U.S. v. Hadfield

Citation918 F.2d 987
Decision Date13 September 1990
Docket Number89-2170,Nos. 89-2169,s. 89-2169
Parties31 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 989 UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Royal W. HADFIELD, Jr., Defendant, Appellant. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Helen HADFIELD, Defendant, Appellant. . Heard
CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (1st Circuit)

Michael P. Ascher, Springfield, Mass., for defendant, appellant Royal W. Hadfield, Jr.

Vincent A. Bongiorni, Springfield, Mass., for defendant, appellant Helen Hadfield.

Dina Michael Chaitowitz, Asst. U.S. Atty., with whom Wayne A. Budd, U.S. Atty., Boston, Mass., was on brief, for U.S.

Before SELYA, Circuit Judge, COFFIN and BOWNES, Senior Circuit Judges.

SELYA, Circuit Judge.

Appellants Royal W. Hadfield, Jr. and Helen Hadfield, husband and wife, were found guilty of narcotics and firearms violations in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. They challenge their convictions on three grounds: (1) the district court's refusal to conduct an evidentiary hearing under Franks v. Delaware, 438 U.S. 154, 98 S.Ct. 2674, 57 L.Ed.2d 667 (1978), in respect to an affidavit supporting the first of two search warrants employed by the authorities; (2) certain evidentiary rulings at trial; and (3) sufficiency of the evidence. Finding no reversible error, we affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

In order to place appellants' initiatives into proper perspective, it is necessary to limn what transpired below.

A. Pretrial Phase.

Prior to trial, appellants moved to suppress marijuana, firearms, and other evidence seized during the search of their premises, or in the alternative, for a Franks hearing at which they might adduce evidence in support of suppression. These motions were initially assigned for argument before a United States magistrate who made certain factual findings summarized below.

On January 1, 1988, Edmund S. Cook, appellants' neighbor, complained to the Deerfield, Massachusetts police department that appellants' son, Christian Hadfield, had discharged a firearm illegally. 1 A similar complaint had been made by Joan Cook, Edmund's wife, in late 1987. In response, officer Burniske, accompanied by a state trooper, interviewed the Cooks at their home. The officers were informed that Christian Hadfield had discharged a long-barrelled rifle within roughly 200 feet of the Cooks' dwelling. The officers then went to appellants' residence and questioned Christian. He admitted doing the shooting but denied doing so within 500 feet of the Cooks' abode. Burniske did not ask to see the weapon.

Later that day, Deerfield police officer Newton reviewed Burniske's written report, decided that more spadework was required, went to the Cooks' home, and took written and oral statements from both spouses. The husband's written statement described the firearm wielded by Christian Hadfield as "a light caliber rifle (light report and long barrel) equipped with scope and leather sling." The wife was unable to describe the weapon in any detail, but stated that upward of 20 shots were fired. The Cooks' son, Ed, drew a diagram of the locus on which he characterized the firearm as a "rifle (22 caliber or B-B gun)."

On January 2, Newton prepared a search warrant application at the district attorney's office. Assistant district attorney Ross reviewed and approved the warrant request and accompanying affidavit. Officer Newton immediately presented the papers to a state magistrate, Johnson, who declined to issue a warrant. Little daunted, Newton and Ross reapplied on January 6. They supplemented the original affidavit with additional facts concerning Edmund Cook's observations of Christian Hadfield on January 1 and his familiarity with rifles. They successfully presented the revised materials to Judge Cross of the state superior court, who issued a warrant (the "firearms warrant") allowing the constables to reconnoiter the Hadfield residence, garage, and barn for long-barrelled rifles or any records indicating ownership or possession of such firearms.

At approximately 5:00 p.m. on January 6, close to a dozen local and state police officers executed the warrant. Among this gaggle of gendarmes were several who specialized in narcotics investigations. The lawmen encountered Christian Hadfield almost immediately upon entering the premises but did not show him the warrant; they asked instead where his father could be found. Upon learning that Royal Hadfield was in the barn, a state trooper went there. Once inside, he saw vast amounts of marijuana being processed. Based on what was seen in plain view, the authorities procured a second warrant (the "narcotics warrant") permitting a search of appellants' property for marijuana, drug paraphernalia, and the like. Upon executing the narcotics warrant, the officers struck paydirt. They seized a bevy of incriminating items, including large amounts of marijuana and a virtual arsenal of firearms. Royal Hadfield was arrested on the spot. Helen Hadfield, who was elsewhere during the search, was arrested the following day.

