Court Opinion

ID: 9739081
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 20:08:27.23767+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:09.916406
License: Public Domain

MYSE, J.
(dissenting). I dissent from that portion of the majority opinion holding the search warrant to be fatally defective because of overbreadth. The majority properly notes the deferential standard of review applicable to search warrants. They also have properly noted that the affidavit is not an essay contest for the affiant and is to be interpreted in a common sense way.
In spite of these standards of review, however, the majority concludes that the affidavit does not sufficiently establish a pattern of fraudulent practice starting at some unknown date prior to Berger's employment. The affidavit in support of the warrant refers to Berger's statements that DeSmidt was "engaged in a series of illegal activities," and that DeSmidt routinely took bite-wing X-rays that were billed as periapical X-rays because only charges for the former were normally covered under the Wisconsin Medical Assistance Program. The affidavit refers to specific instances of such conduct, *342which were described as "common practice," "examples" and "done routinely."
These allegations clearly indicate that a pattern of fraudulent practice existed in the office at the time Berger started her employment. It was necessary for the state to obtain sufficient records to demonstrate the difference between the amounts billed depending on the method of payment and the way claims were processed in order to prove the alleged fraudulent practice. Because no accurate starting date of this practice was available to the state, they were unable to limit the seizure of records to a specific time period. Ultimately, they seized all of the records available in the current files for the previous six years.
The majority has failed to identify how the warrant should or could have been limited in time while at the same time be reasonably calculated to obtain all of the relevant records. In fact, the warrant was as limited as reasonably could be required under the circumstances of this case. The majority's opinion leaves the state without any way of obtaining records created prior to Berger's employment, even though she alleged that a fraudulent scheme existed prior to her employment. Because of the nature of Berger's statements, the state's need to obtain sufficient records to demonstrate the facts alleged, and a commonsense reading of the affidavit, I conclude that the warrant is not overbroad.