Court Opinion

ID: 9499785
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 17:57:31.874042+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:59:43.412086
License: Public Domain

MICHAEL, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
First, I respectfully dissent from the majority’s decision to affirm the district court’s denial of Terrence Askew’s motion to suppress evidence found pursuant to the illegal entry by police into Joshua Gray’s apartment. Today, the majority expands the scope of appellate review of decisions on suppression motions in ways that are both troubling and unprecedented. The majority becomes the first court to hold *158that facts from a defendant’s sentencing investigation and proceeding may be used in deciding a suppression appeal. An overriding problem with this new rule is that the procedures for establishing facts relevant to sentencing do not permit the presentation, adversarial testing, or judicial determination of facts with respect to suppression issues. Thus, the majority overlooks principles of due process when it allows suppression appeals to be decided by using facts from the sentencing process.
The majority admits that this sea change is unnecessary, for it says that “evidence found by the district court in its suppression order suffices to uphold the district court’s suppression ruling.” Ante at 147. Yet so eager is the majority to establish a precedent that it strains to find useable facts in Askew’s presentence report. Thus, the majority is reduced to relying on the presentence report’s account of the items seized (drugs, a gun, etc.) in the search of Gray’s apartment, even though an undisputed list of these items was introduced in the suppression proceedings. Principles of judicial restraint suggest that our court should at least wait until facts from the sentencing process have some bearing on the outcome of a suppression appeal before deciding whether such facts may be considered. Nevertheless, the majority presses on to decide an issue of far-reaching consequence that is unnecessary to its judgment to affirm.
The majority also relies on admissions that Askew made in his presentence interview to support its decision to affirm the denial of Askew’s motion to suppress. When Askew entered a conditional plea of guilty and preserved the right to appeal his suppression motion, he could not have anticipated that his own statements made during sentencing would be used against him by this court. Presentence interviews had never been used to decide suppression appeals, and the government granted Askew immunity barring the use of his statements in further prosecutions or in the determination of his guideline range for sentencing purposes. As a result, the majority’s approach raises serious questions as to whether Askew’s guilty plea can still be regarded as knowing and voluntary. In any event, the majority has ignored the principle of fair notice.
Finally, in rejecting Askew’s suppression appeal, the majority relies on the district court’s relevant conduct findings at Askew’s sentencing hearing. This use of sentencing findings is also unprecedented, and in the long run it will detract from the vital process of determining relevant conduct for sentencing purposes. Both sides will now seek to relitigate suppression issues under the guise of contesting relevant conduct. As a result, district judges will be under pressure to guard against needless diversions in the sentencing process.
In its use of evidence and factfinding from the sentencing process, the majority abandons the approach followed (without controversy) by every other court of appeals in reviewing suppression issues. Until today, these appeals were decided only on the basis of facts developed through the traditional adversarial process in a suppression hearing (or occasionally in a trial). One effect of the majority’s decision is to marginalize the importance of factfinding conducted by district courts at suppression hearings. Another is to impair the ability of defendants to vindicate their constitutional rights on appeal. Yet another is to discourage defendants from entering into conditional guilty pleas at all.
Second, I respectfully dissent from the majority’s affirmance of the district court’s order denying Askew’s suppression motion. The majority affirms on the ground that Askew and Gray had a business rela*159tionship, leaving Askew without a legitimate expectation of privacy in Gray’s apartment. Although the majority says that the district court’s factfinding in the suppression ruling allows this conclusion, it goes on to rely on evidence and factfinding from sentencing that have heretofore been off limits in a suppression appeal. In any case, undisputed facts establish that Askew’s significant personal connection to Gray and his apartment gave Askew a Fourth Amendment privacy interest protecting him from unreasonable searches there.
Third, I respectfully dissent from the majority’s affirmance of the district court’s order that would have allowed Askew to testify at any trial of the government’s case against Gray. Askew was discovered as a potential witness during what the district court found to be the illegal search of Gray’s apartment. Askew’s testimony should have been excluded because it was the tainted product of the illegal search.
I.
As a result of complaints about drug activity, police went to Gray’s Altizer Avenue apartment in Huntington, West Virginia, on July 3, 2003, to conduct a “knock and talk.” The officers did not apply for a search warrant because they knew their limited information did not amount to probable cause. Still, when Gray came to the door, the officers managed to push past him and enter the apartment without his consent. Once inside, the officers saw drugs, drug paraphernalia, and another man, Askew, who spent most of his days and many of his evenings as a guest at Gray’s apartment. The police conducted a pat down search of Askew and found crack cocaine and a large amount of cash. At that point the police obtained a search warrant, conducted a full search of the apartment, and seized drugs and evidence of drug dealing. Gray and Askew were indicted on two counts of conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine.
The district court granted Gray’s motion to suppress all evidence from the July 3, 2003, apartment search as it related to him. The court denied Askew’s motion to suppress, holding that he lacked standing to contest the search of Gray’s apartment. Thereafter, Askew entered a conditional guilty plea to one count of the indictment, preserving his right to appeal the district court’s order denying his motion to suppress. Gray also entered a conditional guilty plea to one count, preserving his right to appeal the district court’s order allowing the government to use the testimony of three witnesses, Askew, David Cole, and Dora Wallace, who were discovered during the illegal search of Gray’s apartment.
II.
A.
