United States v. Goff

736 F. Supp. 1087, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5437, 1990 WL 59385
CourtDistrict Court, D. Utah
DecidedFebruary 16, 1990
DocketNo. 86-CR-0168-S
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 736 F. Supp. 1087 (United States v. Goff) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Utah primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Goff, 736 F. Supp. 1087, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5437, 1990 WL 59385 (D. Utah 1990).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM DECISION

SAM, District Judge.

This matter is before the court on the renewed motion to suppress made by defendants Charles Goff, et al. (the Goffs). This court has agreed to review its December 30, 1987 memorandum decision, United States v. Goff, 677 F.Supp. 1526 (D.Utah 1987), in light of United States v. Leary, 846 F.2d 592 (10th Cir.1988).1 The facts upon which this decision is based are adequately set forth in Goff, 677 F.Supp. at 1529-1531.

Goffs have raised numerous issues by their renewed motion which are unrelated to the issues addressed by the Leary court. Because this court has only agreed to reconsideration in light of Leary, those extraneous issues will not be discussed herein. This court sees no reason to depart from its [1088]*1088earlier decision and therefore abides by that decision as it pertains to the issues not addressed by the Leary court. This Memorandum Decision will be confined to the application of Leary to the present facts.

Leary was a criminal case in which the defendants moved for suppression of evidence seized under a search warrant. The warrant was executed at the offices of the F.L. Kleinberg Company (Kleinberg). Kleinberg and a vice-president were subsequently indicted.

The search warrant was obtained by federal customs agent, John Juhasz, on the basis of his detailed affidavit alleging violations of the Arms Export Control Act, 22 U.S.C. § 2778, and the Export Administration Act. The alleged violations detailed in the affidavit pertained to a single transaction — the purchase and attempted export of a Micro-tel Precision Attenuation Measurement Receiver by Kleinberg in 1984. The warrant which was issued on the basis of that affidavit authorized a search of the Kleinberg offices and seizure of the following:

Correspondence, Telex messages, contracts, invoices, purchase orders, shipping documents, payment records, export documents, packing slips, technical data, recorded notations, and other records and communications relating to the purchase, sale and illegal exportation of materials in violation of the Arms Export Control Act, 22 U.S.C. 2778, and the Export Administration Act of 1979, 50 U.S. C.App. 2410.

Leary, 846 F.2d at 594.

The property seized pursuant to execution of the warrant included

[tjwenty boxes of business records ... including references to sales and sales contacts throughout the world, telexes to Australia and South Africa, information from applicants for employment with Kleinberg, Leary’s application with Shearson American Express for personal financial planning, Leary’s life insurance policy, and correspondence relating to other businesses for which Leary acted as sales representative.

Leary, 846 F.2d at 594-595.

After the indictment, Kleinberg and Leary moved for suppression of all the evidence seized. The district court granted the motion holding that there was no probable cause supporting the affidavit, that the warrant inadequately specified the items to be seized and that the “good faith” exception to the exclusionary rule was inapplicable.

The government appealed to the Tenth Circuit which affirmed the decision of the district court. The Leary court found that the warrant was impermissibly overbroad in that it contained no meaningful limitations as to the property to be searched. The affidavit did not provide any meaningful limitation either as it had not been incorporated by the affidavit nor was it relied on by the agents executing the warrant in a manner that would have limited the search.

The court specifically held that the warrant was defective because the government had available to it information which could have made the description of items to be seized much more particular. Although the Juhasz affidavit was quite specific, that specificity was not reflected by the issuing warrant.

Finally, the court held that the scope of the warrant exceeded any probable cause. Assuming the Juhasz affidavit established probable cause to issue a warrant, the scope of the warrant should have been limited to documentary evidence of transactions relating to the Micro-tel receiver or to shipments to Hong Kong. The Juhasz affidavit, however, did not support a general search of the business.2

Due to the fatal overbreadth of the warrant the court refused to apply the “good faith” exception to the exclusionary rule. The court held that “[t]his is one of those ‘unusual’ cases where suppression of the evidence is appropriate to deter governmental misconduct.” Id. at 610.

[1089]*1089At the outset it is important to note that application of Leary to this case is limited because the Leary facts are distinguishable in several significant respects. First, Leary involved a criminal search warrant. Here Warrant I is an administrative inspection warrant which has different standards for probable cause and a different purpose, that is, verifying compliance with the Gun Control Act. Second, Leary focused on a single transaction easily isolated in time. The instant case involves a manufacturing process in which general compliance prior to a specific date is at issue; the process is not easily isolated in a solitary transaction. Third, in Leary, the agents had an abundance of reliable information and recited in their affidavit details surrounding the illegal exportation. Despite the specificity of information the agents possessed, their warrant contained only general information. In Goff, the agents were limited in the reliable information they had received and sought to ascertain compliance through an administrative inspection. In contrast, the Goff warrants contained the degree of specificity of information found in the affidavits. Fourth, the business searched in the Leary case was not a closely regulated industry in contrast to the firearms industry in which the Goffs participated. Leary, 846 F.2d at 597. See Colonnade Catering Corp. v. United States, 397 U.S. 72, 90 S.Ct. 774, 25 L.Ed.2d 60 (1968) (liquor); United States v. Biswell, 406 U.S. 311, 92 S.Ct. 1593, 32 L.Ed.2d 87 (1972) (firearms). The Goffs, as manufacturers of firearms, participated in a closely regulated industry and therefore had a reduced expectation of privacy in the firearms and records at issue. Goff, 677 F.Supp. at 1531-35.

Warrant 1

1. Issuance

The Goffs, in their renewed motion to suppress, allege that Warrant 1 was constitutionally defective for lack of probable cause. Where the Leary court specifically declined to address the issue of probable cause, this court also declines to reconsider the portions of its memorandum decision addressing probable cause. Leary, 846 F.2d at 610, 598 n. 6.

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Bluebook (online)
736 F. Supp. 1087, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5437, 1990 WL 59385, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-goff-utd-1990.