United States v. Parnell Bowling

351 F.2d 236, 1965 U.S. App. LEXIS 4418
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedSeptember 29, 1965
Docket16226
StatusPublished
Cited by66 cases

This text of 351 F.2d 236 (United States v. Parnell Bowling) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Parnell Bowling, 351 F.2d 236, 1965 U.S. App. LEXIS 4418 (6th Cir. 1965).

Opinion

*237 EDWARDS, Circuit Judge.

The Fourth Amendment prohibits “unreasonable searches and seizures.” It also specifically allows for searches and seizures upon “probable cause” and the issuance of a judicial warrant. In such cases as Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 81 S.Ct. 1684, 6 L.Ed.2d 1081, 84 A.L.R.2d 933 (1961); Aquilar v. State of Texas, 378 U.S. 108, 84 S.Ct. 1509, 12 L.Ed.2d 723 (1964); United States v. Ventresca, 380 U.S. 102, 85 S.Ct. 741, 13 L.Ed.2d 684 (1965); Stoner v. State of California, 376 U.S. 483, 84 S.Ct. 889, 11 L.Ed.2d 856 (1964) and Preston v. United States, 376 U.S. 364, 84 S.Ct. 881, 11 L.Ed.2d 777 (1964), the Supreme Court of the United States has spelled out its desire to encourage the use of search warrants wherever it was reasonably possible for the police to procure one.

The Supreme Court has also made clear that highly technical attacks upon affidavits and warrants where sought and used are not to be encouraged.

“These decisions reflect the recognition that the Foúrth Amendment’s commands, like all constitutional' requirements, are practical and not abstract. If the teachings of the Court’s cases are to be followed and the constitutional policy served, affidavits for search warrants, such as the one involved here, must be tested and interpreted by magistrates and courts in a commonsense and realistic fashion. They are normally drafted by nonlawyers in the- midst and haste of a criminal investigation. Technical requirements of elaborate specificity once exacted under common law pleadings have no proper place in this area. A grudging or negative attitude by reviewing courts toward warrants will tend to discourage police officers from submitting their evidence to a judicial officer before acting.” United States v. Ventresca, supra, 380 U.S. at 108, 85 S.Ct. at 746.

Herein, with ample reason to believe that defendant was operating as a fence for stolen business machines, the police officer concerned went to two courts to procure three different search warrants in order to search — more or less simultaneously — the three logical storage places which they knew defendant to possess. In two of the places searched, the searchers drew blanks. In the third, defendant’s home, the searchers discovered a basement full of stolen property — including the business machines herein concerned.

Two of these machines had been stolen from agencies of the United States government. Their recovery resulted in the instant indictment under which defendant was charged with unlawfully and willfully receiving and concealing property of the United' States, with intent to convert it to his own use in violation of Title 18 U.S.C. §- 641.

Defendant was tried by a jury. A motion to suppress evidence was made and denied. Defendant was found guilty and sentenced to one year and one day on each count, with the sentences to run concurrently.

The sole issue on this appeal pertains to the District Judge’s denial of the motion to suppress evidence. That motion was filed before trial and was the subject of extensive evidence before the District Judge. It was lengthy and technical and was amended on the day of hearing. The issues as presented to the District Judge may be summarized as follows:

1. The search warrant as issued was- fatally defective because issued without “basis of fact” and as a “fishing expedition” or “flyer.”
2. That it was fatally defective as too indefinite and vague as to the objects of the search.
3. That the evidence seized and sought to be introduced was not seized under the search warrant at all because the search warrant had been “returned” prior to the seizure.
4. That the search was illegal because not conducted by the officers specifically authorized to conduct it.

*238 The facts as developed at hearing present an interesting story. A Cincinnati Police Department detective, Lt. Scully, having been told of theft of an IBM typewriter on which a “ball” was missing, advised the IBM “people,” “in the event anybody orders this particular ball, have one of your salesmen check the item and get the serial number off of it, because it might be one of the stolen pieces of equipment.”

Subsequently, a businessman in Fort Thomas, Kentucky, did order a “ball” and the IBM people did notify Lt. Scully, and on checking the serial numbers of this machine, he ascertained that it was the one previously reported stolen. Asked where he got the stolen machine, the Fort Thomas businessman reported he got it from a W. A. Hennard of Newport, Kentucky.

The story continues from the transcript :

“Q Tell us what happened when you got to Hennard’s place of business.
“A When we entered Hennard’s place of business, I asked him about this IBM machine and he stated that he had sent it up there on memorandum and I asked him where he purchased it. He said a fellow in an old gray station wagon had brought it in and sold it to him. I asked him who the man was; he said he didn’t know. While I was there, I observed a piece of equipment that was stolen in Cincinnati on Curtis Street.
“Q Now, this is a second piece of equipment ?
“A This is a second piece of equipment that did not come from the I.B.M. people.
“Q. Were you able to identify that second piece of equipment?
“A I had the serial number of that piece of equipment in my pocket at that time.
“Q. Along with other numbers that you also had with you ?
“A That is right.
“Q All right, did you face Hen-nard with this information?
“A I did.
“Q And where did he tell you that he got that piece of equipment?
“A Got it from the same man that had the old gray station wagon.
“Q Did he ever change his story and tell you where he got this piece of machinery?
“A Not that day, he did not.
“Q And when did he tell you ?
“A The next day.
“Q Was that on April the second of this year?
“A That’s correct.
“Q When did he tell you that day?
“A On the second?
“Q Yes.
“A Told me he had gotten it from Parnell Bowling, along with other numerous pieces of office equipment.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
351 F.2d 236, 1965 U.S. App. LEXIS 4418, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-parnell-bowling-ca6-1965.