United States v. Johnson

871 F. Supp. 2d 539, 2012 WL 1680786
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Louisiana
DecidedMay 14, 2012
DocketCriminal No. 11-0217
StatusPublished

This text of 871 F. Supp. 2d 539 (United States v. Johnson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Johnson, 871 F. Supp. 2d 539, 2012 WL 1680786 (W.D. La. 2012).

Opinion

RULING

ROBERT G. JAMES, District Judge.

Pending before the Court is a Motion to Suppress [Doc. No. 21] filed by Defendant Raul X. Johnson (“Johnson”). On March 20, 2012, Magistrate Judge Karen L. Hayes issued a Report and Recommendation [Doc. No. 30], recommending that the Court grant the motion in part and deny the motion in part. On April 3, 2012, the Government filed an Objection [Doc. No. 31] to the Report and Recommendation. Johnson did not respond to the objection.

In his Motion to Suppress, Johnson, an officer with the Monroe City Police Department (“MPD”), challenges two searches by law enforcement: (1) a search of the police cruiser assigned to him for use as a school resource officer and (2) a search of his desk at Carroll Junior High School. With regard to the police cruiser, Magistrate Judge Hayes concluded that Johnson did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy, and she recommended that the Motion to Suppress be denied as to the evidence obtained from the cruiser. With regard to the desk, however, Magistrate Judge Hayes found that Johnson did have a reasonable expectation of privacy and that the warrantless search of his desk violated the Fourth Amendment and was presumptively unreasonable. Although she considered both the workplace exception, pursuant to O’Connor v. Ortega, 480 U.S. 709, 107 S.Ct. 1492, 94 L.Ed.2d 714 (1987), and the consent exception, Magistrate Judge Hayes found that neither exception was applicable, and, thus, recommended that the Motion to Suppress be granted and the evidence obtained from Johnson’s desk be suppressed.1

The Government objects that the Court should deny the Motion to Suppress in its entirety because the search of Johnson’s desk was a legitimate workplace search and, in the alternative, the evidence would have been inevitably discovered. The Government admits that the O’Connor decision did not address warrantless workplace searches for purposes of criminal investigation, but argues that under United States v. Slanina, 283 F.3d 670 (5th Cir.2002), judgment vacated on other grounds, 537 U.S. 802, 123 S.Ct. 69, 154 L.Ed.2d 3 (2002), the Fifth Circuit would find that the workplace exception applies in this case. Even if the workplace exception does not apply, the Government argues that the Motion to Suppress should be denied because the inevitable discovery doctrine permits the introduction of the evidence seized from Johnson’s desk.

The Court will first address the Government’s objection that the search of Johnson’s desk was permissible under the Fifth Circuit’s interpretation of the workplace [541]*541exception. In Slanina, the case cited by the Government, the defendant was a city fire marshal, who was provided a computer for work purposes. The computer was located in his private office, and Slanina had used a password to protect its contents. While Slanina was home recovering from oral surgery, Ryan Smith (“Smith”), a city employee, was upgrading his computer. At the direction of his direct supervisor, Slanina reluctantly gave his password to Smith. While working on the computer, Smith noticed that Slanina had emails which showed that he had accessed newsgroups. Smith looked further and noticed that three titles suggested the newsgroups involved pornography. It was “widely known that employees were not to have pornographic material on their computers”; therefore, Smith investigated further, determined that a number of pornographic news files had been read and also found an adult pornographic image on the computer. 283 F.3d at 673. At that point, Smith notified supervisors. Smith continued to search the computer and located child pornography as well. Slanina’s direct supervisor instructed Smith to secure Slanina’s office. The next day, the computer was brought to the office of the Public Safety Director, Mike Keller (“Keller”), who was a law enforcement official in charge of the city’s police and fire departments. With Smith’s assistance, Keller spent about two hours searching Slanina’s computer. He then contacted the city manager to discuss the possible criminal violations and the misuse of city property. Human resources was also contacted.

After his conviction for possession of child pornography, Slanina appealed to the Fifth Circuit, arguing that the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress because he had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the computer, and Keller’s warrantless search2 violated the Fourth Amendment. The Fifth Circuit first found that Slanina had a subjective expectation of privacy in his computer and that his expectation of privacy was reasonable. Id. at 676. However, the Fifth Circuit then concluded that the warrantless search of Slanina’s computer did not violate the Fourth Amendment. In reaching this conclusion, the Fifth Circuit used the O’Connor decision as only a “starting point,” explaining that the Supreme Court had declined “to ‘address the appropriate standard when an employee is being investigated for criminal misconduct or breaches of other nonwork-related or regulatory standards.’ ” Id. at 677 (quoting 480 U.S. at 729 n. *, 107 S.Ct. 1492). The Fifth Circuit further noted that the Supreme Court “suggested that its holding might not extend to the context of investigations into work-related misconduct by government employers who ... are also law enforcement officers.” Id.

After reviewing the decisions of other appellate courts, the Fifth Circuit “approved of the Fourth Circuit’s reasoning in [United States v. Simons, 206 F.3d 392 (4th Cir.2000) ],” which involved an employee of the Central Intelligence Agency suspected of using his work computer to access pornography. 283 F.3d at 678. The Fifth Circuit agreed with the Fourth Circuit “that O’Connor’s goal of ensuring an efficient workplace should not be frustrated simply because the same misconduct that violates a government employer’s policy also happens to be illegal.” Id. The Fifth Circuit acknowledged the potential conflict between the Fourth Circuit’s interpretation of O’Connor in Simons and the Ninth Circuit’s interpretation in United States v. Taketa, 923 F.2d 665 (9th Cir.1991), where that court suppressed evidence obtained after the “character of the investigation had changed” from an “inter[542]*542nal investigation into work-related misconduct” into “a criminal investigation.” 283 F.3d at 678 n. 7. While apparently siding with the Fourth Circuit, the Fifth Circuit noted that even under the Taketa interpretation, there was a “critical distinction” in the search of Slanina’s computer:

at the time of Keller’s search, he was still conducting an internal investigation into work-related misconduct as well as a criminal search. Because of the dual nature of Keller’s search, the government employer’s interest in the prompt and efficient operation of the workplace are more compelling in the present case than in Taketa, in which the investigation was purely criminal.

Id. The Fifth Circuit also addressed the fact that Keller was a law enforcement officer, as opposed to the computer network administrator who conducted the search in Simons.

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Bluebook (online)
871 F. Supp. 2d 539, 2012 WL 1680786, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-johnson-lawd-2012.