Court Opinion

ID: 9593776
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:24:50.641227+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:02:07.065765
License: Public Domain

LOHR, Justice,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent from the majority’s decision to reverse the district court’s suppression order. Although I do not fully agree with the district court’s reasoning, I conclude that it arrived at the correct result.
The defendants moved to suppress evidence gathered in searches of their homes conducted on June 16,1986, and August 18, 1986, pursuant to search warrants. These motions were based in part on the contention that the warrants were not supported by probable cause because statements made in the affidavits for search warrants and attributed to an unnamed informant were untrue. In order to test the accuracy of the statements, the defendants moved for a veracity hearing. They supported the veracity hearing motions with their own affidavits and the affidavits of two other persons asserting on personal knowledge that the statements contained in the affidavits for search warrants and attributed to the confidential informant were untrue. The statements in question were necessary support for the determinations of probable cause upon which the warrants were based. In addition, the defendants moved for disclosure of the identity of the confidential informant, alleging that such disclosure was “necessary for the preparation of both the defense to the charges and to determine the basis for veracity or lack thereof of the affidavits.” The district court held a motions hearing and ordered as a threshold matter that the informant be produced for an in camera hearing. The trial judge adopted this procedure in order to assist in determining whether the defendants had established a good faith basis for holding a veracity hearing and whether disclosure should be ordered to permit the defendants to obtain information necessary for the suppression hearing.
I conclude that the affidavits attached to the motions for a veracity hearing were sufficient in themselves to establish a good faith basis for challenging the averments contained in the affidavits for search warrant. I also would hold that the trial judge acted within his discretion in ordering that the informant appear at an in camera hearing to permit the court to evaluate the necessity for disclosure of the informant’s identity to assist the defendants in preparing for the suppression hearing. When the prosecution declined to produce the informant for that purpose, the trial court also acted within its discretion in granting the motions to suppress the evidence discovered in the searches conducted under the authority of the warrants. Accordingly, I would affirm the suppression order and remand the case for further proceedings.
I.
In People v. Dailey, 639 P.2d 1068 (Colo.1982), we held that a veracity hearing to test the truth of averments contained in an affidavit for search warrant is not to be conducted absent establishment of two preliminary conditions. A motion to suppress evidence based upon such a veracity challenge (1) must be supported by one or more affidavits reflecting a good faith basis for the challenge and (2) must contain a specification of the precise statements challenged. Dailey, 639 P.2d at 1075. At issue in this case is whether the first requirement has been satisfied. I conclude that the necessary good faith basis has been adequately demonstrated and that the defendants were entitled to a veracity hearing.
The majority bases its assertion that the defendants failed to meet the threshold requirements of Dailey on its conclusion that *125the defendants’ challenge to the affidavit for search warrant was “conclusory.” Maj. op. at 123. The requirement that a challenge to the veracity of statements contained in an affidavit for search warrant be “more than conclusory” stems from Franks v. Delaware, 438 U.S. 154, 171, 98 S.Ct. 2674, 2684, 57 L.Ed.2d 667 (1978), in which the United States Supreme Court stated that “[t]o 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.” We based our decision in Dai-ley, however, on state law and stated that Franks v. Delaware
prescribes the circumstances under which a veracity hearing must be held in order to comply with the Fourth Amendment. It does not prohibit such hearings based on lesser threshold showings, nor of course, does it treat the question whether our state constitution requires such a hearing upon some lesser showing of probable merit. See Colo. Const, art II, § 7.
Dailey, 639 P.2d at 1074. With this preface, we then set forth the conditions of good faith basis and specification of the statements challenged that must be met before a veracity hearing will be held.
In my view, the majority imposes an unduly restrictive standard for the preliminary showing necessary for a veracity hearing based on the requirements set forth in Dailey. The majority holds in essence that an affidavit by a defendant stating facts based on the defendant’s personal knowledge that are contrary to facts set forth in an affidavit for search warrant is “conclusory” and does not establish a good faith basis for a veracity challenge to the affidavit for search warrant. This is contrary to reason and to our decision in People v. Martinez, 658 P.2d 260 (Colo.1983).
Under the majority approach, a defendant desiring to challenge the veracity of averments in a warrant must meet a burden that commonly will be nearly impossible to carry. The defendant is often the only person who can refute the information provided by the informant. Only in the fortuitous case where another witness exists or relevant nontestimonial evidence is available will a defendant be able to offer other proof of the falsity of the averments to supplement his own testimony. In the instant case, for example, the informant told the officer-affiant that during the time periods preceding the issuance of the warrants the informant had observed the defendants selling what appeared to be heroin and cocaine. Challenging the veracity of these averments, the defendants executed affidavits stating what they were doing during the relevant time periods and that they neither sold nor possessed narcotics during those periods. Additional affidavits were filed by a relative and a third person who had spent time with the defendants during those periods and had observed no narcotics sales. In my view, the affidavits submitted in this case established a good faith basis for challenging the veracity of the averments. The defendants simply had no other apparent means of challenging the allegations contained in the affidavits for search warrant. Dailey should not be read as creating a rule or presumption that a defendant is never to be believed, particularly where, as here, other individuals are willing under the penalty of perjury to corroborate the defendants’ own sworn statements.
Nor do I read People v. Martinez, 658 P.2d 260 (Colo.1983), as requiring a stronger showing of a good faith basis to question the accuracy of averments in an affidavit for search warrant than that which exists in this case. See maj. op. at 121-122. Indeed, I read Martinez as supportive of the trial judge’s suppression order in the present case. In Martinez, the defendant had filed “conclusory” motions and an affidavit that did not comply with the prerequisites established by Dailey1 in sup*126port of her motions for disclosure of the identity of an informant and to suppress evidence. However, the prosecution did not object to the foundation laid by defense counsel, and a hearing was held at which the defendant testified that no one was in her home during the period in which the informant had alleged the defendant was selling drugs out of her home. Martinez, 658 P.2d at 262. Under these circumstances, the trial court acted within its discretion in considering both the defendant’s testimony and her affidavit to conclude that a good faith basis existed for doubting the accuracy of the averments in the affidavit for search warrant. Id. In Martinez, neither the majority nor the dissent suggests that a defendant’s affidavit cannot supply a good faith basis to challenge the veracity of statements in an affidavit for search warrant. Indeed, both the majority and the dissent assume that it can. The issue in Martinez was the narrow one of whether in the absence of a sufficient objection by the prosecution, a deficient affidavit by a defendant can be supplemented by the defendant’s testimony to satisfy the Dailey requirements and justify a veracity hearing.2
II.
Having decided that the defendants in this case satisfied the Dailey prerequisites for a veracity hearing, I would hold that the trial court acted within its discretion in ordering an in camera hearing at which the informant would be questioned by the court in the absence of parties or counsel in order to determine whether the identity of the informant should be disclosed to the defense for the purpose of preparation for the suppression hearing.
We have previously stated that the trial court may order disclosure if “disclosure of an informant’s identity is essential to a fair determination of a suppression motion.” E.g., People v. Bueno, 646 P.2d 931, 935 (Colo.1982). “Disclosure, however, is not automatic upon request. A defendant seeking disclosure must make an initial showing that the informant will provide information essential to the merits of his suppression ruling.” Bueno, 646 P.2d at 935-36. In deciding whether to order disclosure, the trial court must apply a balancing test, “weighing the ‘public interest in protecting the flow of information against the individual’s right to prepare his defense.’ ” People v. Garcia, 752 P.2d 570, 578 (Colo.1988) (quoting Roviaro v. United States, 353 U.S. 53, 62, 77 S.Ct. 623, 628, 1 L.Ed.2d 639 (1957)); People v. Marquez, 190 Colo. 255, 258, 546 P.2d 482, 484 (1976).
The majority states that a defendant seeking disclosure of a confidential informant must establish “a reasonable or good faith basis in fact to believe that (1) the informant did not exist, or (2) the informant did not give the officer-affiant the information on which he purportedly relied as probable cause.” Maj. op. at 121; see Garcia, 752 P.2d at 578-79; Bueno, 646 P.2d at 936. Because in the majority’s view the defendants established neither of these conditions, the majority holds that the trial court “ruled prematurely in requiring production of the confidential informant.” Maj. op. at 123. The affidavits supplied by the defendants, however, provide a good faith basis to believe that one or the other of these two facts is true. Only if the informant did not exist or did not provide the information stated in the affidavits for search warrant could the statements in the defendants’ affidavits be correct.3 By ordering an in camera hear-*127mg to help determine the defendants’ need for disclosure of the informant’s identity in order to prepare for the suppression hearing, the trial court utilized a procedure that protected the informant’s identity to the maximum extent while offering the court further information upon which to evaluate the need for disclosure of the informant’s identity. See Dailey, 639 P.2d at 1077, n. 11; see also Martinez, 658 P.2d at 261-62. I would hold this order to be well within the boundaries of the trial court’s discretion.
III.
In summary, I conclude that the defendants in this case provided enough information to necessitate a veracity hearing and to justify the trial court’s order that the confidential informant appear for an in camera hearing. Specifically, the defendants challenged the portion of the search warrant that contained the informant’s allegations, denied those allegations, and offered affidavits upon personal knowledge supporting those denials. In my view, this was sufficient to require a veracity hearing and to permit the district court in its discretion to order the limited disclosure occasioned by an in camera hearing to help determine whether the identity of the informant should be disclosed to assist the defendants in preparing for the suppression hearing, of which the veracity hearing would be a part. Suppression was a remedy within the trial court’s discretion for failure to comply with that order. Consequently, the suppression order should be affirmed and the case remanded for further proceedings.
QUINN, C.J., joins in this dissent.

