State v. Buddhu

• Decision Date: 14 August 2001
• Docket Number: (AC 20212)
• Citation: 65 Conn. App. 104,782 A.2d 169
• Court: Connecticut Court of Appeals
• Parties: STATE OF CONNECTICUT v. DEOWRAJ BUDDHU

65 Conn. App. 104

782 A.2d 169

STATE OF CONNECTICUT v. DEOWRAJ BUDDHU

(AC 20212)

Appellate Court of Connecticut.

Argued January 12, 2001.

Officially released August 14, 2001.

Landau, Mihalakos and Daly, JS. Robert J. Scheinblum, assistant state's attorney, with whom were John M. Massameno, senior assistant state's attorney, and, on the brief, John M. Bailey, chief state's attorney, and Vernon Oliver, deputy assistant state's attorney, for the appellant (state).

Wesley S. Spears, for the appellee (defendant).

Opinion

MIHALAKOS, J.

In this criminal case, the state appeals from the judgment of the trial court dismissing the substitute information charging the defendant, Deowraj Buddhu, with 142 violations of the Penal Code.¹ At issue is the court's ruling prohibiting the state from introducing, in its case-in-chief, evidence that the police officers seized while executing a search warrant for the residence of the defendant and his son, Satesh Buddhu. On appeal, the state claims that the court improperly concluded that the warrant was invalid and, therefore, should not have suppressed the evidence that the police officers had seized. In support of its claim, the state asserts, inter alia, that the court improperly concluded that the warrant did not satisfy the particularity requirement of the fourth amendment to the United States constitution.² We disagree with that assertion and, accordingly, affirm the judgment of the trial court.³

The following facts and procedural history are relevant to our resolution of the state's appeal. On November 21, 1995, two Rocky Hill police detectives applied for a warrant to search the following place: "The residence of Satesh Buddhu (date of birth 2/6/74) and Deowraj S. Buddhu (date of birth 9/18/42), 958 Broad Street, Hartford, Ct. This is also the business location of Phoenix Consulting Services, operated by Deo [Buddhu]." The detectives, Henry J. Dodenhoff and Charles Hedeen, suspected that the defendant and his son were involved in a criminal enterprise that engaged in the production of counterfeit checks and United States citizenship papers. Later that day, a magistrate granted the detectives' application. On November 22, 1995, members of the Rocky Hill and Hartford police departments executed the warrant. Their search yielded evidence that incriminated the defendant and his son.

On December 21, 1998, the state filed an information that charged the defendant with 140 violations of the Penal Code. On April 26, 1999, the defendant filed a motion to suppress, seeking to preclude the state from introducing the evidence that the police had seized while executing the warrant. On June 10, 1999, the state filed the substitute information previously described. See footnote 1. Thereafter, the court conducted a suppression hearing and granted the motion to suppress. The court found that (1) the description in the warrant of the place to be searched was "overbroad" and (2) the overbreadth was due to the fact that the police officers had conducted an "unjustifiably limited investigation." Therefore, the court concluded, the warrant was invalid because it did not satisfy the particularity requirement of the fourth amendment. On October 27, 1999, the state filed a motion to dismiss the substitute information. That day, the court dismissed the case on the state's representation that the state could no longer proceed as a result of the unfavorable ruling on the motion to suppress. The court also granted the state permission to appeal. This appeal followed. Additional facts and procedural history will be provided as necessary.

Before addressing the state's claim that the court improperly concluded that the warrant did not satisfy the particularity requirement of the fourth amendment, we set forth the appropriate standard of review. "Our standard of review of a trial court's findings and conclusions in connection with a motion to suppress is well defined. A finding of fact will not be disturbed unless it is clearly erroneous in view of the evidence and pleadings in the whole record .... [W]here the legal conclusions of the court are challenged, we must determine whether they are legally and logically correct and whether they find support in the facts set out in the memorandum of decision...." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Clark, 255 Conn. 268, 279, 764 A.2d 1251 (2001). Additionally, we are mindful of our authority to affirm a judgment of a trial court on a dispositive alternate ground for which there is support in the trial court record. See Hoskins v. Titan Value Equities Group, Inc., 252 Conn. 789, 794, 749 A.2d 1144 (2000).

