Page 35 - May June 2020 TPA Journal
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Scullys’ involvement with and monitoring of          court denied Scully’s motion to suppress, finding
        Nataporn and her companies.                          that “law enforcement’s activities [were]
        Note 1: The description stated in full:              reasonable within the Fourth  Amendment” and
        The location of the premises is at the address of    “not in violation of the good faith exception.”
        1015 East Cliff Drive, Santa Cruz, CA 95062 and      First, Scully argues that the district court erred in
        is described as follows:                             admitting evidence seized from his home office
        • It is a white, wooden, one story residence with    because the search violated the Fourth
        green trimming.  There is a small wrap-around        Amendment. He claims that the officers exceeded
        driveway that has one way in and out. A small sign   the scope of the warrant when they searched the
        with house number “1015” is hanging in front of      home office behind his house at 1015½ East Cliff
        the house from the roof of the porch. The front      Drive because the warrant4 described only the
        door has a screen door with green trimming.          primary residence at 1015 East Cliff Drive. The
        • There are large bay-windows in the front left of   Government argues that the good-faith exception
        the residence.                                       to the exclusionary rule applies because the agents
        • Residences are only located on the northbound      did not commit the sort of deliberate, reckless, or
        side of East Cliff Drive.                            grossly negligent violation that would warrant
        • Facing the residence from the street, there isn’t a  suppression, and, alternatively, that the good-faith
        house on the right side. The home is covered by      exception is unnecessary because the warrant
        trees.                                               adequately described the location the agents
                                                             searched, and therefore the search did not violate
        Scully moved to suppress the evidence seized         the Fourth Amendment.
        from his office, arguing that the search of the
        office was unreasonable under the Fourth             We review “de novo the reasonableness of an
        Amendment because it had a separate street           officer’s reliance upon a warrant issued by a
        address not listed on the warrant and because the    magistrate.”   When evaluating a motion to
        physical description of the property contained in    suppress, “[w]e consider the evidence in the light
        the warrant described only the primary residence     most favorable to the verdict, and accept the
        and not the separate home office. At a hearing,      district court’s factual findings unless clearly
        Scully presented evidence showing that Pacific       erroneous or influenced by an incorrect view of
        Gas and Electric had the primary residence and       the law.”
        home office listed as separate accounts at separate
        addresses. Agent Hardeman testified that while he    In  United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897 (1984),
        knew there was a small apartment/office located      “the Supreme Court held that the Fourth
        behind the primary residence, he did not know that   Amendment does not require the suppression of
        the buildings had separate addresses and did not     evidence obtained as a result of objectively
        investigate whether the separate buildings had       reasonable reliance on a warrant, even if the
        separate addresses or utilities. Agent Ploetz did    warrant is subsequently invalidated.”       “We
        not check with the post office to see if the home    employ a two-step process for reviewing a district
        office had a separate address.  The agents           court’s denial of a motion to suppress when a
        explained that they had treated the front house and  search warrant is involved.”  Id.  We first
        home office as part of the same location during the  “determine whether the good-faith exception to
        search, that they did not realize that there was such  the exclusionary rule announced in [Leon]
        an address as 1015½, and that they had sought and    applies,” and if it does, the analysis ends. Id. “If
        executed the warrant in good faith.  The district    not, we proceed to the second step, in which we




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