U.S. v. Watts

• Decision Date: 22 June 1976
• Docket Number: No. 75-1009,75-1009
• Citation: 540 F.2d 1093,176 U.S.App.D.C. 314
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America v. Schuessler WATTS, Jr., Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

Page 1093

540 F.2d 1093

176 U.S.App.D.C. 314

UNITED STATES of America v. Schuessler WATTS, Jr., Appellant.

No. 75-1009.

United States Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued Jan. 16, 1976.

Decided June 22, 1976.

Allan M. Palmer, Washington, D. C., for appellant. John W. King, Washington, D. C., also entered an appearance for appellant.

Daniel A. DeRose, Asst. U. S. Atty., Washington, D. C., with whom Earl J. Silbert, U. S. Atty., John A. Terry and Jason D. Kogan, Asst. U. S. Attys., Washington, D. C., were on the brief for appellee.

Before LEVENTHAL and WILKEY, Circuit Judges, and BRYAN, ^* United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge LEVENTHAL.

LEVENTHAL, Circuit Judge:

This is an appeal from a conviction for possession of narcotics with intent to distribute, 21 U.S.C. § 841. Appellant was sentenced to a term of five years' imprisonment, plus a special parole term of three years to be served at the expiration of the five-year sentence. Execution of the sentence was suspended, and appellant was placed on five years' probation with conditions. Appellant complains of the District Judge's denial of his motion to suppress narcotics seized in his home pursuant to a search warrant, on the ground that the warrant issued without a showing of probable cause sufficient under Aguilar v. Texas, 378 U.S. 108, 84 S.Ct. 1509, 12 L.Ed.2d 723 (1964), and its progeny.

I. BACKGROUND

The pertinent facts are as follows. On February 11, 1974, Officers Johnson and Cassidy, with several other members of the Narcotics Squad of the Metropolitan Police Department, went to the defendant's home, 2502 Pomeroy Road, S.E., Apartment 404, Washington, D.C., for the purpose of executing a bench warrant for the arrest of one Robert Wilkinson. Wilkinson was not there, but while some of the officers were engaged in a conversation with the occupant, Tommy L. Bowers, Officer Cassidy noticed an I.B.M. Selectric Typewriter on the living room table. On the assumption that such machines were generally leased to commercial establishments and not generally found in the home, Cassidy moved the carriage return to expose the serial number. He made a note of the number, and a subsequent check revealed the typewriter had been stolen. Cassidy also observed two small smoking pipes which he believed were "commonly used for the smoking of Marijuana."

Three days later, on February 14, 1974, at approximately 6:30 to 7:00 A.M., Officer Johnson received a telephone call from an informant who stated that he had been in the company of Watts at the Pomeroy Road apartment within the past twelve hours and had been shown a quantity of powder alleged by Watts to be heroin and cocaine, and that these narcotics would be transferred sometime during the day of February 14, 1974. Johnson relayed the informant's tip in a telephone call to Cassidy, who later that morning applied for and received a United States Magistrate's search warrant for the apartment. At approximately 12:15 P.M. that day, Officers Johnson and Cassidy and others executed the search warrant and seized the items which were the subject of the motion to suppress.

II. THE SHOWING OF PROBABLE CAUSE BEFORE THE MAGISTRATE

A. The Cassidy Affidavit

Officer Cassidy's affidavit upon which the search warrant issued is set out in the Appendix. Essentially, the following recitals were made to establish probable cause: (1) the observation of serial number 5583096 from the I.B.M. Selectric which checked out as a stolen typewriter; (2) the observation of two small pipes "commonly used for the smoking of Marijuana"; (3) the informant's tip that he had seen narcotics in Pomeroy Road apartment within the past twelve hours and that they were to be moved sometime during the day of February 14, 1974; and (4) the past reliability of the informant, in that (a) he "has supplied information in the past to members of the Narcotics Branch, M.P.D.C. concerning Narcotic violators operationg (sic) withinf (sic) the District of Columbia; (b) "(t)his information has proven to be correct in the past and as a result of the information given by this source, arrests are pending of at least on (sic) narcotic violator"; and (c) "this source has in the past two weeks has (sic) purchased illicit narcotics drugs for members of the M.P.D.C. under controlled conditions."