The majority concludes that Askew and Gray had a business relationship that left Askew without a privacy interest in Gray’s apartment. In what it acknowledges to be an unnecessary step, the majority confirms this conclusion by taking facts from the record developed during Askew’s sentencing process. In particular, the majority relies on facts taken from Askew’s presen-tence interview (recounted in the presen-tence report) and from the district court’s relevant conduct findings at the sentencing hearing. (I discuss specific pitfalls in using these sources in part II.B and C, infra.) In its most telling move, the majority uses the presentence report to say the report “revealed that the search of Gray’s apartment recovered ‘cocaine base along with a .45 caliber semiautomatic Glock, a magazine and fifteen rounds, one box of *16012-gauge shotgun slugs and drug paraphernalia.’ ” Ante at 151 (quoting presen-tence report, J.A. 523) (emphasis added). This statement conveniently overlooks that the items seized in the search were revealed without objection in the suppression record long before the presentence report was prepared. The search warrant with an attached list of items seized was admitted into evidence at the suppression hearing, a police witness discussed several of the items (cocaine base, ammunition box, and digital scales) at the hearing, and two government memoranda submitted in the suppression proceedings listed the items seized during the search.1 The majority uses the presentence report rendition of the items seized rather than the suppression proceeding record for an obvious reason: it allows the majority to announce the precedent-setting holding that presentence report facts from third-party sources may be used to decide suppression appeals.
The majority concedes that, as it views the case, none of the facts it takes from the sentencing proceedings are necessary to affirm the suppression ruling. These facts are simply “confirmatory,” according to the majority. Ante at 147. Restraint should have been the watchword here. Instead, the majority has plunged ahead to establish a new rule that threatens to weaken defendants’ rights in the suppression arena and needlessly encumber the sentencing process.
The procedures for establishing the facts relevant to sentencing do not allow for the presentation, adversarial testing, or judicial determination of facts with respect to suppression issues. As a result, a defendant’s due process rights may be violated when an appellate court, like the majority today, relies on facts from a presen-tence report in reviewing a suppression ruling.
The majority’s error is exposed by an examination of the process for preparing the presentence report (the basic document for sentencing) and for resolving any objections to the report’s factual assertions that are relevant to sentencing. An essential purpose of the presentence report is to provide the district court with facts that will assist the court in determining an appropriate sentence. The probation officer collects and includes in the report a wide range of information about the background, character, and conduct of the defendant. See 18 U.S.C. §§ 3552(a), 3661. The report encompasses a wide array of hearsay and other information that is not subjected to adversarial testing in a formal evidentiary proceeding. See U.S.S.G. § 6A1.3, comment. (2006). The probation officer normally prepares the report after interviewing the defendant and allowing him to give his account of the offense and provide personal information about himself. The probation officer then contacts the prosecution side to get its version of the offense and any other information it might have about the defendant’s activities and background. The victim of the crime is also interviewed. Finally, the officer assembles other information helpful in sentencing, including information about the defendant’s family responsibilities and his criminal, medical, educational, financial, and employment record. See 5 Wayne R. LaFave et al., Criminal Procedure § 26.5(b) (2d ed.1989).
Because the purpose of the presentence report is to aid the district court in sentencing, the procedures for resolving disputes about information contained in the *161report are limited to matters relevant to sentencing. Thus, “[w]hen any factor important to the sentencing determination is reasonably in dispute, the parties shall be given an adequate opportunity to present information to the [district] court regarding that factor.” U.S.S.G. § 6A1.3(a), p.s. (emphasis added). The court then resolves the dispute at the sentencing hearing in accordance with Rule 32(i) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. See U.S.S.G. § 6A1.3(b), p.s. Rule 32(i) makes clear that a district court need not resolve disputes over the content of a presentence report when the “controverted matter ... will not affect sentencing, or [when] the court will not consider the matter in sentencing.” Fed.R.Crim.P. 32(i)(3)(B). These rules are designed to promote the “ ‘focused, adversarial resolution of the legal and factual issues’ critical to sentencing” without the distraction of relitigating non-sentencing matters that might be contested on appeal. United States v. Blatstein, 482 F.3d 725, 731 (4th Cir.2007) (quoting Burns v. United States, 501 U.S. 129, 137, 111 S.Ct. 2182, 115 L.Ed.2d 123 (1991)).
In short, suppression-related factfinding is not meant to be reopened during the process for gathering sentencing facts that begins with the preparation of the presen-tence report and ends with the sentencing hearing. Facts that would have had some relevance at the suppression hearing may well surface in the sentencing process. But those facts are not subjected to rebuttal, other adversarial testing, or judicial scrutiny insofar as they might be relevant to suppression. For that reason they should not be used by an appellate court in reviewing a suppression ruling.
Today marks the first time an appellate court has affirmed a pretrial suppression ruling based on facts taken from a presen-tence report or sentencing findings. This unprecedented step passes muster, the majority believes, because an appeals court “may consider evidence adduced at trial” to affirm a pretrial suppression motion. United States v. Han, 74 F.3d 537, 539 (4th Cir.1996). Considering facts from the trial record in a suppression appeal makes some sense because the full measure of constitutional and procedural protections governing the development of evidence (for example, confrontation, cross-examination, and compulsory process) are still available to the defendant.2 Moreover, suppression issues have the potential to be reopened during trial because the defendant may renew at trial a pretrial suppression motion. See, e.g., Raddatz, 447 U.S. at 678 n. 6, 100 S.Ct. 2406 (“Nothing ... precludes renewal at trial of a motion to suppress evidence even though such motion was denied before trial.”). However, once a defendant, with the agreement of the government, enters a conditional guilty plea with the right to appeal a suppression *162ruling, the parties have signaled that they are content to have the record closed for the suppression appeal.
