Court Opinion

ID: 9473418
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 04:29:25.143498+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:43:31.250751
License: Public Domain

NATHANIEL R. JONES, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I agree with the majority that this case involves an incorrect probable cause deter*300mination. I disagree, however, with the majority’s characterization of United States v. Leon, — U.S. -, 104 S.Ct. 3405, 82 L.Ed.2d 677 (1984). I also disagree that Leon’s good faith exception may be applied to cure the defect here because the warrant was based on an affidavit so lacking in indicia of probable cause as to render official belief in its existence entirely unreasonable.
Leon established a good faith exception to the exclusionary rule that applies only when an officer's reliance on a subsequently invalidated warrant is in good faith and is objectively reasonable. Our “good faith inquiry is confined to the objectively ascertainable question whether a well-trained officer would have known that the search was illegal despite the magistrate’s authorization.” Id. 104 S.Ct. at 3421 & n. 23. The Court stated, however, that in four circumstances a well-trained officer will not have reasonable grounds to believe that the warrant was properly issued. Under the following four exceptions suppression continues to be an appropriate remedy: first, when the affiant provides information that he knows, or should know to be false, id. 104 S.Ct. at 3421 (citing Franks v. Delaware, 438 U.S. 154, 98 S.Ct. 2674, 57 L.Ed.2d 667 (1978)); second, when “the issuing magistrate wholly abandon[s] his judicial role in the manner condemned in Lo-Ji Sales, Inc. v. New York, 442 U.S. 319 [99 S.Ct. 2319, 60 L.Ed.2d 920] (1979)”, id. 104 S.Ct. at 3422; third, when the warrant is “based on an affidavit ‘so lacking in indicia of probable cause as to render official belief in its existence entirely unreasonable,’ ” id. (Brown v. Illinois, 422 U.S. 590, 610-11, 95 S.Ct. 2254, 2265-66, 45 L.Ed.2d 416 (Powell, J., concurring in part)); fourth, when a warrant is “so facially deficient ... that the executing officers cannot reasonably presume it to be valid.” Id. The majority’s discussion of Leon fails to set forth clearly all four exceptions.
In applying their reading of Leon, the majority finds that a well-trained officer might reasonably have relied on the warrant in this case; therefore, good faith cures the miscalculation of the probable cause determination and exclusion is inappropriate. (Supra at 297). The majority relies upon the statement in Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 2332 n. 11, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983), that one probable cause determination “will seldom be a useful ‘precedent’ for another.” Id. The majority concludes that because there is some ambiguity legally as to the nexus required to establish probable cause to search a suspect’s residence, a reasonably well-trained officer could have believed that the warrant was issued properly in this case. There are two problems with this reasoning. First, taken to its limit, this analysis implies that there are no general probable cause principles that well-trained officers should know. Second, the majority assumes that police officers have the responsibility to distinguish properly among fine gradations of legal precedent in particular factual settings.
Supreme Court authority establishes that a well-trained officer should know general principles of Fourth Amendment law. See, e.g., Leon, 104 S.Ct. at 3420 n. 20; United States v. Peltier, 422 U.S. 531, 542, 95 S.Ct. 2313, 2320, 45 L.Ed.2d 374 (1975) (officers should be charged with knowledge that certain searches are unconstitutional). The majority cites Gates to support the proposition that precedent is not helpful in determining subsequent probable cause. The Court in Gates abandoned the “two-pronged test” for probable cause established by Aguilar v. Texas, 378 U.S. 108, 84 S.Ct. 1509, 12 L.Ed.2d 723 (1964), and Spi-nelli v. United States, 393 U.S. 410, 89 S.Ct. 584, 21 L.Ed.2d 637 (1969). The passage of Gates upon which the majority relies stated that the'Court would not apply Gates to reconsider the specific probable cause determination in Spinelli. Gates, 103 S.Ct. at 2332 n. 11. Put in context, this passage conveys that specific probable cause determinations may not be helpful in subsequent cases; the Court does not intend to undermine the precedential value of general principles. More recently, the Court in Leon noted that the objective standard “requires officers to have a reason*301able knowledge of what the law prohibits.” Leon, 104 S.Ct. at 3420 n. 20 (citing United States v. Peltier, 422 U.S. 531, 542, 95 S.Ct. 2313, 2320, 45 L.Ed.2d 374 (1975)). Consequently, inquiry in this case should focus on whether the legal principle that establishes that there was not probable cause to support the warrant in this case was sufficiently clear that a reasonable well-trained officer would apply the general principle and know that probable cause was absent. If the principle is clear, then an officer’s apparent belief in the validity of a warrant that violates that principle is unreasonable. This remains true even if a court subsequently refines the general principle to address complex factual distinctions.
