United States v. Hector

368 F. Supp. 2d 1060, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8693, 2005 WL 1076729
District Court, C.D. California·Decided May 2, 2005·No. CR 04-00860 DDP·Published·Cited by 8 cases

Opinion

ORDER DENYING GOVERNMENT’S MOTION FOR RECONSIDERATION

PREGERSON, District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on the government’s motion for reconsideration of the order granting the defendant’s second motion for reconsideration. After reviewing the papers submitted by the parties and hearing oral argument, the Court denies the government’s motion and adopts the following order.

I. Background

On July 9, 2004, Albert Lamont Hector was charged with possession with intent to distribute cocaine base (21 U.S.C. § 846), possession of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking (18 U.S.C. § 924(c)), and being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition (18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1)).

On September 27, 2004, the defendant filed a motion to suppress the evidence obtained on June 2, 2004, when agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and officers from the Los Ange-les Police Department arrested the defendant and searched his apartment. During the search, the defendant was presented with a “Search Warrant Notice of Service” (“Notice of Service”). The Notice of Service did not indicate which items the officers and agents were authorized to seize, or state the address of the premises to be searched. 1 The government acknowledged during prior oral argument on the defendant’s second. motion for reconsideration that the “Notice of. Service” is not a warrant. After the defendant was booked, he apparently received a property receipt indicating the items, seized by the officers. The government conceded .during prior oral argument that at no time before, during, or immediately after the search did the officers serve a search warrant on the defendant. It appears that the defendant was first provided with the search warrant as part of the government’s discovery obligations.

In his motion to suppress evidence, the defendant argued that the Notice of Ser *1062 vice was inadequate under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 41(f) (“Rule 41”) and the Fourth Amendment. The argument regarding Rule 41 was premised on the contention that the investigation had been “federal in character.” On October 18, 2004, after determining that the investigation had not been federal in character and that Rule 41 did not apply, the Court denied the defendant’s motion to suppress. The Court granted the defendant leave to submit supplemental briefing, which was filed with the Court on October 22, 2004.

On November 1, 2004, the defendant filed a motion for reconsideration of the order denying the motion to suppress evidence. The Court denied this motion on December 1, 2004.

On December 21, 2004, a jury convicted the defendant on all three counts of the indictment. 2

On December 27, 2004, the defendant filed a second motion for reconsideration of the order denying the motion to suppress evidence. In his reply brief to that motion, the defendant cited the recent ruling in United States v. Martinez-Garcia, 397 F.3d 1205 (9th Cir.2005), a decision that postdated the defendant’s convictions. In Martinez-Garcia, the Ninth Circuit stated that the failure of state officers to serve a warrant at any time before, during, or immediately after a search of a home may be presumptively unreasonable. Id. at 1212 n. 3. This was the first time that the Ninth Circuit had clearly applied the notice requirement of the Fourth Amendment’s Warrant Clause to state officers. The panel did not set an absolute notice requirement but rather balanced the privacy concerns of the public and the need to give notice with the sometimes competing need for flexibility that permits the police to perform their public safety duties effectively. Id. at 1211. In the absence of any such safety and practicality concerns, the Ninth Circuit indicated that failure to serve a warrant is “presumptively unreasonable.” Id. at 1212 n. 3.

In an order filed on March 23, 2005, this Court applied Martinez-Garcia to the search at issue and found that there had been no showing that it was impracticable or imprudent for the officers to serve the warrant on the defendant during or immediately after the search. The Court held that the failure of the officers to serve the search warrant was unreasonable and violated the Fourth Amendment. It found that the evidence obtained during the June 2, 2004 search of the defendant’s apartment should have been suppressed.

The government now brings this motion for reconsideration of the March 23, 2005 order. In its motion, the government makes three arguments. First, it argues that the search was reasonable under the totality of the circumstances despite the failure of the officers to present the defendant with the warrant. Second, the government argues that the evidence should not be suppressed because the officers, in not presenting the warrant, acted pursuant to a good faith reliance on the guidelines contained in the County of Los Angeles’s Search Warrant Manual and prior state court rulings. Finally, the government for the first time presents evidence that, at the time of the search, the defendant was on probation and subject to warrantless searches of his person and property.

II. Discussion

A. Motion for Reconsideration

While the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure do not contain a provision spe- *1063 eifically allowing motions for reconsideration, numerous circuit courts have held that motions for reconsideration may be filed in criminal cases. See United States v. Martin, 226 F.3d 1042, 1047 n. 7 (9th Cir.2000) (post-judgment motion for reconsideration may be filed in a criminal case and governed by Fed.R.Civ.P. 59(e)); United States v. Fiorelli, 337 F.3d 282, 286 (3d Cir.2003) (motion for reconsideration allowed in criminal case and governed by Fed.R.Civ.P. 59(e) or Fed.R.Civ.P. 60(b)); United States v. Clark, 984 F.2d 31, 33-34 (2d Cir.1993) (motion for reconsideration filed in criminal case within 10 days of subject order is treated under Fed. R.Civ.P. 59(e)).

The purpose of a motion under Rule 59(e) is to “correct manifest errors of law or fact or to present newly discovered evidence.” Harsco Corp. v. Zlotnicki, 779 F.2d 906, 909 (3d Cir.1985).

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United States v. Hector, 368 F. Supp. 2d 1060, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8693, 2005 WL 1076729 (C.D. Cal. 2005).

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