Court Opinion

ID: 9494814
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 15:47:40.981098+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:56:38.605769
License: Public Domain

*707FISHER, Circuit Judge,
dissenting in part, concurring in part.
The majority rules the entry in this case unconstitutional and in violation of § 3109 because the officers delayed only 15 to 20 seconds after knocking loudly on Banks’ apartment door and announcing “police search warrant.” Simply put, the police should have waited longer — how much longer is not specified — before they could lawfully assume that their knock and announcement had been heard, that Banks was not going to open the door voluntarily and that they were justified in forcing the door open with a battering ram. Op. at 704. I share my colleagues’ concerns that officers not peremptorily and forcibly invade the privacy of a suspect’s home, and it is disquieting to visualize Banks’ shock and embarrassment as he emerged naked and still soapy from his shower and confronted the officers who had just burst through his front door. Cf. United States v. Becker, 23 F.3d 1537, 1540 (9th Cir.1994) (“The sanctity of a person’s hopie, perhaps our last real retreat in this technological age, lies at the very core of the rights which animate the [fourth] amendment.”). Nonetheless, although this case admittedly is a close call, I cannot agree that the officers here acted outside the limits of established case law or — more to the point — even the criteria the majority articulates. I therefore respectfully dissent from the § 3109 portion of the majority opinion (Part I). Otherwise, I concur in Part II of the opinion.
I do not think the outcome of this case can turn simply on the amount of time the officers waited after knocking. Banks did not hear the knock or announcement in the first place; thus it would have made no practical difference if the officers waited substantially longer than 15 or 20 seconds. If there was a problem of procedural or constitutional dimension, it had to be that the officers did not knock twice or engage in some other effort to determine whether Banks was home and had heard the first knock. Although hinting that was the real problem here, the majority nevertheless holds that the officers:
were required to delay acting for a sufficient period of time before they could reasonably conclude that they impliedly had been denied admittance....
Under these circumstances, we are not prepared to conclude that the delay of fifteen to twenty seconds after a single knock and announcement before forced entry was, without an affirmative denial of admission or other exigent circumstances, sufficient in duration to satisfy the constitutional safeguards.
Op. at 704-05 (emphasis added).
In assessing whether there was a reasonable delay, the majority acknowledges that “[t]here are no set rules as to the time an officer must wait before using force to enter a house; the answer will depend on the circumstances of each case.” McClure v. United States, 332 F.2d 19, 22 (9th Cir.1964); see also United States v. Bustamante-Gamez, 488 F.2d 4, 9(9th Cir.1973) (“In short, ‘a claim under 18 U.S.C. § 3109 depends upon the particular- circumstances surrounding the [entry].’ ”) (quoting Jones v. United States, 362 U.S. 257, 272, 80 S.Ct. 725, 4 L.Ed.2d 697 (I960)).
Nonetheless, the majority then extrapolates from Bustamante-Gamez four basic categories of entry, placing this case in category 4: “entries in which no exigent circumstances exist and forced entry by destruction of property is required, mandating an explicit refusal of admittance or a lapse of an even more substantial amount of time” — that is, substantially more than the “significant amount of time” *708required under category 3.1 Refining its analysis further, the majority sets forth a nonexclusive list of factors “an officer reasonably should consider in making the decision to enter [forcibly] without an affirmative denial.” See Op. at 704. The source of this list is not identified, but I have no quarrel with its substance — so long as it is not read as substituting a checklist approach to what our case law recognizes is a circumstance-specific evaluation.
