Court Opinion

ID: 9788710
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 01:16:08.185998+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:16.136908
License: Public Domain

Justice EID,
specially concurring.
The majority holds that the trial court properly excluded the drug evidence because *97the affidavit supporting the search warrant lacks probable cause and the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule does not apply. I find it unnecessary to reach the probable cause issue and would instead affirm on a more fundamental ground: the search warrant failed to state with particularity the place to be searched.
The warrant allowed police to search “[a]ny vehicle associated with [Defendant] during the execution of this search warrant, regardless of whether [Defendant] is the driver or passenger of said vehicle.” A fundamental requirement of any search warrant is that it must state with particularity the “place to be searched.” U.S. Const, amend. IV; Colo. Const. Art. II, § 7; see People v. Del Alamo, 624 P.2d 1304, 1306 (Colo.1981) (finding the particularity requirement satisfied where warrant described target vehicle such that no other vehicle could match the description). The warrant here is deficient in this regard. Indeed, a number of courts have found that warrants substantially similar to the one at issue here fail the particularity requirement. See, e.g., Time Warner Entm’t Co. v. Does, 876 F.Supp. 407, 413 (E.D.N.Y.1994) (holding that a search warrant for “any vehicles in the possession, custody or control of Defendants at any location in New York where counterfeit or infringing merchandise bearing Plaintiffs copyrighted Designs and Trademarks is manufactured, distributed, sold, offered for sale and stored” did not satisfy the particularity requirement); State v. Ingram, 313 Or. 139, 831 P.2d 674, 677 (1992) (holding that a search warrant for “all vehicles determined to be associated with occupants of said premises” failed the particularity requirement because “officers executing it could invade privacy interests not intended by the magistrate to be invaded and could conduct searches not supported by probable cause”). See generally 2 Wayne R. LaFave, Search & Seizure § 4.5(d) (4th ed.2004) (noting that a search warrant for “all automobiles” is vulnerable to challenge on particularity grounds).
As the majority points out, according to Informant, Pacheco used multiple vehicles in his drug business in order to evade law enforcement. Maj. op. at 93. Yet Detective Colbert testified that Pacheco had only been seen driving two different vehicles: a silver Ford Taurus and a “little red car.” Id. at 95. In other words, particular descriptions of the vehicles were available, but for some reason they were not incorporated into the warrant.
Because the warrant did not include any description of the targeted vehicles, “no reasonable officer would have relied upon” it. People v. Randolph, 4 P.3d 477, 483 (Colo.2000). Therefore, “objective good faith is absent and the good faith exception offers no shelter.” Id.; see United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897, 923, 104 S.Ct. 3405, 82 L.Ed.2d 677 (1984). For these reasons, I specially concur.
I am authorized to state that Justice COATS joins in this special concurrence.