Court Opinion

ID: 9843677
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 02:41:38.458544+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:16:51.738634
License: Public Domain

MESCHKE, Justice,
concurring and dissenting.
[¶ 30] I join in the conclusions of the majority opinion that the garbage-can search did not violate Herrick’s constitutional right to privacy; the search warrant was issued by a neutral and detached magistrate; the officers had probable cause for a warrant to search; and a probable-cause reason is required to authorize a no-knock search warrant. I agree there was no evidence to justify a no-knock warrant in this case. Thus, I agree this “automatic” no-knock authorization was unreasonable and thus unconstitutional. Unlike circumstances in Richards v. Wisconsin, there were no circumstances at the time of the execution of this warrant to justify an abrupt entry without the need to comply with knock-and-announce requirements.
[¶ 31] However, I would reverse and direct suppression. Therefore, I respectfully dissent from the remand to consider whether a good-faith exception to the constitution should be applied in this ease.
[¶ 32] The majority in Leon, 468 U.S. at 922, 104 S.Ct. at 3420, clarified:
We do not suggest ... that exclusion is always inappropriate in cases where an officer has obtained a warrant and abided by its terms.
The Leon majority explained:
[I]t is clear that in some circumstances the officer will have no reasonable grounds for believing that the warrant was properly issued.
Id. at 922-23, 104 S.Ct. at 3420 (footnote omitted). Here, the officers had no reasonable grounds to seek a no-knock warrant, and their application for the warrant was “so lacking in indicia of probable cause [for a no-knock warrant] as to render official belief in its existence entirely unreasonable.” Id. at 923, 104 S.Ct. at 3421. Essentially, I agree with 1 LaFave, Search and Seizure, § 1.3(f), pp. 70-71 (1996), that “Fourth Amendment violations relating to execution of the warrant are unaffected by Leon .... ”
[¶ 33] Because I would direct suppression, rather than ponder a good-faith exception to the constitutional canon against unreasonable searches, I respectfully dissent.
[¶ 34] Herbert L. Meschke