People v. GavazziPeople v. Gavazzi
Lead Opinion
OPINION OF THE COURT
Memorandum.
The order of the Appellate Division should be affirmed.
A New York State trooper, assigned to interview defendant John Mario Gavazzi, who was suspected of receiving and sending child pornography images by email, applied for a warrant to search defendant’s residence in the Village of Greene, Chenango County. In drafting the search warrant, the trooper inadvertently typed Local Criminal Court, Town of Broome, Broome County” at the head of the warrant, instead of “Local Criminal Court, Town of Greene, Chenango County.” There is no municipality of Broome in either Broome County or Chenango County. The Village Justice signed the warrant without correcting the mistake. His signature was affixed on a line marked “Signature of Judge or Justice,” but it is illegible, and the court is not named.
Upon executing the warrant, the trooper entered and searched defendant’s residence, where he found printed photographs of young, nude children. Defendant was arrested.
On a motion to suppress, defendant argued that the search warrant did not substantially comply with CPL 690.45 (1). The prosecutor countered that the mistake was merely a technical error. The defense motion was denied. County Court convicted defendant, upon his guilty plea, of promoting a sexual performance by a child and possessing a sexual performance by a child, but stayed his sentence pending appeal.
The Appellate Division granted defendant’s motion to suppress, and reversed County Court’s judgment. The Appellate
A search warrant must contain “[t]he name of the issuing court” (GPL 690.45 [1]). The standard for adherence with the statutory requirement is “substantial—rather than literal— compliance” (People v Taylor,
Here, the Village Justice who signed the warrant included no designation of his court, his signature is illegible, there is no seal, and the caption typed by the trooper refers to a nonexistent town. While it is clear that the warrant directs Village of Greene police officers to search a house in Greene, there is no indication whatsoever which of the several courts that have authority to issue warrants in the Village of Greene issued the warrant permitting the search. As the Appellate Division put it, “on its face the warrant appears to [have been] issued by an unidentified judge in a nonexistent court and town in a different county” (
Finally, contrary to our dissenting colleague, suppression is warranted because the name requirement of GPL 690.45 (1) “operates directly to protect and preserve a constitutionally guaranteed right of the citizen” (People v Patterson,
Dissenting Opinion
The suppression of evidence is a drastic remedy—one that increases the likelihood of, if it does not guarantee, an unjust result. Very often it means, in the famous
The majority relies on Taylor for the proposition that “[t]he standard for adherence with the statutory requirement is 'substantial—rather than literal—compliance’ ” (majority mem at 909, quoting Taylor,
“This failure of substantial compliance with the requirements of law requires that the evidence discovered during the search purportedly authorized by the defective warrant be suppressed, notwithstanding that the recordation requirement is set forth in a statute rather than in the State or Federal Constitution. The purpose of the recordation requirement of CPL 690.40 (1) is to provide the very basis for an appellate determination of probable cause for issuance of a search warrant. Thus, substantial failure to comply with this statute is wholly unlike other statutory violations. While not itself a constitutional requirement, compliance is indispensable to the determination whether the constitutional requirements for a valid search and seizure have been met” (73 NY2d at 690 [citations omitted]).
Patterson involved another statutory violation—a failure to return defendant’s photograph after a charge against him had been dismissed (see CPL 160.50 [1] [a]). We denied suppression of evidence that resulted from this error, saying:
“Although CPL 160.50 was violated, that violation did not infringe upon any constitutional right of the defendant sufficient to warrant invocation of the exclusionary rule” ( 78 NY2d at 714 ).
Distinguishing Taylor and other cases, we said:
“[W]e have, in limited circumstances, held that the violation of a statute may warrant imposing the sanction of suppression. However, we have done so only where a constitutionally protected right was implicated, a circumstance not here present” {id. at 716-717).
More recently, in Greene, we denied suppression of evidence resulting from a breach of the statutory physician-patient privilege (CPLR 4504 [a]), and reaffirmed the rule of Taylor and Patterson:
“Our decisions make clear that a violation of a statute does not, without more, justify suppressing the evidence to which that violation leads ....
“We have made an exception to this rule only when the principal purpose of a statute is to protect a constitutional right” (9 NY3d at 280 ).
The statute at issue here, CPL 690.45 (1), requires a search warrant to contain “[t]he name of the issuing court.” It seems clear to me that this requirement is neither constitutional in itself nor designed to protect constitutional rights. The majority says that it safeguards the right to have the warrant signed by a “ ‘neutral and detached magistrate’ ” (majority mem at 909, quoting Johnson v United States,
The majority concludes that the warrant here “did not substantially comply with CPL 690.45 (1)” (majority mem at 909) because the name of the court cannot be deduced from the face of the warrant. I grant that this warrant did not come close
The violation of the non-constitutional requirement of section 690.45 (1) does not justify the suppression of evidence. I would reverse the Appellate Division order, reinstate County Court’s order denying suppression, and reinstate defendant’s conviction.
Chief Judge Lippman and Judges Ciparick, Graffeo, Read and Pigott concur; Judge Smith dissents and votes to reverse in an opinion.
Order affirmed in a memorandum.