Court Opinion

ID: 9742148
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 21:07:29.336984+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:28.792427
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE MILLER, dissenting: Unlike the majority, I believe that the brief detention effected by authorities of the package in this case did not contravene the defendants’ constitutional rights, and therefore I dissent. The majority makes much of the decision by postal authorities to reroute the package from Chicago to St. Louis for purposes of investigation. The majority insists that the detour contributed significantly to the delay in the delivery of the package. I do not agree. The package was initially pulled from the stream of mail on Thursday, January 19, 1995. The postal inspector assigned to the case, Stephen Atterbury, received the package the next day, January 20, in St. Louis. Atterbury then learned from his counterparts in Oregon that the return address on the package was fictitious, and Atterbury also obtained the services of a specially trained dog, who detected narcotics in the package. That same day, Atterbury presented a request for a search warrant to a federal magistrate in St. Louis, and a warrant was issued at 2:38 that afternoon. Atterbury then opened the package and found inside 31/2 pounds of a material containing psilocybin, a controlled substance. The relevant period here begins with the initial seizure of the package on January 19 and ends with the issuance of the search warrant the next day. It is not clear from the record how much delay, if any, was caused by the decision to transfer the package to St. Louis on its southward journey from Chicago to Champaign. The extra time could not have exceeded part of a day, however, and Atterbury acted expeditiously in conducting his investigation and obtaining the warrant. It should be noted that most of the five-day delay in the delivery of the package, mentioned by the majority, occurred after the warrant was obtained and the package was opened. Indeed, the record shows that, prior to the delivery of the package on Tuesday, January 24, Atterbury made several attempts to deliver the package on Monday, January 23, after the weekend, but no one at the residence answered the door that day. Because I believe that the initial period of detention was reasonable, I respectfully dissent from today’s decision.