Minor v. State

• Decision Date: 01 September 1993
• Docket Number: No. 87,87
• Citation: 334 Md. 707,641 A.2d 214
• Parties: William Maurice MINOR v. STATE of Maryland
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

Page 707

334 Md. 707

641 A.2d 214

William Maurice MINOR v. STATE of Maryland.

No. 87 Sept. Term, 1993.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

May 13, 1994.

Nancy S. Forster, Asst. Public Defender (Stephen E. Harris, Public Defender, all on brief), Baltimore, for appellant.

M. Jennifer Landis, Asst. Atty. Gen. (J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Atty. Gen., both on brief), Baltimore, for appellee.

Argued before RODOWSKY, McAULIFFE, ^* CHASANOW, KARWACKI and BELL, JJ., and MARVIN H SMITH and CHARLES E. ORTH, Jr. ^** , JJ. (retired), Specially Assigned.

RODOWSKY, Judge.

In this case we apply the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule applicable to Fourth Amendment violations.

On July 10, 1992, Sgt. Shelley W. Clemens of the Maryland State Police applied to a judge of the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County for a warrant to search residential premises in that county. Her supporting affidavit set forth the following as the basis for probable cause to believe that theft statutes were being violated at that location.

Sergeant Clemens was college trained in, and had fourteen years of experience in, police work, including eight years as a criminal investigator. She was assigned to the Annapolis Investigation Section of the Maryland State Police. She knew that thieves of manufactured property often remove serial numbers.

In further support of the application affiant Clemens deposed and said:

"That during the week of July 5, 1992 information was received from a confidential source regarding stolen motorcycles. The following information was received:

"1. A 1992 Honda CBR 600 red motorcycle was stolen from an Annapolis address across from the YMCA and is now being stored in a shed located at a residence in Harwood, Maryland. (Contact with Annapolis PD confirmed that a 1992 red Honda CBR 600 Motorcycle was reported stolen on 6-27-92 from 26 Woodward Ct., Annapolis, MD.)

"2. The residence was described as a white single story dwelling located off the left side of Sands Road in Harwood, MD. Behind the house is a pen which houses several dogs. Parked on the side of the house is a Ford Bronco II. Also parked in the yard are two junked 280Z Datsuns, one is green in color, the other is maroon. Behind the house is a grayish blue trailer with a deck on the front. To the right of the trailer is a white/gray storage shed in which the stolen 1992 CBR is located. (This location was visited and previous information was confirmed.)

"3. Living on the premises is Greg Vernell Tyler, B/M, approximately 19-20 years old; Ronald (last name unknown), B/M, 20-21 years old; and Billy (last name unknown), B/M, approximately 20 years old. (A check through the motor vehicle administration revealed that Gregory Vernell Tyler Jr, B/M, DOB: 5-5-72, resides at 4766 Sands road, Harwood, MD 20776.)"

The affidavit did not present any facts concerning the reliability of the informant or how the informant had acquired the information conveyed to the police.

The judge signed the warrant. It included authorization to search for "serial plates and other small parts that could be removed from a motorcycle." When the warrant was executed the motorcycle was not found, but six rocks of crack cocaine, one marijuana cigarette, one envelope of "greenish vegetable matter," one plastic box of razor blades, and one triple beam balance scale were found in a bedroom of the house occupied by the petitioner, William Maurice Minor (Minor).

Minor was charged with possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute and with two counts of simple possession. He moved to suppress the fruits of the search for want of probable cause to support the warrant.

At the suppression hearing Sgt. Clemens testified that she had not approached any other judge to issue the warrant, and that she had not discussed the warrant with the issuing judge. She stated that, in preparing her affidavit, she had included only as much information as she thought was necessary, because she did not want to jeopardize the confidentiality of her informant.

Minor's motion to suppress was denied. In a written opinion, the suppression-hearing judge concluded that the warrant-issuing judge

"did not have a substantial basis to conclude that the issuance of the warrant was proper. While the informant in the case before this Court has provided information concerning a stolen motorcycle, there is nothing beyond a 'bare conclusion' to place it at 4766 Sands Road. Additionally, the description of the property and those persons living on it does nothing to further the argument that contraband or evidence of a crime will be found at that location. The application is noticeably void of information concerning prior related criminal activity of the suspects, the veracity of the informant, and independent corroboration of suspected criminal activity."