Once guilt is established, and the preparation for sentencing begins, suppression issues should be off limits. The procedural protections attending the development and use of facts for sentencing are not designed to, and may consequently fail to, afford the defendant fair consideration of his Fourth Amendment claim. Thus, it is not surprising that the majority has no company in its approach.
An example illustrates why sentencing evidence should not be used to decide a suppression appeal. Consider a defendant who, like Askew, has entered a conditional guilty plea to a drug charge while preserving a suppression appeal on the ground that he had a privacy interest in the place searched, a friend’s apartment, where he was found in possession of drugs and tools of the drug trade. Several background facts are included in the presentence report that are relevant to suppression, but do not bear materially on sentencing. In particular, the presentence report includes the hearsay statement of a person (not a witness at the suppression hearing) who said that the defendant was an infrequent visitor at the apartment and was not a close friend of the lessee. The defendant objects to this statement on the ground that it is incorrect and the source lacks credibility. The district court overrules the objection because the facts in the statement do not bear on the sentencing determination, and the court then adopts the presentence report. After today the defendant is stuck with these untested facts from his presentence report in any suppression appeal. As a result, the majority’s approach paves the way for suppression appeals to be decided with evidence that is not subjected to full and fair adversarial testing.
The majority attempts to justify its position by saying that “the criminal justice system should not lightly construct arbitrary barriers to the ascertainment of truth.” Ante at 151. But restricting appellate review to evidence that has been subjected to meaningful adversarial testing is hardly an arbitrary barrier. Nor is it inconsistent with ascertaining the truth. Cf. California v. Green, 399 U.S. 149, 158, 90 S.Ct. 1930, 26 L.Ed.2d 489 (1970) (cross-examination, as the core of the adversarial process, is “the greatest legal engine ever invented for the discovery of truth”) (internal quotation omitted).
The majority insists that excluding sentencing evidence from the record to be considered in suppression appeals is at odds with “common sense and the aims of the criminal justice system.” Ante at 147. This language sounds good, but it should fool no one. It overlooks the fact that our court today rejects the universal practice of deciding suppression appeals without reference to the sentencing record. The overdrawn rhetoric also obscures what is actually at stake for the criminal justice system. Like the majority, I fully believe that “[tjhere is no gainsaying that arriving at the truth is a fundamental goal of our legal system.” James v. Illinois, 493 U.S. 307, 311, 110 S.Ct. 648, 107 L.Ed.2d 676 (1990)(quoting United States v. Havens, 446 U.S. 620, 626, 100 S.Ct. 1912, 64 L.Ed.2d 559 (1980)). But it is also the case that “various constitutional rules limit the means by which government [and this court] may conduct this search for truth in order to promote other values embraced by the Framers and cherished throughout our Nation’s history.” James, 493 U.S. at 311, 110 S.Ct. 648. Because the procedural safeguards attending to sentencing do not provide for a full and fair airing of suppression-related facts, respect for a defendant’s due process rights requires us to *163decide a suppression appeal on the facts developed at the suppression hearing.3
B.
In support of its conclusion that Askew and Gray had a business relationship, the majority relies on Askew’s presentence interview admissions as recounted by the probation officer in the presentence report. The use of Askew’s own statements against him raises a different set of concerns than does the use of third-party evidence from a presentenee report. For a guilty plea to be deemed knowing and voluntary, the district court must first determine “whether the defendant actually does understand the significance and consequences of [the] particular decision [to plead guilty].” Godinez v. Moran, 509 U.S. 389, 401 n. 12, 113 S.Ct. 2680, 125 L.Ed.2d 321 (1993). At no point during his plea hearing was Askew ever informed by the district court that his own statements made during the sentencing process could be used against him in his suppression appeal. Of course, this omission is not the fault of the district court. Because no court of appeals had ever considered sentencing evidence in its review of a suppression motion before today, neither the district court nor Askew had any reason to expect that Askew’s complete cooperation during the sentencing process (which was required of him under the terms of his plea agreement) might work to his detriment in this appeal. Indeed, in his supplemental sentencing memorandum Askew reminded the district court that his pre-sentence report admissions — the very admissions now relied on by the majority- — - “should only be viewed by [the district court] in finding that Mr. Askew has accepted responsibility for his actions, and for no other purpose.” J.A. 361-62. (emphasis added). This reminder was based on the government’s plea agreement grant of use immunity to Askew, which shielded his statements from use against him in *164“further criminal prosecutions or in determining the applicable guideline range” in his case. J.A. 230. Thus, Askew could not have been aware of the full consequences of recounting his version of his offense to the probation officer, and this circumstance raises serious questions as to whether his conditional guilty plea can still be regarded as knowing and voluntary.
In sum, Askew could not have anticipated the Hobson’s choice that the majority offers today to future defendants contemplating a conditional guilty plea. Under the majority’s approach, full cooperation during sentencing may turn out to be fatal to a Fourth Amendment appeal. However grim his options, Askew surely had a right to make a knowing choice between them. When he entered his conditional plea of guilty, Askew did not know that by submitting to a presentence interview he might end up a witness against himself in his suppression appeal. Given this lack of notice, Askew’s own statements should not be used by the majority today.
