Court Opinion

ID: 9743362
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 21:31:39.056412+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:40.776707
License: Public Domain

CURLEY, J.
¶ 50. (dissenting). I respectfully dissent. Even giving the warrant-issuing judge's decision "great deference," there was no "substantial basis for . . . concluding that the probable cause existed," as claimed by the majority decision. "The ultimate test for issuance of a search warrant is whether there is probable cause to believe that the objects sought are linked to the commission of a crime and whether those objects are likely to be found in the place designated in the search warrant." State v. Ehnert, 160 Wis. 2d 464, 470, 466 N.W.2d 237 (1991) (citing Ritacca v. Kenosha County Court, 91 Wis. 2d 72, 77-78, 280 N.W.2d 751 (1979)).
*781¶ 51. Here, no magistrate or judge, acting reasonably, could have found that probable cause existed to search the Arrow Street residence for objects allegedly taken from four murder victims over twenty years ago. First, the search warrant was based entirely on stale information and stale probable cause. No new evidence was uncovered. In fact, the critical information linking Multaler to the murders was over twenty years old. Stale probable cause, defined as " 'probable cause that would have justified a warrant at some earlier moment that has already passed by the time the warrant is sought,'" cannot form the basis for issuing a search warrant. State v. Moley, 171 Wis. 2d 207, 213, 490 N.W.2d 764 (1992) (citation omitted). Here, any probable cause to support a search warrant which may have existed at some earlier time was stale by the time the warrant was sought.
¶ 52. The majority correctly notes that the test for staleness is done on a case-by-case basis. But here, because of the passage of over two decades, it was unreasonable to conclude that the information was fresh and that the objects were likely to be found in Multaler's house. The cases cited in the majority opinion, supporting the conclusion that the search warrant's information was not stale, involved time lags of less than a year between the discovery of the crucial evidence and a search warrant request. In Ehnert, the search warrant was issued only thirty days after the information came to light. Ehnert, 160 Wis. 2d at 470. In Moley, the search warrant was issued eleven months after an informant gave police a tip, but in the interim, the police continued their investigation. Moley, 171 Wis. 2d at 213-14. Indeed, in Moley, this court admitted that the information given to the officer eleven months before the search warrant request was "old." *782Id. at 213. If eleven-month-old information is "old," then the twenty-three-year-old information relied upon here is positively "ancient." This court could find no case anywhere permitting a search based on information that was twenty-three years old. To appreciate how long twenty-three years is, consider the fact that the requesting officer, who claimed to be an expert on serial killers, did not join the Racine Police Department until fourteen years after the last murder was committed! Further, the majority sidesteps the requirement that information be "fresh" by concluding that the stale information was "revived by [the officer's] fresh analysis." This transformation of stale information into fresh information capable of supporting a probable cause finding muddies the case law touching on stale information and strains the strict time requirements for search warrants set forth in Wis. Stat. §§ 968.12 and 968.15. According to the majority, a search warrant can easily be issued or reissued whenever another law enforcement officer gives the stale information a "fresh analysis."
¶ 53. Moreover, even though probable cause might have existed in the past to search Multaler's residence because of a belief that he murdered four women and that his actions in doing so placed him in the compulsive "serial killer" category, any probable cause to search Multaler's house became stale over time. The fact that Multaler was never charged with any of the murders, had been released from prison for some time, and the murders did not resume, bodes against a probable cause determination twenty-three years later that he is the murderer, much less that he is a "serial killer" compelled to kill time after time. Suspicion alone cannot form the basis for a search warrant.
*783¶ 54. Finally, the majority opinion, in approving the search warrant, characterizes the officer's affidavit as being a "careful" one. I strongly disagree. The affidavit contained at least one serious error and it failed to advise the judge of other relevant and vital information that the officer surely must have known. First, the requesting officer stated in the affidavit that, based upon police reports, he knew that Multaler had lived at the residence for over twenty years. Incorrect. The officer had to have known that Multaler spent approximately ten of the last twenty-odd years in prison, as the search warrant made direct reference to his arrest. Also troubling is the fact that the Milwaukee Police Department reports, relied upon by the officer, reflect that when Multaler was arrested for the earlier offenses for which he was incarcerated, he did not live on Arrow Street; he lived on North Buffum Street in Milwaukee. Further, even assuming Multaler once lived at the Arrow Street address, the affidavit contained no proof that Multaler currently lived at the Arrow Street address. The officer's affidavit stated only that he had recently checked the registration of two cars parked at the Arrow Street address and he found they were registered to Multaler's wife and daughter. Given the unsavory account of Multaler's alleged sexual misconduct with his daughter in 1988, contained in the search warrant affidavit, it would seem unlikely that either his wife or his daughter would still be living with Multaler in 1998. Also, the officer stated in the affidavit that Multaler was convicted of "kidnapping." Actually, Multaler was convicted of false imprisonment, operating a vehicle without the owner's consent, endangering safety by conduct regardless of life, and carrying a concealed weapon. These mistakes, omissions and inconsistencies show that the officer's *784affidavit was not carefully crafted and the warrant-issuing judge should have detected the inconsistencies and omissions in the affidavit.1 No probable cause existed here at the time of the search warrant's issuance.
¶ 55. Although I am mindful that the search resulted in uncovering evidence of Multaler's extensive child pornography collection, the harm done to the rights guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment by legitimizing this search warrant is too great to ignore. Therefore, I respectfully dissent.

 While the warrant-issuing judge would not have known of the subsequent events, hindsight supports my conclusion that no probable cause existed here. No evidence of the murders was found at Multaler's residence and DNA tests excluded Multaler as the person whose blood was found under the fingernail of one of the victims.