United States v. Edelen

529 A.2d 774, 1987 D.C. App. LEXIS 394
CourtDistrict of Columbia Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 27, 1987
Docket86-110
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 529 A.2d 774 (United States v. Edelen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District of Columbia Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Edelen, 529 A.2d 774, 1987 D.C. App. LEXIS 394 (D.C. 1987).

Opinion

MACK, Associate Judge:

This appeal by the United States challenges a trial court order granting appel-lee’s motion to suppress certain tangible evidence seized by the United States Park Police during the execution of a search warrant at appellee’s home. The trial court invalidated the warrant after concluding that under local law, narcotics search warrants cannot be issued to the Park Police, but only to the “Chief of Police of the District of Columbia or any member of the Metropolitan Police Department.” D.C. Code § 33-565(e) (1986 Supp.). The trial court further concluded that the “good faith” exception to the suppression of unlawfully seized evidence was inapplicable. We agree that the Park Police lacked statutory authority to be issued the warrant. We find, however, that the rule first announced in United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897, 104 S.Ct. 3405, 82 L.Ed.2d 677 (1984), and later amplified in Illinois v. Krull, — U.S. -, 107 S.Ct. 1160, 94 L.Ed.2d 364 (1987), compels that we vacate the order of suppression and remand with directions that a hearing be held to determine whether the Park Police reliance on the warrant was “objectively reasonable.”

On February 20, 1985, Detective Ronald K- Schmidt, a member of the United States Park Police, applied for and obtained a search warrant authorizing the seizure of narcotics and narcotics-related paraphernalia from appellee’s home in northwest Washington. The alleged ground for the seizure was “violation of U.S. and/or D.C. Laws.” The warrant, issued by a judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, was directed to the “Chief, United States Park Police or any other authorized law enforcement officer.”

During the evening of February 22,1985, some six Park Police officers executed the warrant together with at least two other warrants authorizing searches in the same building in which appellee lived. A copy of the warrant with the return listing the inventory was subsequently filed in Superi- or Court on February 25. Officers from the Metropolitan Police Department took no role in the application for, nor execution of, the warrant.

Appellee was not home at the time of the search. On the basis of the seizure of seven syringes and a number of valium tablets, he was subsequently arrested. He was charged under District of Columbia law with possession of a controlled substance, D.C.Code § 33-541(d) (1986 Supp.), and possession of narcotics paraphernalia, id. § 33-603(b).

At the hearing on appellee’s motion to suppress, appellee first argued that the geographical jurisdiction of the United States Park Police was strictly limited to the National Park system. The trial court properly rejected this argument. Richardson v. United States, 520 A.2d 692 (D.C. 1987). Appellee then argued that regardless of the scope of the general jurisdiction of the Park Police, its officers are specifically prohibited from executing narcotics search warrants under D.C.Code § 33-565 (1986 Supp.), and, under those circumstances, the “good faith” exception does not apply. See Leon, supra, 468 U.S. 897, 104 S.Ct. 3405, 82 L.Ed.2d 677. On the basis of those arguments, the motions judge granted appellee’s motion.

I.

In 1981, the Council of the District of Columbia passed the Uniform Controlled Substances Act. D.C.Law 4-29, 28 D.C. Reg. 3081 (1981) (codified at D.C.Code §§ 33-501 through -567 (1986 Supp.)) (hereinafter “CSA”). The primary goal of the CSA was “to create a comprehensive system governing the use of controlled substances” by revamping the existing District *776 law. Committee on the JudiciaRY of the Council of the District of Columbia, Report on Bill 4-123: The “District of Columbia Uniform Controlled Substances Act of 1981” at 1 (April 8, 1981) (hereinafter “Judiciary Report”). Prior to the enactment of the new law, the primary vehicles for regulation of controlled substances in the District were the Uniform Narcotic Drug Act (UNA) passed by Congress in 1938 1 and the Dangerous Drug Act (DDA) passed by Congress in 1956. 2 The Controlled Substances Act repealed and replaced both those laws. D.C.Law 4-29, §§ 604(a)(1) and (c), 28 D.C.Reg. 3115-16 (1981); Judiciary Report, supra, at 3.

Among other reforms, the CSA classified controlled substances into five schedules, sanctioned a range of penalties consistent with both the potential dangerousness of the substance and the nature of the offense, and created a closed regulatory system for the legitimate handling of controlled substances. D.C.Law 4-29, 28 D.C. Reg. 3081 (1981). As part of the miscellaneous enforcement provisions, the Act included a comprehensive search warrant provision. Codified at D.C.Code § 33-565 (1986 Supp.), the provision mandated both the substantive and procedural requirements for the issuance, execution, and return of narcotics search warrants. 3 It is *777 that provision which is the subject of this controversy.

A.

We turn first to a threshold issue. At oral argument, the government challenged the trial court’s implicit finding that the warrant was applied for under D.C.Code § 33-565 (1986 Supp.). The government maintained that the warrant was applied for under both the local provision and the analogous federal provision, 21 U.S.C. § 879 (1982). 4 It argued that the Park Police’s undisputed authority to be issued search warrants under the federal provision validated the warrant in this case. See Fed.R.Crim.P. 41(a) (“[a] search warrant authorized by this rule may be issued ... upon request of a federal law enforcement officer ... ”).

A Superior Court judge, of course, has jurisdiction to issue both federal and local search warrants. Fed.R.CRIM.P. 41(a); D.C.Code § 23-521 (1981); D.C.Code § 33-565 (1986 Supp.). It is clear, however, that the warrant in question was issued, executed, and returned pursuant to local, not federal, law.

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Bluebook (online)
529 A.2d 774, 1987 D.C. App. LEXIS 394, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-edelen-dc-1987.