Court Opinion

ID: 9464373
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 23:31:34.127902+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:38:35.232806
License: Public Domain

SKELTON, Senior Judge,
specially concurring:
I am concerned about the failure of the officers who made the search of defendant’s house to comply with 18 U.S.C. § 3109, which authorizes an officer to break open a house when executing a search warrant only if after notice of his authority and purpose he is refused admittance.1
It is undisputed that the officers broke into the house by entering an unlocked door that was closed except for a space of 2 or 3 inches without knocking and without waiting any time at all to be admitted or denied admittance by the defendant or the other persons inside of the house. The trial judge found that there was no “literal compliance with 18 U.S.C. 3109,” but approved the breaking in because he found that exigent circumstances justified the failure of the officers to comply with the statute.
In my opinion, it is highly doubtful whether exigent circumstances existed that excused the officers from complying with § 3109. The most that could be said would be that it is a very close question.
The record shows that before the officers broke into the house they did not have' any information other than probable cause used to procure the search warrant that heroin was in the house, nor did they see any heroin inside before they entered the house. They were plainly on a fishing expedition seeking to find heroin in the house, but not knowing whether it was there.
The facts show further that defendant’s house was a trailer house that was located at the end of a street and adjacent to a nursery operated by the defendant. For an automobile to reach the house, it must come over a hill a short distance down the road. On the night of the search, defendant’s brother, Earl Carter, had been regulating the thermostats in the nursery and was washing his hands while outside the house and near the front door when he saw headlights of a number of automobiles coming over the hill toward the house with their motors running so fast they sounded like they were in a “drag race.” When they got within 20 feet of Earl, he thought they were going to run over him, so he ran to the side of the house. He did not say anything to the occupants of the house. After the cars stopped, he did not hear the officers announce their authority or purpose. In fact, he did not knew they were police officers, as they were in unmarked cars, were not in uniform, and one or more of them had long hair.
The record shows further that fifteen to twenty officers participated in the search. They arrived at defendant’s house on the night in question in four to six cars. The cars in front stopped 15 or 20 feet from the house, and the officers jumped out and hit the ground running as fast as they could toward the front door of the house. Officer Porter testified that when he was about 15 feet from the house he yelled “Sheriff’s Department with a search warrant” and he repeated this statement when he reached *1274the door of the house. When he got to the door, he did not knock nor even hesitate, but abruptly pushed the door open and entered with a pistol in his hand. He testified that before he entered the house he heard footsteps inside the house that sounded to him like someone was running down the hall of the house. He also said he heard someone inside the house yell “It’s the cops.”
Agent Wood testified that he jumped from his car and yelled “Federal agents, this is a search warrant,” and then ran to the front door of the house where he again yelled “Federal agents, search warrant.” Before entering the house, he said he heard the sound of people “running and scurrying around inside” and heard someone yell “Run, it is the cops.” Although Agent Porter had entered the house just ahead of him, Wood had to open the door again as there was an automatic closing device on the door. He entered the house through the door without knocking and without waiting any time at all. In the meantime, the other officers either went inside the house behind Porter and Wood or surrounded the house, some of whom broke sliding plate glass doors with a sledge hammer. The trial judge found that the breaking of these glass door was a “needless act of destruction.”
There were seven people inside the house, including the defendant, when the breaking-in occurred. Two of these persons were women. All but the defendant were in the living room listening to the television program of Johnny Carson. Five of these persons testified that none of them yelled “It’s the cops” before the officers entered the house, and none of them heard the officers announce their authority or purpose before officer Porter charged into the house with a gun in his hand. After the occupants of the house were secured and forced by the officers to lay on the floor with their hands behind their backs, including the women, and with the officers’ feet on their necks and guns pointed at their heads, one of the officers read the search warrant aloud. Until this was done, the people in the house did not know the intruders were police officers and thought they were robbers. As stated above, the officers were not in uniform and one or more of them had long hair.
I now consider whether the above facts show exigent circumstances that justified the breaking-in without compliance with § 3109. The statute does not provide for exceptions nor for non-compliance because of exigent circumstances. However, the courts have recognized that exigent circumstances may excuse non-compliance. The officers were, of course, aware that heroin can be easily and quickly disposed of, but this alone is not a sufficient reason for their failure to comply with § 3109.
Before the cars stopped about 15 or 20 feet from the house and before the officers jumped from the cars and announced their authority and purpose, they saw Earl Carter run from the front of the house around to the back. They did not hear him say anything and he denied that he did so. His running from the front of the house was explained by him as an act to keep from being run over by the cars of the officers. In any event, his running around the house before the officers jumped from their cars and announced their authority and purpose was an ambiguous act and was not an exigent circumstance. See Miller v. United States, 357 U.S. 301, 311, 78 S.Ct. 1190, 2 L.Ed.2d 1332 (1958).