C.
In yet another first for appellate courts, the majority relies on the district court’s relevant conduct findings at Askew’s sentencing hearing to support its conclusion that Askew had no privacy interest in Gray’s apartment. For example, the majority relies on the district court’s findings about the cash recovered from Askew in connection with its determination of drug weights attributable to Askew for sentencing. A district court’s determination of the defendant’s relevant conduct has long been recognized as a critical component of the federal sentencing process. See William W. Wilkins, Jr. & John R. Steer, Relevant Conduct: The Cornerstone of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, 41 S.C. L.Rev. 495 (1990). After today the relevant conduct inquiry and determination will bear on more than sentencing. It will also bear on the appeal of decisions on suppression motions. The relevant conduct inquiry should be confined to the determination of an appropriate sentence. It is bad policy to allow suppression issues to creep into sentencing, and that will surely happen after today’s decision. Both the defendant and the government will now have every incentive to attempt to relitigate suppression issues under the guise of contesting relevant conduct. This diversion will detract from the “focused, adversarial resolution of the issues ... critical to sentencing.” Blatstein, 482 F.3d at 731 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted).
D.
The majority fails to appreciate that its new approach will discourage the use of conditional guilty pleas, detract from the sentencing process, and frustrate district judges. Under Fed.R.Crim.P. 11(a)(2) “a defendant may enter a conditional plea of guilty ... reserving in writing the right to have an appellate court review an adverse determination of a specified pretrial motion,” such as a motion to suppress. If facts in a presentence report and evidence or findings at sentencing can determine the scope of Fourth Amendment protections to be decided on appeal, the likelihood that a defendant will choose to enter a conditional guilty plea will be reduced. Conditional guilty pleas have heretofore served an important purpose by “re-liev[ing] the problem of congested criminal trial calendars in a manner that does not diminish the opportunity for the assertion of rights guaranteed by the Constitution.” Lefkowitz v. Newsome, 420 U.S. 283, 293, 95 S.Ct. 886, 43 L.Ed.2d 196 (1975).
Before today when a defendant entered a plea of guilty on the condition that he could appeal a suppression ruling, both he *165and the government understood that the suppression appeal would be decided on the record from the suppression hearing. Both sides also understood that evidence provided to the probation officer and to the court in the sentencing process would be used only to determine an appropriate sentence.4 After today both sides will be providing information in the sentencing process with the additional goal of making a better record for appellate review of the suppression ruling. This practice will diminish a defendant’s ability to assert his Fourth Amendment rights on appeal. It will allow the government, with its substantial investigative resources, to steer facts of unassessed reliability into the pre-sentence report, facts that are aimed solely to bolster its case for affirming the denial of the suppression motion. The overall effect will be to discourage the use of conditional guilty pleas and force more trials or straight guilty pleas that strip defendants of appeal rights.
In short, the majority’s approach has nothing to recommend it, neither judicial economy, sentencing process integrity, nor protection of defendants’ constitutional rights.
Ill.
I also respectfully disagree with the majority on the merits of Askew’s suppression motion.
A.
The Fourth Amendment speaks of “[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects.” U.S. Const, amend. IV. Fourth Amendment rights are personal and “may be enforced ... only at the instance of one whose own protection was infringed by [a] search.” Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128, 138, 99 S.Ct. 421, 58 L.Ed.2d 387 (1978) (quoting Simmons v. United States, 390 U.S. 377, 389, 88 S.Ct. 967, 19 L.Ed.2d 1247 (1968)). A person invoking the protections of the Fourth Amendment must have a legitimate expectation of privacy in the place searched. Smith v. Maryland, 442 U.S. 735, 740, 99 S.Ct. 2577, 61 L.Ed.2d 220 (1979). More specifically, he must have an actual (or subjective) expectation of privacy, and his subjective expectation must be “one that society is prepared to recognize as reasonable.” Id. *166(internal quotation marks and citation omitted). “[A] person can have a legally sufficient interest in a place other than his own home so that the Fourth Amendment protects him from unreasonable governmental intrusion into that place.” Rakas, 439 U.S. at 142, 99 S.Ct. 421. For example, the Supreme Court has recognized that legitimate expectations of privacy can be held by overnight guests, Minnesota v. Olson, 495 U.S. 91, 95, 110 S.Ct. 1684, 109 L.Ed.2d 85 (1990), employees in shared offices, Mancusi v. DeForte, 392 U.S. 364, 369, 88 S.Ct. 2120, 20 L.Ed.2d 1154 (1968), and persons making business calls from public telephone booths, Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 353, 88 S.Ct. 507, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967).
The majority, in concluding that Askew lacked a legitimate expectation of privacy in Gray’s apartment, proceeds as if the Supreme Court in Minnesota v. Carter, 525 U.S. 83, 119 S.Ct. 469, 142 L.Ed.2d 373 (1998), categorically removed business guests in another’s home from the protections of the Fourth Amendment. But Carter did no such thing. The issue in Carter was whether two men who used the apartment of a third man for two and one-half hours for the sole purpose of bagging cocaine had a legitimate expectation of privacy in the apartment. Neither of the Carter defendants had a prior relationship with the tenant, and they proffered no evidence showing “acceptance into the household.” Id. at 90, 119 S.Ct. 469. In return for their use of the apartment as “simply a place to do business,” id., the defendants paid the tenant with a small amount of cocaine. The combination of “the -purely commercial nature of the transaction engaged in [], the relatively short period of time on the premises, and the lack of any previous connection between [the defendants] and the householder” led the Court to conclude that any search did not violate the defendants’ Fourth Amendment rights. Id. at 91, 119 S.Ct. 469 (emphasis added).