Nevertheless, the evidence was not suppressed. Applying United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897, 104 S.Ct. 3405, 82 L.Ed.2d 677 (1984), the court found that "[t]he officers conducting the search of 4766 Sands Road, Harwood, Maryland had, as required, an objectively reasonable basis for believing that the search was authorized by a valid warrant."

Minor was tried under a not guilty statement of facts, convicted on the two simple possession counts, and sentenced, essentially to probation. He appealed, and this Court, on its own motion, issued the writ of certiorari prior to consideration of the matter by the Court of Special Appeals.

Minor submits that the trial court erred in applying Leon to the facts here, because there is an absence of evidence of the reliability of the undisclosed informant and of the informant's basis of knowledge and, but for the informant's statement, there is no nexus between the crime and the place to be searched.

Leon held that the federal exclusionary rule does not apply to evidence obtained under a search warrant that has later been found to be deficient, so long as the law enforcement officers acted in objectively reasonable reliance on the warrant. 468 U.S. at 913, 104 S.Ct. at 3415. This is because the exclusionary rule is designed to deter police misconduct, rather than to punish the errors of neutral magistrates. Leon 's holding is also based upon the "great deference" that is afforded search warrants issued by neutral magistrates. Id. at 914, 104 S.Ct. at 3416. Consequently, when police officers have acted in good faith pursuant to a search warrant that is later invalidated, excluding evidence would "only rarely" serve the purposes of the exclusionary rule. Id. at 926, 104 S.Ct. at 3422.

There are limits, however, to the deference afforded warrants. Leon listed four sets of circumstances under which suppression remains an appropriate remedy: (1) when the judicial officer issuing the warrant was misled by an affidavit that "the affiant knew was false or would have known was false except for his reckless disregard of the truth;" (2) when the magistrate "wholly abandoned his judicial role;" (3) when "a warrant [is] based on an affidavit 'so lacking in indicia of probable cause as to render official belief in its existence entirely unreasonable;' " or (4) when the warrant is facially deficient (e.g., failing to particularize the place to be searched). Id. at 923, 104 S.Ct. at 3420-21. Minor contends that his case falls within the third of the exceptions as set forth above.

The opinion in Leon further explained the exception on which Minor relies, saying:

"Accordingly, our good-faith inquiry is confined to the objectively ascertainable question whether a reasonably well trained officer would have known that the search was illegal despite the magistrate's authorization. In making this determination, all of the circumstances--including whether the warrant application had previously been rejected by a different magistrate--may be considered."

Id. at 922 n. 23, 104 S.Ct. at 3420 n. 23. In summing up its holding, the Court said that the third of the exceptions to Leon 's good faith rule arises if the officers "could not have harbored an objectively reasonable belief in the existence of probable cause." Id. at 926, 104 S.Ct. at 3422.

Massachusetts v. Sheppard, 468 U.S. 981, 104 S.Ct. 3424, 82 L.Ed.2d 737 (1984), decided with Leon, ruled that Leon applied where the defect in a search warrant was the failure fully to modify a preprinted form application in order to make it appropriate for the case in which it was used. The Court commented:

"[W]e refuse to rule that an officer is required to disbelieve a judge who has just advised him, by word and by action, that the warrant he possesses authorizes him to conduct the search he has requested. In Massachusetts, as in most jurisdictions, the determinations of a judge acting within his jurisdiction, even if erroneous, are valid and binding until they are set aside under some recognized procedure."

468 U.S. at 989-90, 104 S.Ct. at 3428.

The Court returned to the Leon rule when considering an immunity defense asserted to an action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 arising out of an arrest on a warrant, the supporting affidavit for which failed to establish probable cause. Malley v. Briggs, 475 U.S. 335, 106 S.Ct. 1092, 89 L.Ed.2d 271 (1986), held "that the same standard of objective reasonableness that we applied in the context of a suppression hearing in Leon ... defines the qualified immunity accorded an officer whose request for a warrant allegedly caused an unconstitutional arrest." Id. at 344, 106 S.Ct. at 1098 (footnote omitted). Malley distilled the holding of the earlier case and applied it in the following fashion:

"In Leon, we stated that 'our good-faith inquiry is confined to the objectively ascertainable question whether a reasonably well-trained officer would have known that the search was illegal despite the magistrate's authorization.' 468 U.S. at 922 n. 23 . The analogous question in this case is whether a reasonably well-trained officer in petitioner's position would have...