United States v. Wright

405 F. Supp. 1236, 1975 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14879
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Texas
DecidedDecember 11, 1975
DocketNo. S-75-17-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 405 F. Supp. 1236 (United States v. Wright) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Wright, 405 F. Supp. 1236, 1975 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14879 (E.D. Tex. 1975).

Opinion

ORDER

JUSTICE, District Judge.

This criminal action arises from a search, jointly conducted by state and federal officers, which resulted in the seizure of both drugs and a sawed-off shotgun. As a result of the search, defendant Wright was indicted for possession of an illegal firearm, allegedly in violation of 26 U.S.C. §§ 5861(d) and 5871.

On January 31, 1975, Paul Carberry, a policeman of the city of Denton, Texas, sought and obtained from a state magistrate a combination arrest and search warrant for the person and residence of James Royce Wright. The affidavit in support of the warrants made reference to an informer’s tip regarding narcotics in Wright’s home. Special Agents Courtney and Von Briesen of the Dallas, Texas, [1238]*1238office of the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) procured a warrant for the arrest of Wright, for a drug-related offense, from the federal magistrate in Sherman, Texas, on January 80, 1975. Courtney, Yon Briesen, and Grimes (another Special Agent) then joined forces with Carberry and other Den-ton policemen, on January 31, 1975, with the intention of executing federal and state warrants simultaneously.

En route to Wright’s residence, the officers and agents encountered Wright in his automobile, at a point approximately one-half mile from his home. Wright was immediately arrested by the officers, then placed in the automobile being driven by the two DEA special agents. At this juncture, Special Agent Courtney inquired of Wright, “if he still had the shotgun.” Wright replied that he did, whereupon the entire group proceeded at once to Wright’s residence. The state search warrant for the residence was then executed by the state officers, the federal agents entering the residence contemporaneously with the police officers. Special Agent Courtney subsequently seized the shotgun in issue, which he found against a wall of the living room of Wright’s residence. It was only then that Wright was arraigned before a federal magistrate, and bail was set.

In subsequent proceedings in state court, it developed that the search warrant issued to the police officer, Carberry, was invalid on its face, as a matter of state law, since it was improperly executed outside the city limits of the City of Denton. Irwin v. State, 177 S.W.2d 970 (Tex.Crim.App.1944). As a result, the defendant’s motion to suppress the evidence was granted by the state court, and all state charges arising out of the search were dismissed. The defendant argues that the invalidation of the state search warrant on state grounds renders the seizure of the shotgun invalid under the rule of Elkins v. United States, 364 U.S. 206, 80 S.Ct. 1437, 4 L.Ed.2d 1669 (1960). Although the cases do not seem to support this position,1 I find the seizure of the weapon here involved to be invalid on independent Fourth Amendment grounds, and therefore do not reach the “silver-platter” issue.

The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution stands as a first line of defense by the individual against the unwarranted invasion of the sanctity of his home by governmental authority. It requires that inferences as to probable cause for a search, “be drawn by a neutral and detached magistrate [rather than] ... by the officer engaged in the often competitive enterprise of ferreting out crime.” Johnson v. United States, 333 U.S. 10, 14, 68 S.Ct. 367, 369, 92 L.Ed. 436 (1948). The effect of the failure to obtain a search warrant is succinctly expressed in Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 454—55, 91 S.Ct. 2022, 2032, 29 L.Ed.2d 564 (1968):

[T]he most basic constitutional rule in this area is that “searches conducted outside the judicial process, without prior approval by judge or magistrate, are per se unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment — subject only to a few specifically established and well-delineated exceptions.” The exceptions are “jealously and carefully drawn,” and there must be “a showing by those who seek exemption . that the exigencies of the situation made that course imperative.” “[T]he burden is on those seeking the exemption to show the need for it.” (Footnotes omitted.)

Any potential bases for the admissibility of the shotgun in evidence must include the arguments that (1) it was discovered in plain view;2 and (2) it was seized incident to a lawful arrest. Thus, consideration must be given as to whether either or both of these exceptions to [1239]*1239the warrant requirement justify the seizure.

A prerequisite of the plain view exception is that the discovery of the evidence must be inadvertent. Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 469-71, 91 S.Ct. 2022, 29 L.Ed.2d 564 (1971) (plurality opinion).3 Here, the DEA agents who seized the shotgun not only had seen the weapon in the defendant’s home some time previously4 but also had the defendant’s own statement that he still had the weapon. It was early afternoon, magistrates apparently were available,5 the defendant was in custody, and it was not shown that possible confederates were likely to have been alerted by the defendant’s arrest on the road. The agents clearly had probable cause for the issuance of a search warrant; hence, in light of these facts, the plain view exception is foreclosed. United States v. Sanchez, 509 F.2d 886 (6th Cir. 1975); Trupiano v. United States, 334 U.S. 699, 68 S.Ct. 1229, 92 L.Ed. 1663 (1948).

The further argument that the seizure of the shotgun was the product of a search incident to a valid arrest requires little discussion. When a valid arrest is made within a dwelling, the arresting officer may search the area “within which [the person arrested] might gain possession of a weapon or destructible evidence.” Chimel v. California, 395 U.S. 752, 763, 89 S.Ct. 2034, 2040, 23 L.Ed.2d 685 (1969). But the arrest of a person outside of his home provides no carte blanche to the arresting officers to search his residence. Coolidge, supra; Vale v. Louisiana, 399 U.S. 30, 90 S.Ct. 1969, 26 L.Ed.2d 409 (1970). Moreover, as previously discussed, the arrest of the defendant created no exigent circumstances which could justify the search. Rather, the arrest of the defendant served to reduce the chances that the gun would be removed before seizure by lawful authorities. Thus, neither the “plain view” nor the “search incident to arrest” exceptions can excuse the failure of the federal officers to obtain a federal search warrant.

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Related

United States v. Wright
532 F.2d 1374 (Fifth Circuit, 1976)
Atlantic Richfield Co. v. Zarb
532 F.2d 1363 (Temporary Emergency Court of Appeals, 1976)

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Bluebook (online)
405 F. Supp. 1236, 1975 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14879, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-wright-txed-1975.