. The specific shortcomings of the defendant’s motions and affidavit were not described in the majority opinion. The dissent states that the affidavit in support of the motion to suppress was executed by the defendant but was unverified and that the motion to suppress did not specify which statements in the police officer’s affidavit in support of the search warrant would *126be challenged. Martinez, 658 P.2d at 263 (Rovira, J., dissenting).

. The procedure followed in Martinez was unusual in that the trial court held an evidentiary hearing to determine whether the two conditions for a veracity hearing had been met. I do not read Dailey to suggest such a hearing. Rather, absent unusual circumstances the trial judge should evaluate whether the defendant has met Dailey prerequisites for a veracity hearing solely on the basis of the defendant’s motion and affidavits.

. The statements in the defendants’ affidavits might also be correct if the informant was simply lying. I do not read Bueno and Garcia as contemplating that disclosure should be limited to only those situations in which the informant does not exist or did not give the officer the information contained in the affidavit for search warrant. A third situation in which an *127existing informant gives an officer false information upon which the officer relies as probable cause may also provide grounds for a showing that disclosure of the informant will provide information essential to the merits of the defendant’s suppression ruling. See Bueno, 646 P.2d at 936 (giving examples of when a defendant will meet his initial burden of showing that the informant will provide information essential to the merits of his suppression hearing).