Baysden v. United States, 7928.

• Decision Date: 21 October 1959
• Docket Number: No. 7928.,7928.
• Citation: 271 F.2d 325
• Parties: William Earl BAYSDEN, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

271 F.2d 325 (1959)

William Earl BAYSDEN, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.

No. 7928.

United States Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit.

Argued October 7, 1959.

Decided October 21, 1959.

George Rountree, Jr., Wilmington, N. C. (George T. Clark, Jr., Wilmington, N. C., on brief), for appellant.

Julian T. Gaskill, U. S. Atty., Goldsboro, N. C. (Lawrence Harris, Wake Forest, N. C., and Jane A. Parker, Asst. U. S. Attys., Raleigh, N. C., on brief), for appellee.

Before SOPER, HAYNSWORTH and BOREMAN, Circuit Judges.

SOPER, Circuit Judge.

The crucial inquiry in this case is directed to the validity of a federal search warrant under which evidence was secured that led to the conviction and sentence of the appellant to imprisonment for twelve and a half years and a fine of $10,000 for the crime of counterfeiting United States currency in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 471 of the United States Criminal Code.

William Earl Baysden and another¹ were the defendants in the District Court. Baysden operated a furniture store in Jacksonville, North Carolina. During the summer months of 1958 United States Secret Service Agents became aware that counterfeit notes were being circulated in the community of Jacksonville and were investigating the matter. On the morning of September 19, 1958, P. E. Thigpen, a civil service employee of the Federal Government at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, told Talmadge W. Bailey, one of the Secret Service Agents engaged in the investigation, of an experience he had had the previous day at the defendant's store. He said that a salesman was showing him refrigerators and deep freezers and that the salesman had difficulty in opening one of the freezers but, finally, when the door came open he saw a box inside which, when opened by the salesman, disclosed a quantity of what appeared to be $20.00 bills and that the salesman said that it was "play money" and put the box back into the freezer and closed the door.

Being possessed of this information, which he credited, and knowing that counterfeit money was being circulated in the city, Bailey and Vernon D. Spicer, another Secret Service Agent, went before the United States Commissioner the same day and secured a search warrant authorizing them to search the store and to seize the counterfeit currency if it were found.

The affidavits on which the search warrant was based contained the sworn statements of the agents to the effect that they had reason to believe that counterfeit United States currency was being concealed in Baysden's furniture store with intent for use in violation of the statute and that counterfeit currency had been placed in circulation in the area, and that the affiants were informed and believed that a quantity of counterfeit currency was then being stored in a freezer in the store. The search warrant itself set out the substance of the allegations contained in the affidavit as well as the statement of the Commissioner that he was satisfied that there was probable cause to believe that the property described was being concealed in the store and therefore grounds for the issuance of the warrant existed.

Armed with the search warrant, the two agents went to the store. Agent Spicer first entered alone to observe the situation inside. He pretended to be interested in the purchase of a refrigerator and was taken to the wall against which the refrigerators were placed. He noticed one with a "Sold" tag on it and with some difficulty was able to open it. Inside he saw some boxes but did not open them. He then went outside and joined Agent Bailey and other State and Government officers who had assembled to make the search. They entered the store, read the warrant to the defendant, and searched the place. They came to the freezer which Agent Spicer had opened a short time before and opening it with some difficulty found twenty boxes which contained $776,680.00 in counterfeit $20 bills. The defendant was then arrested and indicted.

At the subsequent trial of the case a motion was made to suppress the evidence obtained in the search on the ground that the search warrant was invalid, since the agents had no personal knowledge of the presence of the bogus money in the defendant's store when they applied for the search warrant, but based their affidavits as to this fact solely on the information obtained from Thigpen, and did not disclose to the Commissioner the source of their information or the name of their informant. The judge overruled the motion on the ground that the information furnished by Thigpen to the agents, together with their personal knowledge of counterfeit money in the community, constituted sufficient basis for the issuance of the warrant and the search of the store. The correctness of this ruling is the subject matter of the appeal.

On consideration of the matter, we are constrained to hold, notwithstanding the strong evidence in support of the defendant's guilt, that the motion to supress the evidence secured by the search should have been granted. We do not doubt, as the District Judge found, that the federal agents had ample grounds for their belief that the defendant was in possession of illicit money in his store;...