Opinion ID: 1239150
Heading Depth: 6
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Consideration of applicability of the good faith exception

Text: (1b) Defendant asserts that the warrant was so facially deficient that no reasonable police officer could have relied upon it to conduct the search, and that therefore the trial court erred in even considering whether to apply the good faith exception to the rule otherwise requiring the suppression of evidence seized pursuant to a facially valid warrant subsequently determined to be invalid. As noted above, in the present case the trial court determined that the reference in the search warrant to all photographs was overbroad, thus finding the warrant partially invalid. (3) Pursuant to California Constitution, article I, section 28, subdivision (d), our review of issues related to the suppression of evidence derived from police searches and seizures is governed by federal constitutional standards. ( People v. Camarella (1991) 54 Cal.3d 592, 595-596 [286 Cal. Rptr. 780, 818 P.2d 63]; see People v. Glaser (1995) 11 Cal.4th 354, 363 [45 Cal. Rptr.2d 425, 902 P.2d 729]; People v. Banks (1993) 6 Cal.4th 926, 934 [25 Cal. Rptr.2d 524, 863 P.2d 769]; People v. McPeters (1992) 2 Cal.4th 1148, 1171 [9 Cal. Rptr.2d 834, 832 P.2d 146].) (4) The warrant clause of the Fourth Amendment expressly provides that no warrant may issue except those particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. (U.S. Const., 4th Amend.; Walter v. United States (1980) 447 U.S. 649, 656-657, fn. 8 [100 S.Ct. 2395, 2402, 65 L.Ed.2d 410].) General warrants, of course, are prohibited by the Fourth Amendment. `(T)he problem (posed by the general warrant) is not that of intrusion per se, but of a general, exploratory rummaging in a person's belongings.... (The Fourth Amendment addresses the problem) by requiring a particular description of the things to be seized.' ( Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 467 ... (1971). ( Andresen v. Maryland (1976) 427 U.S. 463, 480 [96 S.Ct. 2737, 2748, 49 L.Ed.2d 627].) The high court also has recognized, however, that in a complex case resting upon the piecing together of many bits of evidence, the warrant properly may be more generalized than would be the case in a more simplified case resting upon more direct evidence. ( Id. at p. 481, fn. 10 [96 S.Ct. at p. 2749].) (5) In United States v. Leon (1984) 468 U.S. 897 [104 S.Ct. 3405, 82 L.Ed.2d 677], the high court held that evidence obtained pursuant to a facially valid search warrant subsequently determined to be invalid is admissible if the officers executed the search in objectively reasonable reliance upon the validity of a search warrant issued by a neutral magistrate. ( Id. at pp. 922-923 [104 S.Ct. at pp. 3420-3421]; People v. Camarella, supra, 54 Cal.3d 592, 602-603; see People v. Machupa (1994) 7 Cal.4th 614, 618, fn. 1 [29 Cal. Rptr.2d 775, 872 P.2d 114].) The court in Leon noted several exceptions to the admissibility of evidence seized under these circumstances, however, including the situation in which the warrant is so facially deficient  i.e., in failing to particularize the place to be searched or things to be seized  that the executing officers cannot reasonably presume it to be valid. ( United States v. Leon, supra, 468 U.S. 897, 923 [104 S.Ct. 3405, 3421].) A police officer may not shift all of the responsibility for the protection of an accused's Fourth Amendment rights to the magistrate by executing a warrant no matter how deficient it may be in describing the places to be searched and the items to be seized. An officer applying for a warrant is required to exercise reasonable professional judgment. ( People v. Camarella, supra, 54 Cal.3d 592, 604; Bailey v. Superior Court (1992) 11 Cal. App.4th 1107, 1114 [15 Cal. Rptr.2d 17] [lack of probable cause was so apparent that reliance upon warrant was unreasonable]; see People v. Maestas (1988) 204 Cal. App.3d 1208, 1218-1221 [252 Cal. Rptr. 739].) (6) Defendant relies upon several cases from the federal courts of appeals. Such decisions, as we often have observed, provide persuasive rather than binding authority. ( People v. Crittenden (1994) 9 Cal.4th 83, 120, fn. 3 [36 Cal. Rptr.2d 474, 885 P.2d 887]; People v. Burton (1989) 48 Cal.3d 843, 854, fn. 2 [258 Cal. Rptr. 184, 771 P.2d 1270].) (1c) The cases cited by defendant are distinguishable in any event. In U.S. v. Stubbs (9th Cir.1989) 873 F.2d 210, 212, a search warrant, held to be so facially invalid that a reasonable officer could not have presumed it to be valid, permitted the seizure of all accounts and business records that had been created during a seven-year period and that contained references to a number of individuals. In Center Art Galleries - Hawaii, Inc. v. U.S. (9th Cir.1989) 875 F.2d 747, the warrant held to be facially invalid ( id. at pp. 752-753) permitted the seizure of all `documents, books, ledgers, records and objects which are evidence of violations of federal criminal law.' ( Id. at p. 749.) In U.S. v. Dozier (9th Cir.1988) 844 F.2d 701, 707-708, the warrant held to be facially invalid authorized the seizure of `written records, financial statements, address books, ... telephone books, and bills.' In United States v. Washington (9th Cir.1986) 782 F.2d 807, 819-820, the court held to be facially invalid a warrant authorizing the seizure of evidence of the suspect's association with several named persons as well as any unnamed persons. In the present case, by contrast, the only portion of the warrant that the trial court deemed to be overbroad was the reference to any and all photographs. [9] Assuming arguendo that the trial court was correct in finding that part of the warrant to be overbroad, the reference to photographs encompassed only one category of items, and the warrant otherwise specified the items to be seized. The warrant's failure to particularize items within this category of articles to be seized did not render it so facially deficient that no reasonable officer could presume it to be valid.