Good Faith Saves Search

U.S. v. Quezada-Enriquez, 2009 WL 1565196 (6/5/09) (Published) - Another published case skipping the question whether the affidavit for search warrant established probable cause and moving on to finding the good faith exception applies. The 10th notes that, when a confidential informant ("CI") is involved, whether there is probable cause depends on the CI's veracity, reliability and basis of knowledge. These factors are evaluated as a whole to resolve the probable cause issue. In this case, the affidavit established the past reliability of the CI, that he was not working off charges and the officers corroborated matters that could be known by any member of the public. But there was nothing to show how the CI knew the defendant had a gun and no corroboration of that claim. All in all there was enough in the affidavit to show it would not have been "entirely unreasonable" for the officer to rely on the affidavit. But helpfully, the panel stresses the good faith exception "applies only narrowly and ordinarily only when an officer relies objectively on a mistake made by someone else." This might help hold off an attempt to use Herring in non-warrant situations. Curiously, the panel that very recently found good faith in another case, reported by Larry, U.S. v. Harrison (June 4, 2009), stressed the ordinariness of applying the good faith exception noting a presumption that when an officer relies on a warrant the officer does so in good faith and only "wholly unwarranted" reliance justifies suppression.