Court Opinion

ID: 9757785
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 22:58:57.978307+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:44.305487
License: Public Domain

*224HOFFMAN, Judge,
dissenting:
Because I find the overbreadth of the latter three search warrants repugnant to the specificity required by the United States Constitution, and the ensuing unrestrained searches prime examples of the evil that requirement was designed to prevent, I must strenuously dissent.
The fourth amendment to the United States Constitution provides that “no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be searched.” (emphasis added). General warrants are thus prohibited. Andresen v. Maryland, 427 U.S. 463, 480, 96 S.Ct. 2737, 2748, 49 L.Ed.2d 627, 642 (1976). “As to what is to be taken, nothing is left to the discretion of the officer executing the warrant.” Marron v. United States, 275 U.S. 192, 196, 48 S.Ct. 74, 76, 72 L.Ed. 23, 26 (1927). Accord, Stanford v. Texas, 379 U.S. 476, 85 S.Ct. 506, 13 L.Ed.2d 431 (1965); United States v. Crozier, 674 F.2d 1293 (9th Cir.1982). “The particularity requirement prohibits a warrant that is not particular enough and a warrant that is overbroad.” Commonwealth v. Santner, 308 Pa.Superior Ct. 67 n. 2, 454 A.2d 24 n. 2 (1982). “A warrant unconstitutional for its overbreadth authorizes in clear or specific terms the seizure of an entire set of items or documents, many of which will prove unrelated to the crime investigation.” Id.
The items identified to be searched for and seized were “FIREARMS, TIRES, STEREO EQUIPMENT, JEWELRY, NEW CLOTHING, TOOLS, RADIOS, TV’S, typewriters, steno typers, car radios, cb’s, air conditioners, cameras, lens, projectors, motors, currency, both paper and coin, and other items believed to be stolen.” The majority holds these generic descriptions sufficient and the seizure of all the goods within appellant’s houses proper because the sheer volume of the stolen goods precluded any reasonable attempt at particularity. See United States v. Cortellesso, 601 F.2d 28 (1st Cir.1979), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 1072, 100 S.Ct. 1016, 62 L.Ed.2d 753 (1980); United States v. Scharf*225man, 448 F.2d 1352 (2d Cir.1971), cert. denied, 405 U.S. 919, 92 S.Ct. 944, 30 L.Ed.2d 789 (1972). The majority, however, ignores the facts of this case. In Cortellesso, reliable informants and wiretap information indicated that there were more than 740 suits, as well as numerous other items of clothing, known to be stolen, on the premises to be searched. In permitting a general description, the court held “that for all practical purposes the collection could not be precisely described for the purpose of limiting the scope of the search.” United States v. Cortellesso, supra at 32. In Scharfman, an FBI informant’s tip that several hundred furs, known to be stolen, were in two stores, was positively confirmed by the observations of the furs’ owner. In permitting a generic description, the court acknowledged it would take “a legion of fur experts” to determine which of the items were stolen.
Here, however, out of the four five-ton truckloads of merchandise confiscated, the officers had information that one gun had been stolen and that some items had missing or defaced serial numbers. Rather than limit the search and seizure to those items known to be stolen, i.e. the gun, or those having some indicia of being stolen, i.e. items with serial numbers removed or defaced, the warrants authorized the officers to seize virtually everything in appellant’s four houses. Tires, jewelry, clothing, tools and hundreds of other items with no markings or reports indicating they may have been stolen were seized pursuant to the warrants. Despite carting away four truckloads of goods, the Commonwealth was only able to convict appellant of receiving two tape players, one drill, one radio and several pieces of jewelry. Thus, the vast majority of goods seized were not known to be stolen at the time of the search or even after subsequent investigation. Unlike Cortellesso and Scharfman, the police had no specific reports indicating that a large quantity of the goods were known to be stolen. Nor would there have been any difficulty in limiting the search to those items having some indicia of being stolen. Thus the reasons for permitting a general description of goods to *226be searched and seized are not present and the warrant is entirely too broad. This unsupervised wholesale confiscation of an individual’s goods cannot be countenanced under the fourth amendment. Accordingly, I would grant appellant’s motion to suppress the items seized pursuant to these warrants.