A critical issue on exigent circumstances is whether officers Porter and Wood heard footsteps or the sound of a person or persons running in the hall of the house before they broke into the house. This is especially true as to officer Porter who was the first one to break into the house. Human experience would indicate that under the facts it is highly doubtful that the officers heard any footsteps in the hall of the house before they entered. As pointed out above, Porter and Wood were in the lead cars. It is obvious that when they jumped from their cars the other cars were approaching with their motors running at high speeds and making a lot of noise. Both officers ran as fast as they could the 15 or 20 feet to *1275the house, which was logically no more than four or five steps for a running man who is trying to cover the distance in a hurry. While they ran, each of them yelled their authority and purpose twice, or four times by both of them, between the time they left the cars and reached the front door. Also, the other officers were leaving their ears and running with Porter and Wood to the house with the attendant noise of their own footsteps. Furthermore, the TV set was showing the Johnny Carson show in the living room into which the front door opens, with the usual noise of a TV set. To believe, with the noise of the cars, the noise of the footsteps of Porter and Wood, the noise of the footsteps of the other officers, the noise of Porter and Wood yelling their authority and purpose four times while taking four or five steps, plus the noise of the TV set inside the house opposite the front door, that officers Porter and Wood heard footsteps running down the hall of the trailer house, before they broke into the front door without knocking and while running at full speed, puts a severe strain on one’s credulity. However, the trial judge found that Porter did hear the footsteps and running down the hall when he arrived at the door. While we are bound by his finding, there is a serious question, in my opinion, whether this finding is supported by substantial evidence.
The occupants of the house denied that anyone ran down the hall before officer Porter entered the house. They testified that after he burst through the front door with gun in hand, they were scared and thought he was a robber and two of them, including defendant’s pregnant wife, ran to the back of the trailer. Their running at this point in time could not constitute an exigent circumstance that would excuse compliance with § 3109, because it occurred after, and not before the breaking-in by officer Porter.
Officer Porter testified that he had participated in “a few hundred searches,” and that he knew the requirements of entering a house unannounced. This testimony shows that he knew that if he heard noises that he could conclude were footsteps or running before he entered the house, he could contend that exigent circumstances existed that would excuse compliance with § 3109. With this background, it is no surprise that his hearing was so acute that he could hear footsteps and running inside the house above the din, commotion, and noises described above, before he broke into the house while running at full speed. Such testimony appears, at least to me, to be incredible.
If it could be assumed under the facts existing at the time and place in question that it was impossible for officer Porter to have heard a noise before the break-in that sounded to him like people running down the hall of the trailer, the only other exigent circumstance was Porter’s statement that when he arrived at the door he heard someone inside yelling “It’s the cops.” The occupants of the house denied that anyone made such a statement, but the trial judge found otherwise. An analysis of the cases and of the statute reveals that there are two prongs to the announcement that officers must make before breaking into a house, namely, (1) that they are police officers, and (2) their purpose in being there. Both requirements of the statute must be met and compliance with only one will not suffice. The Supreme Court stated in Miller v. United States, supra :
“The requirement of prior notice of authority and purpose before forcing entry into a home is deeply rooted in our heritage and should not be given grudging application.___The petitioner could not be lawfully arrested in his home by officers breaking in without first giving him notice of their authority and purpose. Because the petitioner did not receive that notice before the officers broke the door to invade his home, the arrest was unlawful, and the evidence seized should have been suppressed.” (357 U.S. 313-314, 78 S.Ct. 1198). (Emphasis supplied.)
Also, see Sabbath v. United States, 391 U.S. 585, 589, 88 S.Ct. 1755, 20 L.Ed.2d 828 (1968) where the court quoted the above statement with approval, and stated further:
*1276“___[T] his record does not reveal any substantial basis for excusing the failure of the agents here to announce their authority and purpose.” (391 U.S. 591, 88 S.Ct. 1759). (Emphasis supplied.)
It is argued that since someone inside the house yelled “It’s the cops,” the occupants of the house knew the authority and purpose of the officers and that it would have been a “useless gesture” for the officers to make the announcement as to their authority and purpose. This may be true as to the authority of the officers, but not so as to their purpose. There is nothing in the record to show that the occupants of the house knew the purpose of the officers in being at the house prior to the breaking-in, nor is there any evidence that justified officer Porter in being “virtually certain” they had this knowledge.
The leading case with regard to the “useless gesture” exception is Miller v. United States, supra. In Miller, Justice Brennan stated:
“It may be that, without an express announcement of purpose, the facts known to officers would justify them in being virtually certain that the petitioner already knows their purpose so that an announcement would be a useless gesture.” (357 U.S. 309, 78 S.Ct. 1196) (Emphasis supplied.)