The facts in today’s case establish that Askew’s status is quite unlike that of the Carter defendants, who had only a “fleeting and insubstantial connection” with the apartment in question. Id. at 102, 119 S.Ct. 469 (Kennedy, J., concurring). Here, the district court found that “Askew typically visited [] Gray four to five days a week, spending several hours each time he visited” Gray’s Altizer Avenue apartment. J.A. 152. This finding was based on Askew’s testimony that he generally spent about six hours per day at Gray’s, but sometimes extended these hours by staying late into the night. The court also found that Askew “occasionally spent the night” at Gray’s. J.A. 152. This happened “maybe four or five times,” according to Askew. J.A. 107. “Askew kept some personal items at [ ] Gray’s including a change of clothes, a toothbrush, and his Playstation [video game] console,” according to the district court’s findings. J.A. 152. Finally, the court found that when Askew was at Gray’s apartment, the two men “would watch movies [together], play video games or do other things around the house.” Id. The district court’s findings are supported and amplified by other undisputed facts presented at the suppression hearing. Askew bought groceries for the Gray apartment and spent “some time” there when Gray was not present. J.A. 108. On several occasions, Gray provided Askew with a key to the apartment, and Gray testified that Askew “probably” had the authority to deny entry to third parties. J.A. 88. Askew’s privileges at Gray’s Altizer Avenue apartment were a continuation of privileges Gray had extended to him at Gray’s previous apartment on Collis Avenue in Huntington, where Askew had “spen[t] quite a few nights.” J.A. 87. In sum, Askew and Gray had a close per*167sonal relationship that prompted Gray to welcome Askew to spend about a quarter of his daily life, including his leisure time, at Gray’s apartment.
The majority minimizes or ignores these facts — all taken from the district court’s findings following the suppression hearing and from evidence introduced at that hearing — and characterizes Gray and Askew as having “essentially a business relationship.” Ante at 151. In any event, I do not contest that the evidence presented at the suppression hearing, when viewed in the light most favorable to the government, supports an inference that Askew was using Gray’s apartment in part for his own business purpose (drug dealing). The business aspect is a factor to be weighed in determining whether Askew had a legitimate expectation of privacy in the apartment. See Carter, 525 U.S. at 91, 119 S.Ct. 469; cf. New York v. Burger, 482 U.S. 691, 700, 107 S.Ct. 2636, 96 L.Ed.2d 601 (1987) (“An expectation of privacy in commercial premises, however, is different from, and indeed less than, a similar expectation in an individual’s home.”). The drug dealing factor does not by itself resolve the matter, however, because Carter did not draw a bright line rule between social and business guests by entitling the former to the protections of the Fourth Amendment and disentitling the latter. See United States v. Higgins, 282 F.3d 1261, 1271 (10th Cir.2002). Indeed, the particular guest label affixed to Askew matters far less than whether he has established a “meaningful tie or connection to the [tenant], the [tenant’s] home or the [tenant’s] expectation of privacy.” Carter, 525 U.S. at 102, 119 S.Ct. 469 (Kennedy, J., concurring).
The circumstances of Askew’s regular presence at Gray’s apartment make clear that he was the kind of “houseguest [who] has a legitimate expectation of privacy in his host’s home.” Olson, 495 U.S. at 98, 110 S.Ct. 1684. Askew was “accepted] into [Gray’s] household,” Carter, 525 U.S. at 90, 119 S.Ct. 469, as shown by the frequency and length of his visits, his participation with Gray in social activities at the apartment (playing video games and watching movies), the personal possessions that he kept there, his occasional possession of a key to the apartment, his ability to spend time there alone, his purchase of groceries for the apartment, and his probable authority to exclude others from the apartment. Given his long-established and meaningful connections to both Gray and Gray’s apartment, Askew could reasonably expect that his privacy “w[ould] not be disturbed by anyone but his host and those his host allows inside.” Olson, 495 U.S. at 99, 110 S.Ct. 1684.
An expectation of privacy in Askew’s case is consistent with Carter because in Carter the Court did not focus exclusively on the commercial-nature of the visitors’ conduct but also considered the “time [they spent] on the premises” and whether there was “any previous connection between [the visitors] and the householder.” Carter, 525 U.S. at 91, 119 S.Ct. 469. Indeed, the majority’s misreading of Carter to give determinative weight to the commercial aspects of visits that are both commercial and social has been rejected by both the Ninth and Tenth Circuits in the very cases the majority cites for support. Ante at 145-46; see United States v. Rhiger, 315 F.3d 1283, 1287 (10th Cir.2003) (despite his joint participation in methamphetamine production at another’s home, defendant’s “ongoing and meaningful connection” to the home over a two-week period, including several overnight stays, gave him standing to challenge search); United States v. Gamez-Orduño, 235 F.3d 453, 459 (9th Cir.2000) (defendants transporting marihuana, who stayed as guests one night in the home of strangers, had a *168legitimate expectation of privacy in that home). The Sixth Circuit has also rejected the majority’s expansive reading of Carter. See United States v. Pollard, 215 F.3d 643, 647-48 (6th Cir.2000) (defendant selling cocaine out of another’s home had a legitimate expectation of privacy there because of his relationship to the householder, his storage of personal belongings in the home, and his occasional overnight stays there).
