U.S. v. Czuprynski

• Decision Date: 17 February 1994
• Docket Number: No. 93-1079,93-1079
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Edward CZUPRYNSKI, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Page 1113

8 F.3d 1113

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Edward CZUPRYNSKI, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 93-1079.

United States Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit.

Argued July 2, 1993.

Decided Nov. 9, 1993.

Rehearing En Banc Granted, Judgment Vacated

Feb. 17, 1994.

Kennedy, Circuit Judge, filed dissenting opinion.

Janet L. Parker, Asst. U.S. Atty. (argued and briefed), Bay City, MI, for plaintiff-appellee.

F. Randall Karfonta (argued and briefed), Mogill, Posner & Cohen, Detroit, MI, for defendant-appellant.

Before: KENNEDY and MARTIN, Circuit Judges; and WISEMAN, District Judge. ^*

BOYCE F. MARTIN, JR., Circuit Judge.

Edward Czuprynski appeals his conviction and sentence for possession of 1.6 grams of marijuana, arguing that the search warrant was invalid because the supporting affidavit was stale and that the magistrate was not neutral and detached. Czuprynski also argues that the district court improperly denied him an evidentiary hearing on his claim that this case involved selective prosecution. Czuprynski argues that his sentence, imposed as the result of several upward departures by the district court, was improper. We believe that the information submitted in support of the application did not provide probable cause that contraband or evidence would be found in the search, and that no reasonable officer could conclude that probable cause existed to execute the search. Accordingly, we reverse.

Czuprynski is a licensed attorney who does a great deal of criminal defense work in the Bay City, Michigan area. Czuprynski employed Judith Sawicki as an associate with his law firm until February 21, 1992, when he fired her. After she was fired, Sawicki filed assault charges against Czuprynski. After the trial in the instant case, the trial court in the assault case acquitted Czuprynski, stating that Sawicki was "obviously a liar."

In early March, Bay County prosecutors and Sawicki attempted to obtain a search warrant for Czuprynski's office, apartment, and car. In support of the warrant application, Sawicki submitted an affidavit in which she stated that several of her books and papers had been at the office since she was fired. Evidence indicates that Assistant Bay County Prosecutor Tim Kelly presented the application to two district judges of the 74th District Court in Bay City, Michigan, but that both judges refused to sign the warrant.

On March 18, 1992, Bay County officials obtained and executed a search warrant at Czuprynski's home and office. The warrant application rested primarily on another affidavit by Judith Sawicki in which she alleged that Czuprynski regularly used marijuana. The warrant authorized a search for marijuana or other controlled substances, drug paraphernalia, proceeds used in connection with the sale or purchase of controlled substances, and other evidence of the use, sale, or purchase of marijuana or other controlled substances. Sawicki's affidavit alleged that she had seen Czuprynski smoke marijuana in his office almost every day, and that she had previously smoked marijuana with him. The affidavit did not recount any specific dates for these events. Although Sawicki also stated in her affidavit that she had purchased marijuana from Czuprynski, she stated that she made this purchase "in January or February, 1992, sometime after Christmas." Moreover, the affidavit did not support an inference that Sawicki had seen Czuprynski since the date she had been fired, February 21, 1992, almost a month prior to the affidavit. Officer Tait also submitted an affidavit in support of the warrant application. Tait's affidavit, however, showed no evidence corroborating Sawicki's affidavit nor any evidence supporting Sawicki's reliability or credibility in any way. Finally, two previous search warrants and returns, one from 1974 and one from 1983, were submitted to support the March 1992 application. Although each search uncovered evidence of marijuana usage, Czuprynski was acquitted by a jury of charges of possession of marijuana after the 1983 search. Magistrate Philip Boes of the 74th District Court signed the warrant authorizing the March 1992 search.

Before Tait obtained the warrant, Assistant Prosecutor Kelly contacted Greg Tait, an officer with the Michigan Department of State Police in Bay City, about Sawicki's allegations, and it was Tait's understanding that other police departments had declined to involve themselves with Sawicki's complaint. After interviewing Sawicki, Tait and Kelly drafted Sawicki's affidavit. After telling Tait that no judges were available to issue the warrant at that time, Kelly suggested that Tait submit the warrant application to Magistrate Boes. Evidence in the record also indicates that Tait initially submitted the application to one of the judges of the 74th district who had previously declined to sign the records warrant, and that the judge again declined to issue a warrant. Moreover, the record also indicates that Magistrate Boes had previously served as the Bay County purchasing agent at the time Czuprynski was serving as the Bay County auditor and that Czuprynski had attempted to have Boes fired from that position. Tait was also aware at this time that "hard feelings" and "disputes" existed between Czuprynski and the Bay County Prosecutor's office.