This Court, in United States v. Chapman, 523 F.2d 1054 (5th Cir. 1975), affirmed a district court opinion, United States v. Chapman, 384 F.Supp. 1232 (1974), which held:
“Next, the government argues that making the statutorily-prescribed announcements of authority and purpose would have been a ‘useless gesture.’ Miller v. United States, 357 U.S. 301, 78 S.Ct. 1190, 2 L.Ed.2d 1332 (1958). To take advantage of this exception,- however, the government must show that ‘the facts known to the officers would justify them in being virtually certain that the petitioner already knows their purpose . .' Id. at 310, 78 S.Ct. at 1196.” (384 F.Supp. 1236) (Emphasis supplied).
Furthermore, this Court stated in United States v. Squella-Avendano, 447 F.2d 575 (5th Cir. 1971),
“According to Miller v. United States, to justify the breaking it must appear either that the agents did in fact announce their purpose or that facts known to them before the breaking ‘would justify them in being virtually certain that [the occupants] already [knew] their purpose so that an announcement would [have been] a useless gesture.’ ” (447 F.2d 584) (Emphasis supplied) (Brackets in text).
In the instant case, instead of officer Porter being justified by the facts in being “virtually certain” that the occupants already knew his purpose so that an announcement would have been a useless gesture, it appears, at least to me, that when he broke through the door running at full speed and without hesitating, it was virtually impossible for him to be certain that the occupants knew his purpose even if they knew his authority.
Finally, Officer Porter’s concern about the possible destruction of heroin which he suspected was in the house, was not enough to constitute an exigent circumstance, without more, that would justify his breaking into the house without complying with § 3109.
I feel that some comment should be made about the acts and conduct of the officers after they broke into the house. The record shows that they forced the occupants of the house to lay face down on the living room floor with their hands behind their backs. The officers then placed their feet on the necks of the occupants, including the neck of one woman, all the while cursing them and abusing them with vulgar and obscene language and threatening to blow their heads off with pistols, rifles, and shotguns pointed at them. The plate glass sliding doors were then broken with a sledge hammer by some of the officers, shattering glass on top of the people on the floor and also overturning a stereo player, bookshelves, and a reel-to-reel set on top of them. The officers then forced the occupants to go *1277outside the house and kneel on the ground. They were then handcuffed with their hands behind their backs. The occupants were not armed and at no time offered any resistance. None of them, except the defendant, were ever charged, indicted, or tried for any wrongdoing whatever, nor were they shown to have been connected in any way with the illicit drug traffic. In the meantime, the officers tore away part of the trailer, ripped out the commode and dug up a section of sewer pipe, which they carried away.
This conduct was an arrogant and flagrant abuse of their authority. Their acts were reprehensible and should be condemned. No citizen of this country who has committed no crime and offers no resistance should be subjected to the abuse and treatment the occupants of the house received at the hands of these officers. Such conduct breeds contempt and disrespect for the law and hatred for law enforcement officers. I could not let this part of the case go unnoticed without expressing my strong disapproval of these acts of the officers that were never denied nor disputed by them, and on which the court made no findings. While the conduct of the officers after the breaking-in shed no light on the issue of exigent circumstances existing before the breaking-in, nevertheless, it should have had an effect on the trial judge as to their credibility on that issue.
In my opinion, there is only slight evidence of doubtful character in the record that supports the finding of the trial judge that exigent circumstances existed prior to the breaking-in of defendant’s house by officer Porter which excused his compliance with § 3109. Nevertheless, he made such finding and I am bound by it. For that reason alone, I reluctantly concur with the opinion of the court on that phase of the case. I find no fault with the remainder of the court’s opinion and agree with it.
Our opinion as to the breaking in of defendant’s house by officer Porter, without compliance with § 3109, should be regarded as being limited to the very narrow finding of exigent circumstances by the trial judge, and my concurrence on that issue is certainly so limited. I agree with the following statement of Judge Burger (now the Chief Justice) in Masiello v. United States, 115 U.S.App.D.C. 57, 317 F.2d 121, 123 (1963), which was a case very similar to the instant case in many respects:
“It would be a grave error to construe what we have said to mean that we are disposed to sustain all speedy entries and searches which are forcibly executed. Quite the contrary. We do so here only on the narrow grounds revealed by this record. Our concern with the importance of compliance with § 3109 is demonstrated by our earlier remand5 for the hearing now under review; close cases such as this will always receive careful appellate scrutiny.”
Accordingly, our opinion should not be understood as carte blanche authority for police officers to break into a private residence without complying with § 3109 every time they suspect that illegal drugs may be found in the house and which they fear may be destroyed unless they make a speedy entry. Non-compliance cases such as this will always be carefully scrutinized by this court.

. Title 18 U.S.C. § 3109 provides:
“§ 3109. Breaking doors or windows for entry or exit.
The officer may break open any outer or inner door or window of a house, or any part of a house, or anything therein, to execute a search warrant, if, after notice of his authority and purpose, he is refused admittance or when necessary to liberate himself or a person aiding him in the execution of the warrant.”

“5 It would not seem too much to expect that officers engaged in executing a search warrant take some note of the time when notice is given and the time when a break-in occurs. This can easily be done with an ordinary watch.”