Moreover, the majority’s reasoning is irreconcilable with Jones v. United States, 362 U.S. 257, 80 S.Ct. 725, 4 L.Ed.2d 697 (1960). Although the majority describes the defendant in Jones as “essentially house-sitting” in the apartment of an absent friend, ante at 152, the facts recounted by the Supreme Court make it abundantly clear that Jones was selling heroin out of the apartment, Jones, 362 U.S. at 267-68 n. 2, 80 S.Ct. 725. Jones had a key to the apartment, kept a suit and shirt there, and had slept there “maybe a night.” Id. at 259, 80 S.Ct. 725. The fact that Jones was using the apartment as a base for commercial conduct did not prevent the Supreme Court from holding that a search of the apartment violated Jones’s Fourth Amendment rights. Nor did Jones’s commercial activity prevent the Court in Carter from explicitly reaffirming Jones’s holding. 525 U.S. at 90, 119 S.Ct. 469. In attempting to distinguish this case from Jones, the majority overstates the significance of the fact that Jones, unlike Askew, had a key at the time of the search. In Minnesota v. Olson the Supreme Court made clear that “untrammeled power to admit and exclude” is not essential to gaining Fourth Amendment protection. 495 U.S. 91, 99-100, 110 S.Ct. 1684, 109 L.Ed.2d 85 (1990). At any rate, Askew need not show that his case is identical to Jones. Askew had a legitimate expectation of privacy in Gray’s apartment because of his “on-going and meaningful connection” to Gray and the apartment. Rhiger, 315 F.3d at 1287.
B.
The majority’s holding that a person’s “patently commercial” use of a place permits “no legitimate expectation of privacy,” ante at 154, creates another problem. This holding cannot be reconciled with the well-established principle that an individual “may have a reasonable expectation of privacy” in his place of work. See O’Connor v. Ortega, 480 U.S. 709, 719, 107 S.Ct. 1492, 94 L.Ed.2d 714 (1987) (holding that a psychiatrist employed by a state hospital had a reasonable expectation of privacy in his office); Mancusi, 392 U.S. at 369, 88 S.Ct. 2120 (holding that a union official had a reasonable expectation of privacy in office consisting of one room shared with other officials).
The majority describes Gray’s apartment as the locus of “a commercial enterprise” with “multiple customers” where repeated “business transaction^]” occurred. Ante at 152. Likewise, Askew’s purpose for being in the apartment is deemed “patently commercial.” Id. at 154. Yet the majority does not, and cannot, dispute that an individual can have the kind of “significant [] connection” to his workplace that entitles him to the Fourth Amendment’s protections. Carter, 525 U.S. at 91, 119 S.Ct. 469. Thus, simply calling Askew’s conduct commercial does nothing to answer the key question, that is, even assuming that Gray’s apartment served as Askew’s regular workplace in the drug trade, did Askew nevertheless have a legitimate expectation that his privacy there would not be violated by warrantless police intrusion. The majority attempts to dodge this question by contending that Askew had no expectation of privacy in the apartment for two reasons: (1) it “was not [] his own *169private office” and (2) “[a] defendant cannot simply co-opt another’s dwelling for illegal business enterprises.” Ante at 153. These pronouncements do not defeat Askew’s privacy expectations.
First, it does not matter that Gray’s apartment was not Askew’s “own private office.” The union official in Mancusi shared his office with other union officials, but his privacy interests in the office were sufficient to allow him to challenge its warrantless search. The official had Fourth Amendment protection because he could “reasonably have expected that only [his officemates] and their personal or business guests would enter the office.” 392 U.S. at 369, 88 S.Ct. 2120; see also Ortega, 480 U.S. at 730, 107 S.Ct. 1492 (Scalia, J., concurring) (“[0]ne’s personal office is constitutionally protected against warrantless intrusions by the police, even though employer and co-workers are not excluded.”). Second, the record does not permit the conclusion on appeal that Askew co-opted or appropriated Gray’s apartment to conduct illegal business. Askew’s presence in Gray’s home was nothing but consensual. This is not a case where a person lacks enforceable privacy rights because he was on the premises of another without consent. See, e.g., United States v. Jones, 213 F.3d 1253, 1260 (10th Cir.2000). Thus, even if the apartment is viewed as a workplace, the majority offers no cogent reason for dashing Askew’s reasonable expectation of privacy.
