Opinion ID: 3003332
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Entry and Search of the Apartment

Text: Alexander challenges the district court’s refusal to suppress the handgun and ammunition obtained from the search of the apartment. He maintains that the officers’ re-entry into the apartment was unlawful, that the officers lacked probable cause to search the apartment, and that Harris’s consent to search was not voluntarily given. Alexander argues that exigent circumstances did not justify the re-entry into the apartment and subsequent seizure of evidence. The presence (or not) of exigent circumstances in this case is beside the point. In Segura v. 2 We need not rely on the search incident to arrest exception, so Arizona v. Gant, 129 S. Ct. 1710 (2009), has no direct bearing on this case—except that we note that the Supreme Court continues to recognize the automobile exception to the warrant requirement. Id. at 1721. No. 07-3718 17 United States, 468 U.S. 796 (1984), the Supreme Court held that an illegal entry upon the premises did not require the suppression of evidence later discovered pursuant to a valid search warrant issued on the basis of information wholly unconnected to the illegal entry. Id. at 813-14. The illegality of the entry is irrelevant to the admissibility of evidence obtained through an independent source. Id. The Court also held that officers who have probable cause may enter and secure the premises from within to preserve the status quo while a search warrant is obtained without violating the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition of unreasonable seizures. Id. at 810. Thus, whether the officers’ re-entry into Harris’s apartment was illegal is irrelevant. None of the information which would support the issuance of a search war- rant was based on anything the officers learned from their re-entry into the apartment. They did not conduct a search of the apartment immediately upon re-entering. Instead, they entered to secure the premises to prevent the destruction of evidence while they sought to obtain a search warrant. This they could lawfully do, provided they had probable cause. So, we turn to that question. “Probable cause to search exists ‘where the known facts and circumstances are sufficient to warrant a man of reasonable prudence in the belief that contraband or evidence of a crime will be found.’ ” Scott, 516 F.3d at 589 (quoting Ornelas v. United States, 517 U.S. 690, 696 (1996)). The probable cause determination asks whether “given the totality of the circumstances, there is a fair probability that contraband or 18 No. 07-3718 evidence of a crime will be found in a particular place.” Id. (quotation omitted). According to Alexander, the highly detailed tip provided to the police was corroborated only by illegally obtained evidence, namely, the handgun found in the Buick Riviera and, without that, the officers lacked probable cause to search the apartment. Police corroboration of an informant’s tip is valuable in determining the reliability of the tip and, ultimately, in establishing probable cause. United States v. Wiley, 475 F.3d 908, 916 (7th Cir. 2007); United States v. Olson, 408 F.3d 366, 372 (7th Cir. 2005). Alexander is right that the discovery of the handgun corroborated the tip. But he is wrong to believe this poses a problem. As addressed above, the gun was not illegally obtained. Alexander also challenges the district court’s conclusion that the dog’s alert provided probable cause to search. He disputes whether the dog was sufficiently reliable based on his failure to alert initially to the doorway. It may be that the dog’s alert on the second try would be insufficient, by itself, to establish probable cause. Yet probable cause is based on the totality of the circumstances. Probable cause to search the apartment existed independent of the dog’s positive alert. The dog’s alert merely provided another circumstance supporting the reasonable belief that the apartment contained drugs. Because the officers had probable cause to search the apartment, they lawfully could enter the apartment to secure it and maintain the status quo while obtaining a search warrant. No. 07-3718 19 Moreover, a warrant to search the apartment would have been issued. Thus, the search was lawful notwithstanding Harris’s consent. Under the inevitable discovery doctrine, the exclusionary rule is inapplicable where the government establishes by a preponderance of the evidence “that the information ultimately or inevitably would have been discovered by lawful means.” Nix v. Williams, 467 U.S. 431, 444 (1984); see also United States v. Tejada, 524 F.3d 809, 813 (7th Cir. 2008) (stating in the context of a warrantless search that the inevitable discovery doctrine applies where the government establishes “that a warrant would certainly . . . have been issued had it been applied for”). The government has met that burden here. As we said, the officers had probable cause to search the apartment. In addition, they had begun the process of obtaining a search warrant. Sgt. Kosovac directed Officer Schroedl to return to the police station to draft a search warrant application and Schroedl already had left to do that very thing. A warrant surely would have been issued had he completed the process of applying for one. And there is no reason to believe that he wouldn’t have done so in the absence of Harris’s consent to search. Therefore, the handgun and ammunition were admissible under the inevitable discovery doctrine. Furthermore, Harris did give her consent to search. Though Harris’s consent is irrelevant given the inevitable discovery doctrine, we will consider whether her consent was voluntary as this would provide an independent basis for upholding the apartment search. 