the bank, 6 and he knew that the silent alarm had sounded even though he could not have heard it. The affidavit stated that Agent Gerald L. Jones, the veteran FBI agent who advised Agent Todd about the likely hiding place of the contraband, had spent ten of his seventeen years with the FBI investigating bank robbery/burglary matters. 7 These combined facts would warrant a person of reasonable caution to believe that a search of Jenkins' home would uncover evidence of the theft. 30 This is not to say that the isolated word of an experienced FBI agent that people hide stolen items in their homes is sufficient to provide probable cause to search a residence. Nor does probable cause to believe that the defendant has stolen something justify search of a residence. We hold, however, that the combination of a finding of probable cause that Jenkins committed the theft, the fact that the contraband stolen was composed of items which are capable of being hidden in a residence, and the statement of an agent who had ten years' experience investigating bank robberies provided sufficient probable cause to justify a search of Jenkins' home.