In the end it appears that the majority’s decision would be the same regardless of whether the apartment is treated as a home, a workplace, or some combination of the two. The majority explains its wholesale rejection of all of the evidence that establishes Askew’s ongoing personal connection to the apartment with one sweeping pronouncement: “We reject a rule that accords members of ongoing drug operations heightened constitutional protection.” Ante at 152. But basic constitutional protection is all that Askew seeks, and Fourth Amendment rights have never hinged on whether a defendant’s activities were innocent or criminal. Instead, the “guarantee of protection against unreasonable searches and seizures extends to the innocent and guilty alike.” McDonald v. United States, 335 U.S. 451, 453, 69 S.Ct. 191, 93 L.Ed. 153 (1948). This point is confirmed in Minnesota v. Olson, where the defendant had a legitimate expectation of privacy as an overnight guest in a home where he was essentially hiding because he was wanted for armed robbery and murder. 495 U.S. at 94-95, 110 S.Ct. 1684. As a leading commentator explains, “to deny standing merely because it turns out the defendant had a criminal purpose is in sharp conflict with the rationale underlying the exclusionary rule.” 6 Wayne R. LaFave, Search and Seizure: A Treatise on the Fourth Amendment § 11.3(b) at 162 n. 141 (4th ed.2004) (listing cases). Indeed, most “Fourth Amendment issues arise precisely because the defendants were engaged in illegal activity on the premises for which they claim privacy interests.” United States v. Fields, 113 F.3d 313, 321 (2d Cir.1997). In short, the fact that Askew engaged in illegal activity at the apartment does not foreclose him from invoking the protection of the Fourth Amendment.
C.
Askew had a longstanding and meaningful connection to Gray’s apartment as a regular guest with special privileges. As a result, Askew had a legitimate expectation of privacy in the apartment that was protected by the Fourth Amendment. The district court’s order denying Askew’s suppression motion should therefore be reversed.
*170IV.
Finally, I respectfully disagree with the majority’s determination that Askew could have testified against Gray. It is settled in this case that the search of Gray’s apartment violated his Fourth Amendment rights. Askew’s prospective testimony against Gray was “so closely, almost inextricably, linked” to the illegal search that it should have been suppressed. United States v. Rubalcava-Montoya, 597 F.2d 140, 144 (9th Cir.1978). Because Askew’s testimony was the tainted product of the illegal search, I would reverse the district court’s order denying Gray’s motion to exclude Askew’s testimony.
The “degree of free will” exercised by a potential witness is critical to determining whether his prospective testimony is sufficiently attenuated from an illegal search. United States v. Ceccolini, 435 U.S. 268, 276, 98 S.Ct. 1054, 55 L.Ed.2d 268 (1978). The “time, place, and manner of [law enforcement’s] initial questioning of the witness” are examined to determine whether his statements “are truly the product of detached reflection and a desire to be cooperative.” Id. at 277, 98 S.Ct. 1054. The free will inquiry is supplemented by an examination of the following additional factors:
whether the illegally-seized evidence was used in questioning the witness; the time between the illegal search and initial contact with the witness; whether the investigators knew of the relationship between the witness and the defendant prior to their illegal search; and whether the police conducted the illegal search intending to find evidence implicating the defendant.
United States v. McKinnon, 92 F.3d 244, 247-48 (4th Cir.1996) (citing Ceccolini, 435 U.S. at 279-80, 98 S.Ct. 1054). Consideration of the Ceccolini-McKinnon factors compels the conclusion that Askew’s prospective testimony against Gray should have been suppressed. First, illegally seized evidence formed the basis of police questioning of Askew: he was asked about the cash and crack recovered from his clothing during a warrantless search that violated his Fourth Amendment rights. See supra part I.5 Askew’s decision to testify was hardly voluntary, given what he faced. The district court erroneously concluded that Askew could not challenge the police’s illegal entry into Gray’s apartment. This meant that the evidence found (drugs, cash, etc.) would be admissible against him. Second, no time elapsed between the illegal search and the police’s initial contact with Askew. Third, before unlawfully entering Gray’s apartment, the police had no knowledge of the relationship between Gray and Askew, nor were they even aware of the true identities of the two men. Fourth, the police knew that they lacked probable cause when they arrived at Gray’s apartment, so it is apparent that they took advantage of an opportunity to push their way in, intent on finding evidence of drug dealing. These factors, which the majority does not specifically consider, all demonstrate a close link between the illegal search and Askew’s prospective testimony.
*171The majority focuses on Ceccolini’s free will factor, concluding that Askew’s decision to testify against Gray was entirely voluntary. Faced with the consequences of the district court’s erroneous ruling, Askew entered into a plea agreement that required him to testify against Gray in return for the dismissal of one of the two felony counts against him. The circumstances surrounding Askew’s agreement to testify “strongly suggest that he [would] not [be testifying] of a free will uninfluenced by the initial illegality.” United States v. Ienco, 182 F.3d 517, 530 (7th Cir.1999). Instead, Askew’s decision was “dictated by his own precarious legal situation” resulting from the district court’s admission of illegally seized evidence. Id.
I recognize that there are many cases in which a co-defendant’s testimony is sufficiently attenuated from the unlawful search as to be admissible. In all of the cases cited by the majority, the identity of the testifying co-defendant was already known to law enforcement in advance of the illegal search. See United States v. Abridge, 346 F.3d 618, 627 (6th Cir.2003); United States v. Leonardi, 623 F.2d 746, 752 (2d Cir.1980); United States v. Houltin, 566 F.2d 1027, 1031 (5th Cir.1978). In Houltin, for example, the testifying co-defendants and their illegal activities had been “under extensive investigation for narcotics smuggling activities” for several years before they were illegally wiretapped. 566 F.2d at 1031 n. 4 (internal quotation omitted). The government’s independent knowledge of the co-defendants was thus sufficient to overcome any link between the Fourth Amendment violation and their later decision to testify. In the matter before us, not only were the police unaware of Askew’s true identity, the government’s entire case against him was the product of the illegal search. There is simply no attenuation to be found.