The bare record offered room for a suggestion that Newton and Ross might have misled Judge Cross when applying for the firearms warrant. The application form required that the affiant check one of two boxes to indicate whether the application had been previously submitted. Although an "X" appeared on a copy of the application signed by Judge Cross (in the box signifying that the same application had been presented once before), this "X" was in a different typeface than the remainder of the application. Moreover, no such mark appeared on the copy of the form which was appended to the application for the narcotics warrant. Troubled by these inconsistencies, the federal magistrate concluded that the application for the firearms warrant more likely than not had been doctored. He found in effect that officer Newton had left the box pristine in order to lead Judge Cross to think that the submission had not previously been rejected and altered the application (by inserting the "X") once the warrant issued in order to prevent discovery of his sleight of hand.

The federal magistrate made other findings inimical to the government's position. He concluded that Newton did not forthrightly disclose Ed Cook's uncertainty regarding whether Christian Hadfield fired a B-B gun or .22 caliber rifle. 2 To be precise, although the younger Cook's diagram (which divulged this information) was attached to, and referenced in, Newton's affidavit, the affidavit itself never explicitly noted the uncertainty. In a related vein, the magistrate wondered whether the elder Cook might have had doubts about the kind of gun used in light of his description of the weapon as one having a "light report" and his failure to register any express disagreement with Ed's equivocal comment.

Based upon these findings, the magistrate recommended that appellants' motion for a Franks hearing be allowed. The government objected, setting the stage for de novo review at the district court level. See 28 U.S.C. Sec. 636(b)(1)(C). In support of its objection, the prosecution introduced new evidence to clarify the record and refute some of the inferences drawn by the magistrate. The district court was persuaded; it sustained the government's objection and denied the requested hearing. In reaching this decision, the court accepted most of the federal magistrate's subsidiary findings but made the following additional findings, based largely on the neoteric evidence.

When Magistrate Johnson originally declined to issue the firearms warrant, he informed officer Newton of three key difficulties. (1) The affidavit did not contain sufficient information about Edmund Cook's familiarity with guns. (2) Cook's son had been noncommittal as to whether the weapon was a .22 caliber rifle or a B-B gun. (3) There was room to doubt Newton's motives, as the real reason for the firearms search might well have been to find drugs. To meet these criticisms, Newton reinterviewed the Cooks, focusing on Johnson's stated concerns, and thereafter fleshed out his affidavit. Newton added inter alia that Edmund Cook was extremely knowledgeable about weapons; that Cook was certain Christian Hadfield fired a rifle on January 1, not a B-B gun; and that Cook had signed complaints against Royal Hadfield in the past for discharging weapons within 500 feet of a dwelling, one of which led to a criminal conviction.

The district court also credited newly emergent statements by Newton and Ross that they recalled discussing the prior (failed) application with Judge Cross when presenting the redrafted application. Both remembered telling Judge Cross the specific reasons for Magistrate Johnson's refusal to issue the warrant and describing their efforts to remedy those deficiencies. The district court noted that these averments were consistent with Newton's earlier testimony at Christian Hadfield's state court suppression hearing, during which Newton told of informing Judge Cross that the initial application had been denied. In light of this credited testimony, the district court concluded that the issue of when the "X" was placed on the renewed warrant application was irrelevant inasmuch as Judge Cross was verbally apprised of the previous application.

B. Trial Phase.

At trial, the prosecution argued in effect that the defendants were partners in a flourishing marijuana business. The evidence showed that the real estate owned jointly by Mr. and Mrs. Hadfield featured a barn, a garage, and a dwelling. The buildings were at the end of a dirt road, invisible from the public highway. Warning signs adorned the rim of the property: one read "Beware of Dog," while the other, located under two floodlights, stated: "This house guarded by shotgun three nights per week. You guess which three."

Inside the barn, the officers saw 27 drying marijuana plants hanging from the first-floor ceiling. In an unlocked room immediately to the right of the front...

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