Thursday, December 17, 2020

Government collaterally estopped from renewing prosecution after evidence suppressed

United States v. Arterbury, 961 F.3d 1095 (10th Cir. 2020) (a WIN: collateral estoppel) In 2016, in Oklahoma, Arterbury won a suppression motion (PlayPen Sting). The Government dismissed the case (court granted without prejudice). Government filed an interlocutory appeal, but before briefing withdrew it. Now in Colorado, the Government who lost the same suppression issue, appealed and won based on Leon good-faith exception, in United States v. Workman, 862 F.3d 1313 (10th Cir. 2017). Government in Oklahoma gets excited and re-instates prosecution; Arterbury raises collateral estoppel. District court says collateral estoppel is a due process thing and it wouldn’t be fundamentally unfair to Arterbury to try him. On appeal, the Tenth Circuit says collateral estoppel is a common-law doctrine, and Workman did not change the law so Government can’t avoid collateral estoppel that way - the order suppressing the evidence must stand.