Court Opinion

ID: 9469250
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:35:55.108925+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:41:18.080004
License: Public Domain

REINHARDT, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I believe that United States v. Bailey, 458 F.2d 408 (9th Cir. 1972), compels the conclusion that Officer Miceli’s affidavit was insufficient to support issuance of a search warrant. Therefore, I respectfully dissent.
Flores argues inter alia that the search warrant was invalid because the affidavit supporting it did not state facts sufficient to show that Bontempi was in possession of firearms to be found at the apartment. Specifically, he contends that the affidavit did not recite facts which showed that Bontempi resided at the specified address. The government asserts that Bontempi’s prior arrest in the apartment and the photographs displayed there were sufficient to link him with the apartment.
We have previously held that recitation of the fact that an individual has been arrested at a residence is insufficient to support the issuance of a warrant to search that residence for items believed to be in the arrested individual’s possession. United States v. Bailey, 458 F.2d 408, 412 (9th Cir. 1972). In Bailey, we stated:
The affidavit simply discloses that Bailey had been seen at the house and that Cochran was arrested there. No facts are recited from which it could be inferred that Bailey and Cochran were other than casual social guests at the residence .... In short, there is nothing but conjecture to sustain the conclusion that the house contained the objects of the search.
*179Under Bailey, the statement in Officer Miceli’s affidavit that Bontempi had previously been arrested at the Luz Avenue apartment permits no greater inference than that he was a “social guest” or a friend of persons who were using the apartment. Consequently, that statement is insufficient to support issuance of the search warrant.
As the majority acknowledges, the only difference between Bailey and the ease before us is that the instant affidavit showed that “the apartment here contained photographs of Bontempi and other persons.” Without further analysis the majority then concludes, rather peremptorily, “[t]he inference, if any, to be drawn from this additional fact is for the magistrate.” The facts in every case differ somewhat. Nevertheless, an important judicial function is to determine what legal significance, if any, may be attached to the particular distinctions. In this case, an examination of the affidavit demonstrates that there is none.
The vague sentence in the affidavit regarding photographs depicting Bontempi and other individuals is vague and ambiguous at best and can not serve to provide the additional facts, required by Bailey, to support a conclusion that Bontempi was in possession of the apartment. It would be the rankest conjecture to infer from that sentence that one of a number of persons depicted in a photograph or photographs in the apartment has any particular interest in the apartment.1
Nor can any inference that the firearms paraphernalia observed at the apartment belonged to Bontempi be drawn from the fact that the photograph(s) showed Bontempi as well as an unspecified number of other persons holding rifles or other firearms. It is difficult to imagine bow the fact that a number of unidentified persons were once pictured holding rifles under circumstances which may well have been entirely lawful gives rise to any inference that one of those individuals is the owner of specific paraphernalia which it would be unlawful for him to own but which it would be lawful for his friends or associates to possess.2 In fact, the photographs support the inference that the paraphernalia was the type which would be maintained by the occupants of the apartment whoever they may have been.
In short, the affidavit is wholly insufficient to permit any reasonable inference that Bontempi possessed firearms which could be found in the apartment. Under Bailey, the district court was required to grant Flores’ motion to suppress.
The firearms which the search produced were central to Flores’ conviction. Conse*180quently, the error in admitting the items seized was not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 24, 87 S.Ct. 824, 828, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967); United States v. Valle-Valdez, 554 F.2d 911, 915-16 (9th Cir. 1977). In view of this conclusion, I would not reach the other issues raised by Flores.
For the foregoing reasons, I would reverse the judgment of conviction.

. I do not suggest that photographs in an apartment cannot, under other circumstances, tend to show who the persons using the apartment are. However, substantially more information as to the photographs than was set forth in Miceli’s affidavit would be necessary. The affidavit does not tell us, for example, if Mr. Bontempi appeared in more than one photograph, whether the photograph or photographs in which he appeared depicted him alone or as part of a group, and, if the latter, whether the group was large or small. The information regarding Mr. Bontempi’s appearance in a photograph or photographs is too sparse to permit any inference regarding his connection with the apartment. I note that the affidavit in this case was generally full and complete and that the information contained therein is set forth in a competent and professional manner. It is not likely that additional material information regarding the photographs existed but was omitted due to oversight or inexperience. Rather, it is likely that the affidavit carefully sets forth all that can be said about the photographs. Moreover, a careful reading of the affidavit suggests strongly that the information as to the photographs was included not for the purpose of showing that Bontempi had any particular connection with the apartment but in order to bolster the contention that weapons would be found there. The sentence regarding the photograph of individuals, including Bontempi, with weapons appears in the middle of a listing of the ammunition and weapon parts found in the apartment.

. There is no indication or suggestion that the photograph or photographs were taken after Bontempi’s felony conviction. In fact, the affidavit states that on the day of his arrest Bontempi was on probation following a conviction for attempted auto theft. I presume therefore that his conviction was not of ancient vintage. The magistrate had no way of knowing, on the other hand, whether or not the photograph or photographs were.