USA v. Master

Decision Date31 August 2010
Docket NumberNo. 08-6418.,08-6418.
Citation614 F.3d 236
PartiesUNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Troy A. MASTER, Defendant-Appellant.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE

ARGUED: Bryan H. Hoss, Davis & Hoss, P.C., Chattanooga, Tennessee, for Appellant. Christopher D. Poole, Assistant United States Attorney, Chattanooga, Tennessee, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Bryan H. Hoss, Davis & Hoss, P.C., Chattanooga, Tennessee, for Appellant. Christopher D. Poole, Assistant United States Attorney, Chattanooga, Tennessee, for Appellee.

Before: COLE and CLAY, Circuit Judges; KATZ, District Judge. *

OPINION

CLAY, Circuit Judge.

Defendant Troy Master appeals the denial of his motion to suppress evidence found at his home during the execution of a search warrant. Defendant entered a conditional guilty plea to being a felon in possession of a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) that preserved his right to appeal the denial of his motion to suppress. For the following reasons, the case is REMANDED to the district court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

On January 14, 2007, Investigator George Dyer of the Franklin County, Tennessee Sheriff's Department submitted an affidavit in support of a search warrant for Defendant's residence. On the affidavit, Defendant's residence was listed as “9356 AEDC Road, Winchester Franklin County, Tennessee.” The affidavit included directions to a single wide trailer where Defendant lived. Defendant's residence, however, is actually in Coffee County, not Franklin County. 1

The search warrant was signed by Judge Thomas C. Faris on January 14, 2007. Judge Faris is a general sessions and juvenile court judge in Franklin County, Tennessee. As a general sessions judge in Franklin County, state law provided Judge Faris with the authority to sign warrants only for property in Franklin County itself. Less than three months before the search, on October 16, 2006, officers from the Franklin County Sheriff's Department had responded to a disturbance call at Defendant's residence. Defendant was arrested for domestic violence. The charge was dismissed by Judge Faris less than a month before the search warrant in this case was issued because the proper venue was Coffee County, not Franklin County.

On January 15, 2007, Franklin County Sheriff's officers executed the search warrant in this case. During the search, Defendant informed the officers that he had a shotgun in the bedroom. On that basis, officers arrested Defendant, a former felon.

At the suppression hearing, Investigator Dyer testified that he believed Defendant lived in Franklin County because Dyer's supervisor informed him that Defendant had registered as a sex offender in Franklin County using his current street address. Dyer also claimed he had spoken with a 9-1-1 operator at the Franklin County Sheriff's Department who informed him that she would dispatch a Franklin County Sheriff's Department vehicle if a call came from that address. Defendant presented testimony from an investigator hired by the Public Defender's Office, Bill Dipillo. Dipillo testified that the Property Assessor for Franklin County plus the 911 dispatchers for Franklin and Coffee County all stated Defendant's residence was in Coffee County. Dipillo also testified about the previous dismissal of the domestic violence charges by Judge Faris when the charges had been brought incorrectly in Franklin County instead of Coffee County.

The motion to suppress was denied on June 4, 2008. Defendant entered a conditional guilty plea on August 11, 2008. On November 10, 2008, Defendant was sentenced to 57 months' imprisonment. This timely appeal followed.

DISCUSSION

This court reviews a district court's decision on a motion to suppress under two standards. ‘Findings of fact are upheld unless clearly erroneous, while conclusions of law are reviewed de novo. United States v. Jenkins, 396 F.3d 751, 757 (6th Cir.2005) (quoting United States v. Leake, 95 F.3d 409, 416 (6th Cir.1996)). This court views the evidence in the light most likely to support the district court's decision.” United States v. McPhearson, 469 F.3d 518, 523 (6th Cir.2006) (citation and quotation omitted). “A factual finding is clearly erroneous when, although there may be evidence to support it, the reviewing court on the entire evidence is left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed.” United States v. Blair, 524 F.3d 740, 747 (6th Cir.2008) (citation and quotation omitted).