20 No. 07-3718 The voluntariness of a consent to search is a factual determination, which we review for clear error. United States v. Johnson, 495 F.3d 536, 541 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 128 S. Ct. 725 (2007). The government bears the burden of proving voluntariness. Id. In determining the voluntariness, we consider the totality of the circumstances, including such factors as: (1) the person’s age, intelligence, and education, (2) whether [s]he was advised of h[er] constitutional rights, (3) how long [s]he was detained before [s]he gave h[er] consent, (4) whether h[er] consent was immediate, or was prompted by repeated requests by the authorities, (5) whether any physical coercion was used, and (6) whether the individual was in police custody when [s]he gave h[er] consent. Id. at 542 (quotation omitted). Alexander identifies several factors to support his claim that Harris’s consent was not voluntary: she was 22 years old; her only prior interaction with the police had been related to traffic violations; she did not consent immediately but only after the officers persisted; at least three officers were present; she believed the officers would tear the place apart if she refused to consent; they advised her that if she refused consent and any contraband was found, she would be arrested; and they represented that they would obtain a search warrant. As to these last two points, an officer’s factually accurate statement that the police will take lawful investigative action in the absence of cooperation is not coercive conduct. See United States v. Miller, 450 F.3d 270, 272-73 (7th Cir. 2006), No. 07-3718 21 abrogated on other grounds by Kimbrough v. United States, 552 U.S. 85 (2007). There is no reason to doubt that the officers would have obtained a search warrant had they applied for one, and they could have arrested Harris upon discovering contraband in her apartment. Both the magistrate judge and district judge con- sidered the relevant factors and determined that Harris’s consent was voluntarily given. The findings, based on Harris’s own testimony, that Harris “is intelligent, articulate, and strong-willed” and “refused to consent until she decided, on her own, that it was in her best interest” are not clearly erroneous. Harris chose to change her mind and voluntarily gave her consent to search. The district court did not err in finding that her consent was voluntary. That doesn’t end our inquiry, though, as Alexander claims that the officers’ illegal entry into the apartment tainted Harris’s consent. Even assuming that the officers’ re-entry was illegal, suppression would not be required. Where “consent is obtained pursuant to an illegal entry, the burden of persuasion is on the government to demonstrate that the consent was not tainted by the illegal entry.” United States v. Robeles-Ortega, 348 F.3d 679, 683 (7th Cir. 2003) (citation omitted). The government may make this showing by establishing that “the consent was obtained by means sufficiently distinguishable from that illegal . . . entry so as to be purged of the primary taint.” Id. Factors we consider in determining whether an illegal entry tainted consent include: “(1) the temporal proximity of the illegal entry and the consent, (2) the presence of 22 No. 07-3718 intervening circumstances, and, particularly, (3) the purpose and flagrancy of the official misconduct.” Id. at 681. The district court did not apply these factors because it believed that the re-entry was legal. Our application leads us to the conclusion that the re-entry did not taint Harris’s consent. The temporal proximity of the alleged illegal re-entry and Harris’s consent is unclear, but the record reveals that the consent did not follow right on the heels of the officers’ re-entry. There was enough time between the reentry and Harris’s consent for the following to occur: the officers explained the warrant application process to Harris and requested her consent, which was refused; Sgt. Kosovac retrieved a written consent form from her squad car and returned to the apartment to review it with Harris; Harris verbally consented but then refused to sign the form; Officer Schroedl left to prepare a warrant application; Harris phoned Alexander’s mother to discuss the situation at which point Harris decided to consent to search; and Sgt. Kosovac reviewed the written consent form with Harris. These facts reflect not only the passage of time but also intervening circumstances—Harris’s call to Alexander’s mother and subsequent decision to execute the consent form. As for the third factor, the purpose of re-entry was to secure the premises and maintain the status quo. The officers did not search the apartment and did not discover any evidence to use to coerce Harris’s consent. Nor is there any suggestion that they used force or violence to enter—they knocked on the door and, when Harris opened it, they entered without seeking her permission. No. 07-3718 23 Alexander submits that the re-entry was calculated to surprise and confuse Harris, but the manner of the entry does not bear this claim out. Indeed, the re-entry was prompted by the dog’s alert on the second try. Our consideration of the relevant factors leads to the conclusion that the re-entry did not taint Harris’s consent. For all of these reasons, we conclude that the district court properly refused to suppress the handgun and ammunition found in Harris’s apartment.