Court Opinion

ID: 9703468
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 23:57:52.033771+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:49.265941
License: Public Domain

Concurring Opinion
DeBruler, J.
Appellant has presented three grounds to support his position that the bullet fragments removed from his body by the police doctor should have been suppressed and excluded from the evidence. The first argument is that the probing of his body and removal of the bullet fragment was “unreasonable” within the meaning of that term in the Fourth Amendment. This argument forms the basis for the majority opinion. I agree with the majority in the resolution it makes of that issue. The second argument made by appellant is that there was no “probable cause” shown in the affidavit for search warrant. The third argument is that the knowledge which the police obtained as the result of viewing him stripped in the police station, followed by the X-ray procedure and the ultimate operation was all obtained illegally in that it was the product of his warrantless, illegal, and pretext arrest for disorderly conduct.
In support of his second contention, appellant states that the affidavit for search warrant, set out in full in Justice Givan’s dissenting opinion, failed to meet the requirements set for such affidavits by IC 1971, 35-1-6-2, being Burns § 9-602. The critical part of the affidavit is the following:
“The basis of my belief and good cause to believe that said metallic fragments are a residue from a gun shot wound inflicted in the course of said Robbery by the decedent are as follows: On the 26 day of June, 1970, a confidential informant told me that the man our department was looking for in the Preston’s Super Market robbery wherein deputy sheriffs were shot was Harry J. Adams, the man described above, and that the said Harry J. Adams had been shot in the leg in said robbery and had two bullet holes in him.”
*677I agree that this is a critical part, since it alone connects the appellant with the robbery. The Judge’s conclusion that probable cause existed for issuance of the search warrant was necessarily, therefore, derived from statements made to the affiant by an unnamed confidential informant. The statute governing affidavits for search warrants reads as follows:
“When based on credible hearsay, the affidavit shall contain reliable information supplied to the affiant by a credible person, named or unnamed, and it shall contain the following: (a) Affirmative allegations that the credible person spoke with personal knowledge of the matters contained therein, (b) The facts within the personal knowledge of the credible person, (c) The facts within the affiant’s knowledge as to the credibility of the credible person. . . .”
It is obvious to me that this affidavit does not contain a statement of the facts known personally by the informant, nor does it contain the facts known by the maker of the affidavit which supported his conclusion that the unnamed confidential informant was credible. I agree with appellant that the affidavit was fatally deficient in this regard and the evidence taken pursuant to the warrant issued upon the basis of it should have been suppressed. Ferry v. State (1970), 255 Ind. 27, 262 N. E. 2d 523. The state in its brief admits that the affidavit does not contain statements required by our statute, but in response relies upon Draper v. U.S. (1959), 358 U.S. 307, 79 S. Ct. 329, 3 L. Ed. 2d 327, and argues that the affidavit itself contains substantiation of the statements of this confidential informant. The reliance of the State upon this case is misplaced for two reasons. First, it is our statute which governs in this case, and not a United States Supreme Court case which appears to establish a lesser standard for determining probable cause. Secondly, the Draper case is distinguishable from the case before us in that in it the credibility of the informant was clearly shown. There the informant had been a “special employee” of the Bureau of Narcotics for six months and had been paid several times for information regarding violations and the information given by him had al*678ways been accurate and reliable. In the case before us, nothing is revealed at all about the credibility of the informer. The trial court erred in not suppressing the evidence on this second ground.
I do not take the time to consider the merits of the third argument of appellant, having been convinced that there are at least two sufficient grounds to hold that the evidence here was erroneously received. However, suffice it to say, the contention appears to be of substantial merit.