United States v. Roger Jones, Jr.

707 F. App'x 317
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedAugust 29, 2017
Docket16-6811
StatusUnpublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 707 F. App'x 317 (United States v. Roger Jones, Jr.) 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. Roger Jones, Jr., 707 F. App'x 317 (6th Cir. 2017).

Opinion

THAPAR, Circuit Judge.

This case is like so many others: A tip from a confidential source resulted in a search, an arrest, and a seizure of drugs.

Sergeant Roy Turner is a veteran with the Brownsville Police Department and works regularly with confidential sources. One of his trusted sources informed him that Roger Jones, Jr,, had a large amount of cocaine. Turner knew Jones because he was a repeat customer — his criminal record includes a. litany of drug, domestic assault, witness coercion, and firearm offenses. So when Turner’s source reported that Jones was distributing crack cocaine from a house on Lark Street, Turner listened. But Turner, like President Reagan, thought one ought to “trust but verify,” So Turner drove to Lark Street to verify his source’s story. Sure enough: Jones was standing in the front yard of the last house at the bend in the road.

Having corroborated a key detail provided by his trusted source, Turner sought a search warrant. But not just a run-of-the-mill search warrant — a no-knock warrant. Jones had a history of violence and the source had seen him with a handgun, so Turner suspected that the search might be dangerous. Turner drafted an- affidavit to that éffeet, describing his observations and his conversation with the source. There was just one problem: Turner did not know the exact house number of Jones’ residence. So he turned to Google Earth for an approximation, which turned out to be incorrect. Turner also downloaded Google-Earth images of the house for good measure.

Relying on Turner’s affidavit, a judge approved the no-knock warrant. And a few days later, Turner and four other police officers entered the Lark Street residence, restrained Jones, and searched the scene. In a kitchen cabinet, the officers discover *319 ed cocaine, crack cocaine, and a digital scale dusted in white residue.

Jones moved to suppress evidence obtained during the search, challenging both the validity of the search warrant and the officers’ conduct during the search. But after a hearing on Jones’ motion, the district court upheld the search. So Jones pled guilty and reserved his right to appeal the suppression ruling. He now raises three claims on appeal: (1) the warrant lacked probable cause; (2) the warrant was invalid because it listed the wrong address; and (3) the search violated Rule 41 of the Tennessee Rules of Criminal Procedure.

When this court reviews a district court’s suppression ruling, we consider legal questions de novo but factual findings for clear error. United States v. Hudson, 405 F.3d 425, 431 (6th Cir. 2005). And where the district court has denied a motion to suppress, this court construes the evidence in the government’s favor. United States v. Carter, 378 F.3d 584, 587 (6th Cir. 2004).

Probable Cause. Jones claims that the search warrant lacked probable cause because the police failed to establish the reliability of Turner’s confidential source. The issuing judge disagreed — a determination we accord “great deference.” United States v. Allen, 211 F.3d 970, 973 (6th Cir. 2000) (en banc) (quoting Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983)).

The question is whether Turner’s affidavit provided a “substantial basis” to support a finding of probable cause. United States v. Archibald, 685 F.3d 553, 557 (6th Cir. 2012). When an affidavit is based on the tip of a confidential source, we consider the source’s reliability, veracity, and basis of knowledge. Gates, 462 U.S. at 230, 103 S.Ct. 2317. These elements are considered under the “totality of the circumstances,” however, not as “entirely separate and independent requirements to be rigidly exacted in every case.” Id. at 230-31, 103 S.Ct. 2317.

Here, Turner attested to the source’s reliability in his affidavit by noting: (1) that the source had provided useful tips over the preceding eight months; (2) that the source was experienced in the illegal drug trade and could reliably identify controlled substances; (3) that the source had seen large amounts of crack cocaine at Jones’ Lark Street residence less than an hour before meeting with Turner; and (4) that Turner had corroborated some of this information by driving by the Lark Street house. United States v. Coffee, 434 F.3d 887, 893-94 (6th Cir. 2006); Allen, 211 F.3d at 976.

Jones nevertheless complains that Turner’s affidavit offered no more than a “blanket statement” to support the source’s reliability. Jones suggests that Turner ought to have specified the number of times that the source had previously provided reliable information. Moreover, Jones argues that Turner’s drive-by merely showed that Jones was present at the residence — it did not corroborate any supposed wrongdoing. Maybe so. But an affidavit is evaluated on the “adequacy of what it does contain” — not “what a critic might say should have been added.” Allen, 211 F.3d at 975 (emphasis added). Here, Turner’s affidavit provided specific details from a source’s first-hand observations. And the affidavit demonstrates the source’s reliability by describing the police department’s ongoing relationship with that source. So the issuing judge had a sufficient basis for finding probable cause.

Mistaken Address. Jones additionally claims that the mistaken address invalidated the warrant and thus the subsequent search. We review this question de *320 novo. United States v. Durk, 149 F.3d 464, 465 (6th Cir. 1998).

A warrant’s description of the place to be searched need not be “technically accurate in every detail.” Id. But the description should allow an executing officer to identify the place to be searched. Id. The description should also reduce any real risk that the officer mistakenly searches the wrong spot. Id. Accordingly, minor inaccuracies will not necessarily invalidate a search warrant. United States v. Pelayo-Landero, 285 F.3d 491, 496 (6th Cir. 2002). Courts. “routinely uphold” warrants with partial inaccuracies, so long as the description contains enough accurate information “to identify the place to be searched with particularity.” Id. at 497. So even an incorrect address is not fatal if the rest of the description leads the officers in the right direction.

No one disputes that the affidavit provided the wrong address. But this mistake must be weighed against the rest of Turner’s description of the Lark Street residence.

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Related

Jones, Jr. v. United States
W.D. Tennessee, 2021
United States v. Samer Abdalla
972 F.3d 838 (Sixth Circuit, 2020)

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Bluebook (online)
707 F. App'x 317, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-roger-jones-jr-ca6-2017.