The governing principle in the present case is that a suspect’s mere presence or arrest at a location, without any additional connection to the location that would form an independent reason for a search, will not constitute probable cause to support a warrant to search that location for evidence of a suspected crime. See Zurcher v. Stanford Daily, 436 U.S. 547, 556, 98 S.Ct. 1970, 1976, 56 L.Ed.2d 525 (1978); United States v. Lockett, 674 F.2d 843, 845-46 (11th Cir.1982); United States v. Green, 634 F.2d 222, 225-26 (5th Cir.1981); United States v. Charest, 602 F.2d 1015, 1017-18 (1st Cir.1979); United States v. Gramlich, 551 F.2d 1359, 1361-62 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 866, 98 S.Ct. 201, 54 L.Ed.2d 141 (1977); United States v. Bailey, 458 F.2d 408, 409-12 (9th Cir.1972); United States v. Hatcher, 473 F.2d 321 (6th Cir. 1973). The majority notes that these decisions support this well-known rule. (Supra at 297). We initially held that Hatcher was dispositive. Savoca, 739 F.2d 220, 225 (6th Cir.1984). The majority also notes, however, that warrants have been upheld in several instances where the information connecting evidence to the location to be searched was skeletal. A reasonably well-trained officer, the majority finds, might have considered the warrant in this case valid under these precedents. (Supra at 297-298). None of the decisions that the majority cites creates ambiguity; all are in accord with the general principle that the mere presence of an accused at a location is not sufficient to form probable cause for a search warrant of that place. The cases all involved information directly linking evidence sought to the location to be searched.
The first case involving reliable information directly linking evidence of the alleged crime to the location to be searched was United States v. Maestas, 546 F.2d 1177 (5th Cir.1977), which involved a suspect who was charged with passing bad checks. The facts that supported the search warrant for the suspect’s home included information that a Chicago print shop had mailed counterfeit checks and materials to her residence. There was a reasonable inference that the materials were kept at the residence. Id. at 1180.
The majority cited United States v. Flores, 679 F.2d 173 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 1148, 103 S.Ct. 791, 74 L.Ed.2d 996 (1983), which involved a suspect charged with possession of firearms by a convicted felon. The suspect’s roommate had been arrested at their apartment. A workman had called police to inform them that he had seen a number of firearms in a storeroom in the apartment complex. The superintendent said he had allowed the suspect and the roommate to use that storeroom. The court found probable cause to support a search warrant of the storeroom independent of the fact that the suspect’s roommate had been arrested in the apartment two weeks earlier on a charge of possession of firearms. Id. at 175.
A third case that the majority found ambiguous was United States v. Rambis, 686 F.2d 620 (7th Cir.1982). An informant told agents that several suspects were going to blow up a warehouse. During surveillance, the agents watched the suspects purchase what invoices revealed to be gun powder and detonative devices, trailed them to a house, and finally arrested several suspects at the warehouse. The surveillance lasted forty-eight hours. There was reasonable cause to infer that some items not found with the suspects who were at the scene of the crime might be located at the house. *302The court stated that the surveillance agents had kept a close watch on the suspects and had seen nothing to indicate that the men stored the materials elsewhere. Id. at 624. These inferences were independent of the fact that an additional suspect was arrested at the house. Id. at 624-25.
The majority also relied upon United States v. Samson, 533 F.2d 721 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 845, 97 S.Ct. 126, 50 L.Ed.2d 116 (1976). A convicted felon was suspected of receiving firearms in interstate commerce. The court noted that an informant had reason to believe that, after the suspect exhibited the guns for sale, he was returning with them to his apartment. Id. at 723. The search warrant was obtained shortly thereafter, and the First Circuit upheld the warrant, stating that these circumstances supported a reasonable inference that the guns were located in the apartment. Id.
Finally, the majority found ambiguous United States v. Spearman, 532 F.2d 132 (9th Cir.1976). A suspect was charged with possessing stolen mail after the mail and some heroin were found concealed in the bumper of the suspect’s automobile. The Ninth Circuit upheld the search, noting that there were extensive observations of the suspect, and that there were circumstances that supported the independent inference that the automobile contained the illegal goods. Id. at 133.
A review of the cases which the majority cites confirms that the general principle requiring a nexus between the evidence sought and the place to be searched, in addition to the mere presence of a suspect, is sufficiently clear that a reasonably well-trained police officer should have known that the mere presence of Savoca at the hotel room could not constitute probable cause for a search warrant of the hotel room. First, there was no informant involved who could connect the stolen goods to the room. Second, there was no close time frame that would support an inference that the stolen goods were hidden in the hotel room. Third, the robbery occurred a number of months before Savoca and his alleged accomplice went to the hotel and over 2000 miles from the place where they were arrested. Fourth, the agents only watched the two men enter the room once, without continuing the surveillance to observe whether there was a possibility that they were hiding stolen goods there. Therefore, there was no independent basis of probable cause to search the hotel room other than the fact that the two suspects had entered the room. Because there was no independent basis of probable cause to search the hotel room, and because this requirement is a clear principle that reasonably well-trained officers would know, the warrant was so lacking in indicia of probable cause as to render official belief in its existence unreasonable. This is the third exception to Leon, 104 S.Ct. at 3422; therefore, the good faith exception does not apply. The evidence should have been suppressed. On this ground, I dissent.