United States v. Voustianiouk, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 14317

Agency obtained a warrant to search the first-floor apartment at 2424 Cambreleng Ave, Bronx; the suspect lived on the second floor but was home during the search.
Officials searched the second-floor apartment without a new warrant, based on the first-floor warrant, and found thousands of child pornography files.
The warrant and affidavit did not name Voustianiouk and described only the first-floor apartment; the government omitted Voustianiouk’s name from the materials.
Raab's affidavit tied probable cause to a different apartment, not to the second-floor residence occupied by Voustianiouk, and did not provide probable cause for that unit.
Voustianiouk was charged with receipt and possession of child pornography and convicted after a bench trial; his conviction and sentence were challenged on suppression grounds.
The court held the warrant did not authorize the second-floor search and that the evidence seized must be suppressed.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether the second-floor search violated the Fourth Amendment	Voustianiouk: search exceeded warrant scope	Government: warrant description sufficient; good faith?	Yes; search violated Fourth Amendment; suppression required
Whether the exclusionary rule applies given the officers' conduct	Evidence obtained from an unlawful search must be suppressed	Good-faith reliance on the warrant could justify admission	Yes; suppression warranted due to deliberate and improper conduct
Whether the government could rely on bad-faith omissions to justify the search	Omission to magistrate prevented evaluating probable cause	Omissions were acceptable under some precedents	No; omissions undermine magistrate’s ability to assess scope; suppression proper

Herring v. United States, 555 U.S. 135 (2009) (exclusionary rule deters police misconduct; not automatic suppression)
Groh v. Ramirez, 540 U.S. 551 (2004) (scope of a warrant; cannot search beyond authorized premises)
United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897 (1984) (good faith exception to the exclusionary rule)
Garrison v. State, 480 U.S. 79 (1987) (reasonableness of warrant scope; particularity limits)
Maryland v. Garrison, 480 U.S. 79 (1987) (particularity of warrants; limits on search scope)
United States v. Williams, 69 F. App’x 494 (2003) (partial misdescriptions of location; practical certainty of target)
United States v. Campanile, 516 F.2d 288 (1975) (descriptions of search locations and scope)
Velardi v. Walsh, 40 F.3d 569 (1994) (limited search when only certain premises are affected)
Whiteley v. Warden, 401 U.S. 560 (1971) (affidavit cannot be rehabilitated by information not presented to magistrate)
Aguilar v. Texas, 378 U.S. 108 (1964) (information relied upon by magistrate must be disclosed)
Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213 (1983) (standard of probable cause; corroboration matters)