The warrant in this case authorized a search of the Pomeroy Road premises "for violations of the Narcotics Laws of the United States and the District of Columbia." ¹ Because appellant was prosecuted for a narcotics offense, and seeks to suppress the narcotics seized from his home pursuant to the warrant, we do not have occasion here to rule on appellant's contention that Officer Cassidy's previous observation of the I.B.M. Selectric typewriter serial number by moving the carriage return of the machine (Tr. 20) was improper under the "plain view" doctrine of Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 466, 91 S.Ct. 2022, 29 L.Ed.2d 564 (1971). The issue before us is whether the Cassidy affidavit established probable cause to believe that narcotics and related paraphernalia would be found in the Pomeroy Road premises. ²

B. The Aguilar Requirements

Under Aguilar v. Texas, supra, 378 U.S. at 114, 84 S.Ct. at 1514, to provide probable cause for a warrant an affidavit based on hearsay information must inform the magistrate of "some of the underlying circumstances from which the informant concluded that the narcotics were where he claimed they were . . . ." That requirement was concededly met by Cassidy's affidavit which related that the tip was based on the first-hand observations of the informant, obtained in the presence of the appellant. The issue in this case is whether there was an adequate showing before the magistrate as to the second prong of Aguilar, that the affidavit must show "some of the underlying circumstances from which the officer concluded that the informant . . . was 'credible' or his information 'reliable.' "

We take as our starting point 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, 591, 21 L.Ed.2d 637 (1969), that "when a search is based upon a magistrate's, rather than a police officer's, determination of probable cause, the reviewing courts will accept evidence of less 'judicially competent or persuasive character than would have justified an officer in acting on his own without a warrant,' " Aguilar v. Texas, supra, 378 U.S. at 111, 84 S.Ct. at 1512, quoting Jones v. United States, 362 U.S. 257, 271, 80 S.Ct. 725, 4 L.Ed.2d 697 (1960). While the court must review the adequacy of the affidavit in terms of the Aguilar requirements, ³ a layman-prepared affidavit, often prepared under the pressure of time, should be read in a "common-sense and realistic fashion" with due deference accorded to the magistrate's appraisal. ⁴

C. Application of Law to Facts

The affidavit includes a recital that on its face is probative of the informant's past reliability. It states that the informant has been reliable in the past to members of the Narcotics Branch of the Metropolitan Police, and offers "some of the underlying circumstances" for that judgment. They are that this informant has supplied information concerning narcotics violators operating within the District of Columbia, and this information had proven to be correct in the past. We are aware that this recital can be given a reading so exacting in syntax as to negate what was the likely intent of the affiant, and even more likely the magistrate's understanding. In our view, the message intended, and understood, was that the informant's previous tips had been helpful to the police because they had proven correct. ⁵ Our responsibility under the pertinent Supreme Court decisions is to give the affidavit a sensible, pragmatic reading, one that takes account of the pressure of time and the typical level of verbal skills in laymen police officers, and accords deference to the magistrate's determination, which may be based on demeanor evidence, to credit the affiant's assertions.

This recital could have been more detailed, and indeed it might have been had Officer Johnson, who had received the informant's phone call, been available to secure the warrant himself. ⁶ The circumstances of the case were such that Johnson was "on sick leave" (Tr. 40) when the informant called between 6:30 and 7:00 A.M. on February 14, and said that narcotics were to be moved that day from the Pomeroy Road apartment. Johnson called Cassidy and relayed to him the contents of the tip and his basis for crediting the informant. Cassidy then prepared the affidavit, and the warrant was issued that morning and executed by noon. ⁷

Putting to one side the special circumstances of this case, the recital in question could properly be relied upon by the magistrate in finding probable cause. Factual delineation of the situations in which previous information obtained from the informant had proven correct, however desirable in aiding the magistrate's independent scrutiny, is simply not required by the Supreme Court decisions. Although a bare recital that an unnamed defendant is "credible" ⁸ or "reliable" ⁹ or "prudent," ¹⁰ without offering any factual basis for that conclusion, is plainly inadequate, the assertion that the source had previously given correct information concerning narcotics violators is entitled to weight as a factor establishing previous reliability. The affidavit in Jones v. United States, 362 U.S. 257, 267 n. 2, 80 S.Ct. 725, 4 L.Ed.2d 697 (1960), contained a similar recital, and the Jones affidavit has been cited by the Court in subsequent decisions as a "suitable benchmark" for judging "what quantum of information is necessary to support a belief that an unidentified informant's information is truthful." ¹¹ Most lower courts have...