United States v. Conklin

154 F. Supp. 3d 732, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20, 2016 WL 35550
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Illinois
DecidedJanuary 4, 2016
DocketCase No. 15-cr-30116-MJR
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 154 F. Supp. 3d 732 (United States v. Conklin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Conklin, 154 F. Supp. 3d 732, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20, 2016 WL 35550 (S.D. Ill. 2016).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

REAGAN, Chief District Judge

A July 22, 2015 indictment charges Jeremy Conklin with unlawful possession of a [735]*735firearm by a felon — the indictment says that Conklin possessed a 12-gauge shotgun on or about January 23, 2015, and that he had previously been convicted of unlawful use of a weapon on August 13, 2011. The shotgun was retrieved from Conldin’s mobile home on January 23, 2015, by officers with the St. Clair County Drug Tactical Unit; the officers were acting pursuant to a warrant issued by an Illinois state judge to search for evidence of drug use and distribution. Conklin pled not guilty to the federal charge on August 20, 2015, and is currently scheduled for trial on January 25, 2016.

On October 8, 2015, Conklin filed a motion to suppress the fruits of the search of his home, arguing that the search warrant was not supported by probable cause; that the warrant was overbroad; that the warrant amounted to a general warrant; and that the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule is inapplicable. . A hearing was held on December 18, 2015, and the Court took Conklin’s motion under advisement. For the reasons stated herein, the Court grants Conklin’s motion to suppress.

Background

Conklin’s motion to suppress focuses on the events surrounding the search of his home on January 23, 2015, so the United States presented testimony at the suppression hearing from St. Clair County Drug Tactical Unit Investigator Jarrett Neff, the officer who visited Conklin’s home and obtained the lion’s share of probable cause for the warrant prior to its issuance, and Investigator Shane Brown, the officer who obtained the search warrant from the Illinois state court judge. Investigator Neff testified first, stating that another officer in his unit received a tip from a citizen informant on January 23, 2015, concerning the use and sale of illegal drugs at Conk-lin’s home. The informant, said that marijuana, heroin, and methamphetamine were being sold by Conklin at the home and that the informant had seen these sales occur.

About two hours after receiving the tip, Neff and three other officers went to Conklin’s home to investigate what the informant said. When they arrived, Neff went to the front door of the home and Was greeted first 'by Conklin and then by the smell of raw cannabis coming from the inside of Conklin’s home. Neff told Conklin that police were there' concerning illegal drug use at the home and asked for consent- to search, which Conklin refused. Neff then conducted an occupancy check of the home and found that Conklin was not listed on the permit, so he arrested Conk-lin for occupancy violations. At the same time, one of the other officers looked through the window of Conklin’s home and saw a bong sitting on top of a dresser. After Conklin wás transported to the Cahokia Police Department, Neff looked through the front window of the home and confirmed that there was a bong inside. Neff also had a police canine named Pako conduct a sniff of the outside of the home, and Pako alerted to the presence of drugs. Based on the informant tip, the bong sighting, Neffs sniff, and Pako’s sniff, Neff called Investigator Shane Brown, another investigator with St. Clair’s Drug Tactical Unit, and ■ dictated probable cause for a search warrant. Brown then typed up the probable cause section of the warrant application and emailed it to Neff, who confirmed the write-up’s accuracy. Neff left it to. Brown to obtain the warrant; his involvement, at least with the warrant application, seemingly ended there.

Investigator Brown testified next — he confirmed Neffs account concerning the probable cause write-up, but highlighted one problem with the write-up, that no one noticed at the time: the write-up said that the citizen informant’s tip came on Janu[736]*736ary 23, 2014, but Neff and Brown confirmed that the 2014 date was a scrivener’s error — the tip actually came on January 23, 2015, two hours before the search. After Neff approved the probable cause write-up’s accuracy, Brown used a template warrant application for drug cases to put the complete warrant affidavit together. Brown then sent the draft warrant application to a St. Clair County Assistant State’s Attorney, who reviewed and approved the application, and later presented it St. Clair County Judge Kolker, who approved the warrant. The warrant authorized police to search Conklin’s home for:

• Controlled substances of any form;
• Cannabis in any form;
• Weapons of any form;
• Catalogues, magazines, brochures, books, manuals, and evidence of ordering the same, relating to equipment or materials used in the preparation to traffic cannabis and controlled substances;
• Paraphernalia, equipment, and tools for packaging, cutting, weighing, distributing, storing, processing, and using cannabis and controlled substances, including, but not limited to, scales, baggies, timers, pipes, cooking utensils;
• Books, records, receipts, checks, check receipts, passbooks, bank statements and records, documentation reflecting an account at a financial institution, ' money drafts, letters of credit, money orders, cashier’s and bank checks, loan records, documents and/or keys relating to safety deposit boxes, credit card receipts, and other items of evidencing the obtaining, secreting, transfer, concealment, and/or expenditure of money and other real or personal property;
• Digital paging devices, cellular and digital phones, and the electronic messages contained therein;
• Maps, itineraries, papers, tickets, schedules, calendars, statements, lodging receipts, passports, visas and other items relating to foreign travel plans;
• Addresses and/or telephone books and papers reflecting names, addresses, and/or telephone numbers;
• Records, ledgers, receipts and papers relating to transporting, purchasing, distributing or possessing cannabis and controlled substances;
• United States currency, precious metals, jewelry and financial instruments, including, but not limited to, stocks and bonds;
• Indicia of occupancy, residency, use and/or ownership of the premises to be searched including, but not limited to, utility bills, telephone bills, canceled envelopes, keys, lease agreements, deeds; and
• Photographs and/or video recordings of suppliers, transporters, customers, co-conspirators or others involved in the distribution of cannabis and controlled substances; all of which are either contraband, or which constitute evidence of the commission of or constitute fruits of or which property has been used as the means of committing violations of Illinois Compiled Statutes, Cannabis and Controlled Substances Acts, any and all other documents, instrumentalists, video re- ' cordings, audio recordings, or substances which constitute evidence of the commission of or constitute fruits of or which property has been used as the mean [sic] of committing violations of the Illinois Compiled Statutes.

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154 F. Supp. 3d 732, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20, 2016 WL 35550, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-conklin-ilsd-2016.