Where I do disagree with the majority, however, is its application of these factors — or more to the point, its disregard or discounting of key factors present here. Among the listed factors are “(a) size of the residence”; “(c) location of the officers in relation to the main living or sleeping areas of the residence”; and “(e) nature of the suspected offense.” Banks lived in a small, two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment. The bathroom was located in the middle part of the apartment. Banks testified that, “It’s not a very big apartment.” And, “2 steps from the shower is — you can look left, see the door.” Arriving at Banks’ apartment at about 2:00 p.m., the officers positioned themselves at the front and back doors. There is no dispute that the officers gave proper notice of their authority and purpose. Officer Crespo knocked loudly on the front door and announced “police search warrant.” Officer Tomasso, at the rear, testified he heard Crespo’s loud knock. (The record is silent as to Tomasso’s also having heard the announcement, or whether anyone heard water running or other sounds of someone taking a shower.) On these facts, the officers could reasonably have assumed Banks had heard at least the loud knock and probably the announcement.
Moreover, Banks’ suspected offense was drug dealing; the warrant to search his apartment was predicated upon information, corroborated by a controlled buy, that Banks was selling cocaine at his apartment. Thus there was some basis for concern that Banks’ delay in responding might be related to attempts to dispose of evidence. See United States v. Spikes, 158 F.3d 913, 926 (6th Cir.1998), where the court noted that “where drug traffickers may easily and quickly destroy the evidence of their illegal enterprise by simply flushing it down the drain, 15 to 20 seconds is certainly long enough for officers to wait before assuming the worst and making a forced entry.” Spikes also cautioned that “[t]his reality, however, must be balanced against the fact that the simple presence of drugs alone does not justify abandoning the ‘knock and announce’ rule or so diluting its requirements that it becomes a meaningless gesture.... Thus the presence of drugs in the place to be searched, while not a conclusive factor, lessens the length of time law enforcement must ordinarily wait outside before entering a residence.” Id. (citation omitted). See also United States v. Jones, 133 F.3d 358, 361-62 (5th Cir.1998) (reviewing eases, and upholding wait of 15 to 20 seconds after knock “given the possibility that a longer wait might well have resulted in the destruction of evidence[illegal drugs]”); United States v. Garcia, 983 F.2d 1160, *7091168 (1st Cir.1993) (holding wait of 10 seconds after knock reasonable where occupants of apartment were believed to possess cocaine, “a substance that is easily and quickly hidden or destroyed”). But cf. Becker, 23 F.3d at 1541 (“[W]hile peril to officers or the possibility of destruction of evidence or escape may well demonstrate an exigency [justifying immediate entry], mere unspecific fears about those possibilities will not.”); United States v. Moreno, 701 F.2d 815, 818 (9th Cir.1983), vacated on other grounds by 469 U.S. 913, 105 S.Ct. 286, 83 L.Ed.2d 223 (1984) (“In order to justify forced entry without an announcement of authority and refusal of admittance, there must be some evidence to support the suspicion that contraband will be destroyed.”); United States v. Fluker, 543 F.2d 709, 717 (9th Cir.1976) (no evidence the defendants were destroying narcotics to justify officers entering without any knock or announcement).
The majority acknowledges some of these factors in passing, but gives them little or no weight. With respect, I fail to see what guidance law enforcement should draw from such a holding that disregards some of the very factors the majority identifies as relevant. Nor do I think the majority’s conclusion is warranted under these circumstances, or in light of decisions involving comparable situations where a 15 to 20 second delay has been held sufficient.
First, 15 to 20 seconds is not an insignificant amount of time to wait after a loud knock and announcement. Knock, then count out the time to see for yourself.
Second, Banks was in the shower and did not hear the knock and announcement, so even if the wait had been longer, absent another knock or announcement, he still would not have responded.
