Townsley v. United States
Decision Date | 23 December 1965 |
Docket Number | No. 3752.,3752. |
Citation | 215 A.2d 482 |
Parties | William A. TOWNSLEY, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES, Appellee. |
Court | D.C. Court of Appeals |
David C. Acheson, U. S. Atty., and Frank Q. Nebeker, Gerald M. Caplan, and Henry J. Monahan, Asst. U. S. Attys., for appellee.
Before HOOD, Chief Judge, and QUINN and MYERS, Associate Judges.
Appellant was charged with narcotic vagrancy in violation of Code 1961, § 33-416 (a) (b) (1) (B) and was convicted by the court sitting without a jury. This appeal followed.
The record before us reveals a question which merits consideration despite the fact that appellant's counsel failed to raise it either at trial or on appeal. Pursuant to our power to notice "[p]lain errors or defects affecting substantial rights * * * although they were not brought to the attention of the court,"1 we find that appellant was convicted on the basis of illegally obtained evidence which should have been suppressed by the trial court. See Contee v. United States, 94 U.S.App.D. C. 297, 215 F.2d 324 (1954), and Smith v. United States, 118 U.S.App.D.C. 235, 239 n. 13, 335 F.2d 270, 274 n. 13 (1964). Few rights are more substantial than the right not to be convicted on evidence obtained in violation of the provisions of the Fourth Amendment. Weeks v. United States, 232 U.S. 383, 34 S.Ct. 341, 58 L.Ed. 652, (1914). The Fourth Amendment guarantees:
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
We cannot blind ourselves to the violation of appellant's constitutional rights, clearly presented in the record.
The statement of proceedings and evidence discloses that on January 20, 1965, Detective Paul of the Narcotics Squad, Metropolitan Police Department, received a telephone call from a "previously reliable source of information" that one Michael Neal Kleinbart had a large quantity of narcotics in Room 903 of the Cairo Hotel, where he was registered under the name of "Falco." The source stated that the narcotics had been stolen from a drugstore in Kensington, Maryland. Detective Paul testified that he had knowledge that narcotics had recently been stolen from a Kensington drugstore. He contacted the United States Commissioner in order to obtain a search warrant, but the Commissioner told him that he could not get into his office as it was Inauguration Day and he did not have a pass. The Court of General Sessions was then called but it was alleged that no one was in the building. An Assistant United States Attorney subsequently advised the detective to go to the hotel to investigate.
Detective Paul, along with two police officers, went to the hotel and ascertained that one Falco was registered in Room 903. The window of the room was placed under observation and Detective Paul knocked and identified himself. He testified that a voice within said, "Wait a minute," and that someone then ran away from the door. The officer observing the window called out something (although the record does not disclose what), and Paul knocked again. Dragging noises and a bang against the door were heard. Paul and one of the officers then forced open the door and entered the room. There they found Kleinbart and appellant, together with narcotics and narcotic paraphernalia. At this time, Detective Paul testified, appellant admitted that he was a narcotics user. The third officer entered the room a few minutes later carrying a bottle containing capsules which had been thrown from the window. Appellant and Kleinbart were arrested and subsequently charged.
A search without a warrant is permitted in two instances only: where the search is incident to a valid arrest or where exceptional circumstances are present United States Jeffers, 342 U.S. 48, 72 S.Ct. 93, 96 L.Ed. 59 (1951). But no such exceptional circumstances were shown here. As the Supreme Court stated in Johnson v. United States, 333 U.S. 10, 15, 68 S.Ct. 367, 369, 92 L.Ed. 436 (1948):
And the Court's language in McDonald v. United States, 335 U.S. 451, 455, 69 S.Ct. 191, 93 L.Ed. 153 (1948), is equally applicable to the case at bar:
If the officers could not have obtained a warrant on January 20, no special situation prevented them from waiting until the 21st.
Thus, for the search to have been legal, it must have been incident to a valid arrest. The validity of the arrest in turn depends upon whether the officers had probable cause to believe that an offense had been or was being committed. Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 83 S.Ct. 407, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963). Certainly the probable cause needed for an arrest without a warrant must be as great or greater than that required to be shown in order to obtain a...
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