Court Opinion

ID: 9477723
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 06:29:41.480252+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:46:00.828089
License: Public Domain

LOVELL, District Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent.
The majority found that the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule as set out in United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897, 104 S.Ct. 3405, 82 L.Ed.2d 677 (1984), does not apply in this case because the error was not that of the judicial officer issuing the warrant, but rather was that of the officer applying for the warrant.
The Ninth Circuit has acknowledged that the Supreme Court in Massachusetts v. Shepherd, 468 U.S. 981, 104 S.Ct. 3424, 82 L.Ed.2d 737 (1984), did not limit the circumstances in which an executing officer’s reliance was reasonable “to a situation in which the judge is the source of the warrant’s deficiency.” U.S. v. Michaelian, 803 F.2d 1042, 1047 (9th Cir.1986).
The Ninth Circuit has also acknowledged that
Leon does not preclude applicability of the ‘good faith’ exception in all situations where an officer’s affidavit falls short of satisfying probable cause_ In the absence of abandonment of the detached and neutral magisterial role, suppression is proper only where the officers were dishonest or reckless in preparing their affidavit, or could not have harbored an objectively reasonable belief in the existence of probable cause due to a facial *141deficiency in the warrant. See Leon, 468 U.S. at 926, 104 S.Ct. at 3423.
Id.
Although the affidavit was deficient in •that it did not specifically connect the De-Anza address to Ms. Hove, I find that it was not so deficient that official belief in the existence of probable cause was unreasonable. In his five page affidavit, Sergeant Moya set out a summary of his two week investigation indicating that Ms. Hove may have been residing in San Diego. On the page listing the DeAnza address as a location to be searched, the affidavit also listed two automobiles which would be searched at that location, a white Toyota pickup truck and a brown Ford station wagon. The affidavit linked both of these automobiles to the bombing incident. The brown station wagon was specifically linked to Ms. Hove, and the white pickup was linked to her father. It is not unreasonable that an executing officer would rely, in good faith, on this warrant and affidavit and conclude that the DeAnza residence was one in which Ms. Hove was residing.
The majority ignores the fact that Detective Stevens, the executing officer, accompanied Sergeant Moya when he investigated the residence at the DeAnza address and observed toys and the brown Ford station wagon which would connect the residence to Ms. Hove. There is no question that the officer executed the warrant in complete good faith.
Leon set out parameters for use of the exclusionary rule which would be consistent with its intent, to deter and punish illegal police conduct. Sergeant Moya's misconduct was that he failed to catch the stenographer's error in transcribing that portion of the affidavit specifically linking the DeAnza address to Ms. Hove. This is not the type of flagrant misconduct meant to be deterred under the exclusionary rule. The district court was correct in denying Ms. Hove's motion to suppress. I would affirm that determination.