Tait executed the warrant at Czuprynski's office and found small amounts of marijuana residue, seeds, and marijuana leaves. The search at Czuprynski's apartment revealed similar items. The laboratory analysis of these findings by the Michigan Department of State Police Forensic Science Division revealed a total of 1.6 grams of marijuana.

On May 19, 1992, Czuprynski was indicted by a federal grand jury on a single charge of possession of marijuana, a violation of 21 U.S.C. § 844(a). Czuprynski filed a motion to suppress the evidence seized during the search of his office and home, arguing that the magistrate who had issued the warrant was not neutral and detached and that Sawicki's affidavit was insufficient to establish probable cause for the search. Czuprynski also argued that the good-faith exception of United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897, 104 S.Ct. 3405, 82 L.Ed.2d 677 (1984), did not prevent application of the exclusionary rule in this case because Sawicki's affidavit was facially deficient and no reasonable officer could conclude that the warrant was supported by probable cause. The district court denied the motion to suppress, finding that probable cause supported issuance of the warrant and that the Leon exception prevented exclusion of the evidence obtained during the search in this case.

Czuprynski was convicted on the single count of marijuana possession. On January 6, 1993, the district court sentenced Czuprynski to fourteen months imprisonment. The presentence report calculated Czuprynski's base offense level to be level four. The report calculated Czuprynski's criminal history to be Category I based on the assessment of one point for a conviction of Filing a False Nominating Petition for which Czuprynski paid a $100 fine. The sentencing guidelines range for a base offense level of four and Criminal History Category I is zero to six months imprisonment. Despite the calculated sentencing range, however, the district court enhanced Czuprynski's base offense level by two points for obstruction of justice, even though the district court acknowledged at sentencing that none of Czuprynski's actions materially hindered any aspect of the investigation. The court also increased Czuprynski's Criminal History Category from level I to level III, finding that a 1974 conviction for possession of marijuana and a 1984 acquittal on charges of possession of marijuana warranted an increase in this category. The court also ordered Czuprynski to pay a fine of $2,500; the costs of investigation and prosecution, an amount totalling $2,000; and supervision charges at the rate $115.30 per month for his supervised release.

Czuprynski filed this timely appeal. We find that the search warrant issued by Magistrate Boes was not supported by probable cause. We also believe that the good-faith exception discussed in Leon, 468 U.S. 897, 104 S.Ct. 3405, does not apply to the circumstances in this case. Accordingly, we reverse.

A fundamental principle of our constitutional jurisprudence is that a warrant to search property in which the owner has a reasonable expectation of privacy shall not be issued absent a sufficient basis for finding probable cause to believe that contraband or evidence is located in a particular place. See Aguilar v. Texas, 378 U.S. 108, 115-16, 84 S.Ct. 1509, 1514-15, 12 L.Ed.2d 723 (1964). See also Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 230, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 2328, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983). We recognize that a magistrate's "determination of probable cause should be paid great deference by reviewing courts." Spinelli v. United States, 393 U.S. 410, 419, 89 S.Ct. 584, 21 L.Ed.2d 637 (1969). "Deference to the magistrate, however, is not boundless." Leon, 468 U.S. at 914, 104 S.Ct. at 3416. The Supreme Court has consistently stressed that reviewing "courts must continue to conscientiously review the sufficiency of affidavits on which warrants are issued." Gates, 462 U.S. at 239, 103 S.Ct. at 2333. Finally, "courts have considerable discretion in conforming their decisionmaking processes to the exigencies of particular cases." Leon, 468 U.S. at 924-25, 104 S.Ct. at 3421-22. As such, a reviewing court is free to resolve a particular fourth amendment question before turning to the issue whether an officer executed a warrant in good faith. Id. at 925, 104 S.Ct. at 3422.

"[P]robable cause is a fluid concept--turning on the assessment of probabilities in particular factual contexts--not readily, or even usefully, reduced to a neat set of legal rules." Gates, 462 U.S. at 232, 103 S.Ct. at 2329. In Gates, id. at 238, 103 S.Ct. at 2332, the court abandoned the "two-pronged" analysis established in Aguilar, ...