Third, although there is no Ninth Circuit precedent directly on point, our case law— albeit cautionary — and that of other circuits tends to support the entry here. We previously have held that a five second wait after three loud knocks and an announcement was not a reasonably significant amount of time to permit the defendant to determine who was at the door and to respond to the request for admittance, where the warrant was executed early in the morning and the occupants of the apartment were likely to be asleep. United States v. Granville, 222 F.3d 1214, 1218-19 (9th Cir.2000). Here, however, the warrant was executed in the middle of the afternoon and there was ample time for Banks to respond to the request for admittance. The Sixth Circuit has held that “when officers execute a warrant in the middle of the day ... the length of time the officers must tarry outside diminishes.” Spikes, 158 F.3d at 927. Furthermore, given the small size of Banks’ apartment, there was no reason for the officers to assume Banks had not had sufficient time to hear and respond to the knock and announcement in the 15 to 20 second interval. The Eighth Circuit specifically addressed such a circumstance in United States v. Lucht, 18 F.3d 541 (8th Cir.1994). There, the court concluded a 20 second wait after a knock and announcement was reasonable where the defendants’ houses were small, the defendants were awake at the time and there was probable cause to believe they possessed narcotics. Id. at 549. “In these circumstances, the possibility was slight that those within did not hear or could not have responded promptly, if in fact they had desired to do so.” Id. The Tenth Circuit has upheld an entry after a 10 to 12 second wait. United States v. Knapp, 1 F.3d 1026 (10th Cir.1993). Because the defendant, whose presence was assumed given the illuminated lights in the house, gave no indication he intended to allow the officers into his *710home voluntarily, the court held, “[i]t was plausible for the officers to conclude that they were affirmatively refused entry after a ten to twelve second interval without a verbal or physical response.” Id. at 1031.
In a case quite similar to this, the District of Columbia Circuit held that a 15 to 20 second wait after a single knock and announcement was sufficient, and that a second knock was not required. United States v. Spriggs, 996 F.2d 320 (D.C.Cir.1993).
Clearly the agents did not act unreasonably in entering the apartment after knocking and announcing themselves only a single time.... One need seek admittance only once in order to be refused .... With respect to the delay before entering, under our case law the agents were justified in concluding that they had been constructively refused admittance when the occupants failed to respond within 15 seconds of their announcement.
Id. at 322-23. On the other hand, in United States v. Phelps, 490 F.2d 644, 646 (9th Cir.1974), in upholding a forced entry, we gave weight to the fact that agents had knocked and announced twice, waiting 5 to 10 seconds after each before forcing entry. But, noting the circumstance-specific nature of the inquiry, Phelps emphasized that “it matters not that the record reveals ten, fifteen, or twenty seconds, for the true rule rejects time alone, even ‘an exceedingly short time,’ such as ten seconds, as the decisive factor.” Id. at 647(citing Jackson v. United States, 354 F.2d 980 (1st Cir.1965)); see also United States v. Ramos, 923 F.2d 1346, 1355-56 (9th Cir.1991), overruled cm other grounds by United States v. Ruiz, 257 F.3d 1030 (9th Cir.2001) (en banc) (upholding entry after two knocks and announcements followed by 45 second delay). Thus, I do not read Phelps as requiring a second knock here, although — given the circumstances — that might have been a more effective way to assure that Banks heard the demand for entry and had an opportunity to respond.
I do not know what the majority makes of Phelps or Spriggs, because they are not discussed. Indeed, the majority neglects most of the authority I discuss above. Such authority at the very least provides guidance for determining the reasonableness of the 15 to 20 second wait considering the specific circumstances of Banks’ situation — he resided in a small apartment, there was a loud knock and announcement, he was suspected of possessing illegal narcotics and the warrant was executed in the middle of the day. On these facts, I believe it was not unreasonable for the officers to conclude that Banks had heard and constructively denied their request for entry. Accordingly, I respectfully dissent from Part I of the majority opinion.

. I say "extrapolate” because Bustamante-Gamez did not explicitly identify four categories, only three — albeit not as "categories.” Bustamante-Gamez stated: "an explicit refusal of admittance or lapse of a significant amount of time is necessary if the officers have no facts indicating exigency." 488 F.2d at 9. The majority subdivides this into separate categories, depending on whether “non-forcible entry is possible” (category 3 — requiring “a lapse of a significant amount of time”) or "forced entry by destruction of property is required” (category 4 — requiring "a lapse of an even more substantial amount of time”). Op. at 704 (emphasis added).