A. Whether the Search Violated Defendant's Fourth Amendment Rights

Defendant's sole challenge to the motion to suppress is that because the Tennessee general sessions judge who signed the search warrant application presided in a different county from Defendant's residence, the judge had no authority under Tennessee law to authorize the warrant. It is uncontested by the government that the authorizing judge, Judge Faris, did not have jurisdiction under Tennessee law to authorize a warrant for property in a different county. The question becomes whether this lack of authority is relevant in a prosecution occurring in federal court. For the following reasons, we determine that it is. 2

The government relies on a series of cases that hold that additional protections a state provides its citizens against search and seizure are irrelevant in federal prosecutions. See, e.g., Virginia v. Moore, 553 U.S. 164, 128 S.Ct. 1598, 170 L.Ed.2d 559 (2008); United States v. Wright, 16 F.3d 1429 (6th Cir.1994); United States v. Allen, 954 F.2d 1160 (6th Cir.1992). In Moore, the Supreme Court reversed a Virginia Supreme Court decision suppressing evidence on Fourth Amendment grounds because the officers had failed to fully comply with Virginia law that provided additional protections for suspects. The Supreme Court determined that the failure was irrelevant where the arrest was based on probable cause and that the Fourth Amendment therefore allowed an arrest in that setting. The Court held that “while States are free to regulate [arrests] however they desire, state restrictions do not alter the Fourth Amendment's protections.” Moore, 553 U.S. at 176, 128 S.Ct. 1598. Likewise, in Wright, the defendant had been arrested and challenged the resulting search on the basis of state law. This Court rejected his challenge, finding that a “state may impose a rule for searches and seizures that is more restrictive than the Fourth Amendment.... However, the state rule does not have to be applied in federal court.” Wright, 16 F.3d at 1434. It is therefore apparent that had Defendant challenged the probable cause determination as violating state law, that challenge would be precluded. As this Court noted in Wright: “in federal court, [the exclusionary rule] only requires the court to exclude evidence seized in violation of the Federal Constitution.” 16 F.3d at 1434.

The problem for the government in this case, however, is that the warrant is not invalid because of an additional protection provided by the state. Instead, the warrant is invalid because it does not comply with the Fourth Amendment. The jurisdictional limits placed on Judge Faris are not additional protections for a citizen but instead merely a reflection of the authority vested by the state in a general sessions judge. As we recognized in United States v. Scott, 260 F.3d 512, 515 (6th Cir.2001), “when a warrant is signed by someone who lacks the legal authority necessary to issue search warrants, the warrant is void ab initio. Here, it is undisputed that Judge Faris did not have the authority under Tennessee law to authorize the warrant for a search of Defendant's property in Coffee County.

The government factually distinguishes Scott, but those distinctions do not compel a different outcome. In Scott, this Court granted a motion to suppress when the search warrant was signed by a retired judge. The judge occasionally substituted for active judges but was not working in that capacity when he signed the warrant. Therefore, when the judge in Scott approved the warrant, he had no authority to approve any warrants, while Judge Faris undoubtedly had authority to issue warrants for Franklin County.

However, the difference between the judge in Scott and Judge Faris are immaterial in determining the validity of a warrant. The Supreme Court laid out the requirements for the qualifications of a magistrate in Shadwick v. City of Tampa, 407 U.S. 345, 92 S.Ct. 2119, 32 L.Ed.2d 783 (1972). In Shadwick, the Supreme Court considered whether county clerks authorized by Florida law to issue warrants had authority under the Fourth Amendment. The Court rejected an argument that the issuing magistrate must be a judge or lawyer and required only that a magistrate be “neutral and detached.” Id. at 350, 92 S.Ct. 2119. The opinion is highly solicitous of state and local authority. The Court acknowledged that a judge or lawyer would “normally provide the most desirable review of warrant requests.” Id. at 353, 92 S.Ct. 2119. The Court declined to impose such a rule in part because our federal system “recognizes in plural and diverse state activities one key to national innovation and vitality. States are entitled to some flexibility and leeway in their designation of magistrates.” Id. at 354, 92 S.Ct. 2119. The qualifications of a magistrate are therefore inextricably intertwined with state law. State law determines what person is allowed to approve what warrant. If a state has the flexibility to determine who has the authority to issue warrants, it should be allowed to delineate the scope of that authority. The Shadwick opinion's explicit acknowledgment of the importance of state actors is contrary to a position that a state does not have the authority to place jurisdictional limits on its magistrates. Tennessee's own policy determinations on how to administer its justice system are undermined when the...

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