United States v. Herring, Criminal Action No. 1:05cr161-T (WO).

• Decision Date: 26 October 2005
• Docket Number: Criminal Action No. 1:05cr161-T (WO).
• Citation: 451 F.Supp.2d 1290
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America v. Bennie Dean HERRING.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Middle District of Alabama

451 F.Supp.2d 1290

UNITED STATES of America v. Bennie Dean HERRING.

Criminal Action No. 1:05cr161-T (WO).

United States District Court, M.D. Alabama, Southern Division.

October 26, 2005.

Bennie Dean Herring, Montgomery, AL, Pro Se Defendant.

Verne H. Speirs, U.S. Attorney's Office, Montgomery, AL, for Plaintiff.

OPINION

MYRON H. THOMPSON, District Judge.

Defendant Bennie Dean Herring is charged with one felony count of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, 18. U.S.C.A. § 922(g)(1), and one misdemeanor count of intentionally and knowingly possessing a mixture or substance containing a detectable amount of methamphetamine, 21 U.S.C.A. § 844(a). On October 24, 2005, this court adopted the recommendation of the United States Magistrate Judge that Herring's motion to suppress certain "physical evidence" recovered incident to his arrest and search be denied. The court said that a memorandum opinion would follow. This is the promised opinion.

I. Factual Background

On July 7, 2004, Herring drove to the Coffee County, Alabama Sheriffs Department to check on a vehicle that had been impounded. As Herring was leaving, Investigator Mark Anderson asked Sandy Pope, the warrant clerk for the Coffee County Sheriffs Department, to check whether there were any outstanding warrants in Coffee County for Herring. Pope checked her computer database and advised Anderson that there were no active warrants. Anderson then asked Pope to call the neighboring Dale County Sheriff's Department to see if it had any active warrants for Herring. Pope telephoned Sharon Morgan, the Dale County Sheriffs Department warrant clerk, who reported an active Dale County felony warrant for Herring for a failure to appear. Pope asked Morgan to fax her a copy of the warrant, and informed Anderson of the outstanding warrant.

Anderson and another officer then left the station, pursued Herring, and arrested him. After Herring was placed under arrest, Anderson searched his front pocket and found a plastic bag containing a powder substance later identified as methamphetamine. A search of Herring's vehicle uncovered a handgun, ammunition, and a knife.

While the arrest and search were occurring, Morgan unsuccessfully tried to locate Herring's warrant. She then called the Dale County Circuit Clerk's Office to see if it had the warrant. Although the Dale County Sheriffs Department and the Clerk's Office are housed in the same building, they have separate computer systems.

The Dale County Clerk's Office informed Morgan that the warrant had been recalled. Normally, Morgan will receive a call from the Clerk's Office, or sometimes from a judge's chambers, alerting her that a warrant has been recalled. Morgan then looks in her computer, finds where the warrant is physically located, and disposes of it. In this instance, however, Morgan had no notice of the recall in her computer.

According to Morgan, Herring's recalled warrant had been returned to the Dale County Clerk's Office without there being a notation of it in the Sheriffs Department's computer system. Morgan admits the mistake was probably the fault of the Dale County Sheriffs Department, not that of the Dale County Clerk's Office.

Upon discovering the mistake, Morgan called Pope to alert the Coffee County authorities. Pope, in turn, called the officers on the scene of Herring's arrest. She explained that there was a problem with the warrant. However, the officers had already completed the arrest and search of Herring before learning this information. About ten to 15 minutes elapsed between when Morgan informed Pope that an active warrant existed and when she called back to rescind that statement.

Herring was later indicted on the charges now before the court.

II. Discussion

In Arizona v. Evans, 514 U.S. 1, 115 S.Ct. 1185, 131 L.Ed.2d 34 (1995), the Supreme Court recognized a good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule for evidence seized incident to an arrest occurring as a result of erroneous computer records kept by court employees indicating a valid arrest warrant; there the court clerk failed to inform the sheriffs warrant clerk to remove the warrant at issue. The Court reasoned that: (1) the exclusionary rule was historically designed as a means of deterring police misconduct, not mistakes by " court employees; (2) there was no evidence that court employees were inclined to ignore or subvert the Fourth Amendment or that lawlessness among these actors requires application of the extreme sanction of exclusion; and (3) there was no basis for believing that the exclusionary rule would significantly affect court employees responsible for informing the police that a warrant has been quashed since these employees are not Adjuncts to the law enforcement team. Id. at 15-16, 115 S.Ct. 1185. The Court declined to determine whether its holding would apply if police personnel were responsible for the error. Id. at 16 n. 5, 115 S.Ct. 1185.

Herring's case, unlike the circumstances in Evans, involves a mistake on the part of law enforcement personnel. Thus, the question for this court is...