United States v. Ryan Patton, 962 F.3d 972

Ryan Pawon pleaded guilty to distributing methamphetamine but reserved the right to challenge the search warrant on appeal under Fed. R. Crim. P. 11(a)(2).
Detective Lane Mings presented an affidavit from an informant saying the informant had seen Pawon remove a retail quantity of meth from a safe; the affidavit omitted the informant’s criminal history, motives, and reliability history.
The state judge took unrecorded oral testimony from the informant (no transcript or recording) and then issued the search warrant; officers found the drugs.
At the federal suppression hearing the informant did not testify and Mings had a limited recollection of what was said in state court; the district judge therefore treated the affidavit alone as insufficient for probable cause.
The district court nonetheless applied the Leon good-faith exception and denied suppression; Pawon appealed, arguing the unrecorded testimony must be ignored and the affidavit was too thin.
The Seventh Circuit affirmed, crediting deference to the issuing magistrate and the reasonableness of officer reliance on a warrant issued after the magistrate heard testimony.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether probable cause existed for the warrant and whether unrecorded oral testimony can be considered	Pawon: affidavit alone is too thin; unrecorded testimony should be ignored	Government: state judge heard testimony; court should defer to magistrate’s decision	Court assumed judge heard and probed testimony; magistrate deference supports warrant validity
Whether recording/transcription of magistrate testimony is constitutionally required	Pawon: unrecorded testimony cannot be credited; recording is necessary to assess probable cause	Government: Constitution and history do not require recording; state law need not impose it	No constitutional or historical recording requirement; lack of transcript not dispositive
Whether Leon’s good-faith exception bars suppression	Pawon: reliance on the warrant was not objectively reasonable if affidavit insufficient	Government: officer reasonably relied on a warrant issued after oral testimony; no officer misconduct	Leon applies—officers reasonably relied on magistrate; exclusionary rule not triggered

United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897 (1984) (establishes good-faith exception to exclusionary rule for reliance on a warrant)
Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213 (1983) (adopts totality-of-the-circumstances test for informant tips and probable cause)
United States v. Koerth, 312 F.3d 862 (7th Cir. 2002) (criticizes warrants based on bare or insufficient affidavits)
United States v. Mykytiuk, 402 F.3d 773 (7th Cir. 2005) (addresses deficiencies in informant-based affidavits)
United States v. McIntire, 516 F.3d 576 (7th Cir. 2008) (discusses deference owed to issuing magistrates on probable cause)
Chicago v. Adams, 67 Ill.2d 429 (1977) (Illinois precedent holding state does not require recording of magistrate proceedings)