Because the record before us shows an unbroken causal link between the illegal search and Askew’s decision to testify against Gray, I would reverse the district court’s determination that Askew’s testimony was admissible.

. The search warrant with the attached list of items seized is not in the joint appendix, but it is available as part of the district court record.

. A defendant also has substantial constitutional and procedural protections at a pretrial suppression hearing, see United States v. Raddatz, 447 U.S. 667, 679, 100 S.Ct. 2406, 65 L.Ed.2d 424 (1980), even though they do not equal those available at trial. There is, of course, "no automatic rule against the reception of hearsay evidence in [suppression] proceedings,” United States v. Matlock, 415 U.S. 164, 175, 94 S.Ct. 988, 39 L.Ed.2d 242 (1974), but a witness offering hearsay testimony is subject to cross-examination, see McCray v. Illinois, 386 U.S. 300, 313, 87 S.Ct. 1056, 18 L.Ed.2d 62 (1967). In any case, elemental due process ensures that a defendant at a suppression hearing retains the core of the rights to confrontation, cross-examination, and compulsory process. See, e.g., United States v. Stewart, 93 F.3d 189, 192-93 n. 1 (5th Cir.1996); United States v. Macklin, 902 F.2d 1320, 1329-30 (8th Cir.1990); United States v. De Los Santos, 810 F.2d 1326, 1335 (5th Cir.1987); United States v. Bowe, 698 F.2d 560, 565 (2d Cir.1983); United States v. Green, 670 F.2d 1148, 1154 (D.C.Cir.1981).

. The majority claims that today's new rule "is not a one-way street,” ante at 150, and will also allow defendants to rely on sentencing evidence in a suppression appeal. In practice, however, this rule will be of little benefit to defendants. First, the government has the statutory right to take an interlocutory appeal from a pretrial ruling that suppresses or excludes evidence in a criminal case. 18 U.S.C. § 3731. In that situation the defendant has won a suppression motion, but he will have no sentencing evidence to rely on in the interlocutory appeal. On the other hand, when the defendant loses a suppression motion, both sides will be able to rely on sentencing evidence in the defendant’s appeal of the adverse ruling. This scheme gives the government an advantage. When the defendant loses a suppression motion, the government will have the opportunity to use evidence from the sentencing process to bolster its case in opposition to suppression. A defendant who wins a suppression motion, and must defend his favorable ruling in an interlocutory appeal by the government, has no second chance to shore up his case for suppression. Second, the majority's equal benefit example from this case is unconvincing. The majority says that Gray in his appeal properly relies on sentencing evidence to argue that the district court erred in denying his pretrial motion to suppress the testimony of Cole and Wallace as the tainted product of the illegal search of Gray’s apartment. Gray's reliance on this sentencing evidence is futile, however, for the majority does not use the evidence to reverse the district court; it affirms the decision that would have allowed Cole and Wallace to testify.
In any event, if the majority had used sentencing evidence to reverse the district court's ruling to admit the testimony of Cole and Wallace, it would have been unfair to the government. Parties depend on district courts to rule on motions to suppress testimony on the basis of the evidence presented in pretrial (or sometimes trial) proceedings. This time-honored approach brings stability and reliability to the trial process, and an appellate court should not second-guess district court decisions to admit or exclude testimony on the basis of evidence that comes to light later at sentencing.

. Although the majority's approach in using sentencing evidence to determine the scope of a defendant’s Fourth Amendment rights is wholly without precedent, the majority asserts that Askew somehow anticipated that such evidence would be used in his suppression appeal. See ante at 150. This claim is not borne out by the record. Askew's lawyer objected to "any inference or other statements in the presentence report that state or tend to show that the police search of Mr. Gray’s apartment was a legal search and seizure.” J.A. 450; see J.A. 535. The objection, as explained fully in the addendum to the presentence report, went to the report’s reflection of law enforcement’s version of the search, which was that Gray had consented to it. Thus, Askew’s lawyer pointed out in his objection that the district court had ruled that "the search [of Gray's apartment] was illegal and this [ruling] should be noted in the Pre-sentence Investigation Report.” J.A. 535. The objection — in light of the scope of appellate review at the time it was made — is best understood as an effort by Askew to avoid any waiver of his suppression appeal by conceding that the search had been consensual. In ruling on the objection, the district court stated that ”[t]he presentence report doesn't indicate whether the search was legal or illegal.” J.A. 451. Regardless of the objection, the illegality of the officers’ entry and search was conclusively decided by the district court and is not challenged on appeal. The only issue in Askew’s appeal is whether he had a legitimate expectation of privacy that was violated as a result of the unconstitutional search. There is nothing in the record indicating that Askew anticipated that his expectation of privacy would be determined on the basis of facts from the sentencing process.

. The district court admitted evidence found on Askew's person because the court found that this search was pursuant to his lawful arrest. Of course, the arrest would only have been lawful if it had been based on probable cause. See United States v. Robinson, 414 U.S. 218, 235, 94 S.Ct. 467, 38 L.Ed.2d 427 (1973). Probable cause for Askew’s arrest was purportedly established with evidence from the initial (warrantless) search of the apartment that ought to have been suppressed as to Askew just as it was with respect to Gray. The police therefore lacked probable cause for Askew’s arrest, which means that evidence from the pat-down search was illegally seized.