After the suppression hearing, the court made the following factual findings. The complete address of the building named in the search warrant is 958-960 Broad Street. The building has three floors and there are apartments on each floor. Specifically, "[t]here [is] a total of six units in the building—two on each of the three floors." The defendant lived in a unit on the third floor. Each of the six units had a doorbell and a mailbox. "It is evident that the officers knew prior to obtaining the warrant that the building was a multioccupancy building." The officers also knew prior to obtaining the warrant that the defendant lived on the third floor. The state does not challenge those factual findings.

"The Warrant Clause of the Fourth Amendment categorically prohibits the issuance of any warrant except one `particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.' The manifest purpose of this particularity requirement was to prevent general searches. By limiting the authorization to search to the specific areas and things for which there is probable cause to search, the requirement ensures that the search will be carefully tailored to its justifications, and will not take on the character of the wide-ranging exploratory searches the Framers intended to prohibit." (Emphasis added.) Maryland v. Garrison, 480 U.S. 79, 84, 107 S. Ct. 1013, 94 L. Ed. 2d 72 (1987). The particularity requirement reflects two concerns. See United States v. Nafzger, 965 F.2d 213, 215 (7th Cir. 1992). "The first concern is the deterrence of `general, exploratory rummaging in a person's belongings.'" Id., quoting Andresen v. Maryland, 427 U.S. 463, 480, 96 S. Ct. 2737, 49 L. Ed. 2d 627 (1976). "The second concern is that the scope of a lawful search will be limited to `the places in which there is probable cause to believe that [the items sought] may be found.'" United States v. Nafzger, supra, 215, quoting Maryland v. Garrison, supra, 84.

"The validity of the warrant must be assessed on the basis of the information that the officers disclosed, or had a duty to discover and to disclose, to the issuing Magistrate." Maryland v. Garrison, supra, 480 U.S. 85. To conduct that assessment properly, we first must review the search warrant and the affidavit supporting the search warrant to determine what information the police officers disclosed. Second, we must review the facts established at the suppression hearing to determine what information the police officers had a duty to discover and disclose to the issuing magistrate. A warrant does not satisfy the particularity requirement of the fourth amendment if all three of the following conditions are satisfied: (1) the facts properly found at the suppression hearing establish that the search (or the seizure) authorized by the warrant was imprecise or broader than necessary; (2) the police officers failed to disclose to the issuing magistrate information that they had a duty to discover and disclose; and (3) it is reasonably probable that, but for that failure, the magistrate either would not have issued the warrant or, instead, would have issued a warrant authorizing a search (or a seizure) that was more precise.

As previously stated, the warrant in the present case authorized the police officers to search the following place: "The residence of Satesh Buddhu (date of birth 2/6/74) and Deowraj S. Buddhu (date of birth 9/18/42), 958 Broad Street, Hartford, Ct. This is also the business location of Phoenix Consulting Services, operated by Deo [Buddhu]." After the suppression hearing, the court found that 958 Broad Street (actually 958-960 Broad Street) was a three story building that contained two apartments on each floor. The court also found that the defendant lived on the third floor. Those findings establish that the scope of the search authorized by the warrant was imprecise because the warrant did not specify that the defendant lived in a subunit of the building.

Next, we review the affidavit submitted by Dodenhoff and Hedeen (the Rocky Hill police detectives) to assist us in determining whether they disclosed to the magistrate that the defendant lived in a subunit of the building. The affidavit does not indicate whether the structure at 958-960 Broad Street contained more than one floor. Accordingly, the affidavit does not state that the defendant lived on the third floor. It also does not indicate that the defendant's residence did not encompass the entire structure. For instance, it does not contain the word "apartment," "condominium," "subunit" or "unit." In sum, Dodenhoff and Hedeen, in their affidavit, did not even intimate that the defendant lived in a subunit of the building.

The court found that (1) the building at 958-960 Broad Street had three floors, (2) each of the building's six units had a doorbell and a mailbox, and (3) "[i]t is evident that the officers knew prior to obtaining the warrant that the building was a multioccupancy building." On the basis of those findings, we conclude that it was readily apparent that 958-960 Broad Street was a multiunit dwelling. Consequently, Dodenhoff and Hedeen had a duty to disclose to the issuing magistrate that they knew that the defendant resided in such a dwelling. The record does not establish...