Lead Opinion
MURPHY, Circuit Judge, with whom LOKEN, Chief Judge, and MELLOY, SMITH, and GRUENDER, Circuit Judges, join.
Tylan Lucas, an escapee from the Nebraska prison system returned to custody pursuant to an administrative arrest warrant, was convicted of drug and firearm offenses, attempted obstruction of justice, and one forfeiture count and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Lucas appeals, arguing that his motions to suppress evidence should have been granted, that there was insufficient evidence to uphold
I.
In October 2003 Lucas escaped from the custody of the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services (Department) while serving a sentence for possession of a controlled substance and for felonious assault with a firearm. He absconded after he was placed on work release, and Harold Clarke, Director of the Department, issued a ‘Warrant of Arrest (for Escaped Prisoner)” on October 22. Clarke had statutory authority as director to issue warrants for the arrest of escapees from the Department’s custody, see Neb.Rev.Stat. § 83-173(11), and he stated in the warrant that he had “reasonable cause to believe” that Lucas had escaped from custody.
On January 4, 2004, Timothy Carmody, a sergeant of the Omaha Police Department and member of its fugitive task force, received a report from Crime Stoppers that Tylan Lucas was staying at 2316 Ogden Street apartment 1 in North Omaha. That address was for a unit on the first floor of a house converted into apartments. Carmody referred the tip to Deputy Gerald Kellogg of the county sheriffs department, and Kellogg met the tipster and they drove by the residence where Lucas had been sighted. At the suppression hearing Kellogg testified that the tipster had reported seeing Lucas at the residence in the preceding 48 hours.
Later that day officers from the fugitive task force went to the residence. They had learned that the tenant in apartment 1 was Theresa Scaife, and on their arrival a man and woman were heard speaking inside. The officers knocked on the front door, and a woman’s voice responded that she needed to get dressed. Scaife opened the door a few minutes later, and the police asked whether Lucas was in the apartment. She denied that he was. The officers told her they believed he was inside and wanted to look for him. Scaife asked whether they had a search warrant. The officers said they did not but that they did have an arrest warrant for Lucas and information that he was living at that address. On that authority they intended to enter the premises and search for him. Scaife then admitted that Lucas was in the apartment, and the officers placed her in their squad car before looking for him.
The officers announced their presence and asked Lucas to come out of the apartment. When he did not, they went inside and found him in the basement dressed in boxer shorts. He was arrested and taken upstairs to the living room. Department policy required that he be dressed because of the winter weather. Deputy Kellogg saw a pair of men’s warm up pants in the bedroom adjacent to the living room, picked them up, and asked Lucas if they were his. Lucas replied that they were but he wanted to wear a different pair. After picking up the pants, Kellogg discovered they contained about $2,900 in cash, two bags of crack cocaine, and a bag of marijuana. The officers finished dressing Lucas, and he was taken away for booking.
Lucas was initially charged on January 23, 2004 with four counts — possession with intent to distribute 5 or more grams of crack, possession of a Ruger revolver in furtherance of possessing with intent to distribute 5 or more grams of crack, possession of a Ruger revolver after having been convicted of assault in the first degree, and a forfeiture count. Lucas moved to suppress the evidence from the search, on the ground that his Fourth Amendment rights had been violated by the officers’ illegal entry into Seaife’s apartment. The magistrate judge
During the pretrial period Lucas continued serving the remainder of his state sentence at the Douglas County Corrections Center where his telephone calls were recorded as part of routine policy. The Omaha police obtained a subpoena for copies of the recordings of these calls, and Lucas moved to exclude evidence of the calls. At a suppression hearing an officer who was familiar with Lucas testified that it was his voice on the recordings. In the recorded conversations the speaker was heard asking several different individuals to claim they owned the Ruger revolver found at Scaife’s apartment and offering to pay for their assistance. Lucas’s motion to exclude this evidence was denied.
Based on these recordings and letters written by Lucas, the government filed a superseding indictment on March 17, 2004 which charged him with additional counts of attempted obstruction of justice and of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of crack. A second superceding indictment on October 19, 2004 added two more firearm counts: possession of a semiautomatic handgun
Before trial Lucas filed several other motions. He moved to dismiss the counts charging conspiracy and possession of a semiautomatic handgun. In addition he moved in limine to exclude Fed.R.Evid. 404(b) evidence and moved pro se to dismiss all charges for violation of the Speedy Trial Act. The motions were denied, and the case proceeded to trial. At the close of the government’s case and again at the
After a four day trial the jury found Lucas guilty of attempted obstruction of justice, possession of at least 5 grams of crack with intent to distribute, conspiracy to distribute between 50 and 150 grams of crack, possession of a Ruger revolver in furtherance of the conspiracy, and being a felon in possession of a weapon. He was found not guilty of possessing a semiautomatic handgun in furtherance of the conspiracy and not guilty of being a felon in possession of a semiautomatic handgun. Lucas appeals.
Lucas contends that the district court erred by denying his motion to suppress evidence because the officers’ entry into Scaife’s apartment was illegal since the arrest warrant had not been issued by a neutral and detached magistrate, but by an executive officer answering to the governor and without judicial authority, citing Payton v. New York,
II.
Lucas contends that under the Fourth Amendment officers cannot enter “a suspect’s home in order to make a routine felony arrest” without a warrant or consent, Payton,
The Constitution generally requires that “someone independent of the police and prosecution,” Shadwick v. City of Tampa,
The panel opinion concluded that Clarke as an executive officer was unable 'to issue a valid warrant, just like the jailer in United States v. Parker,
Although Director Clarke’s role in issuing the arrest warrant for Lucas was quite different from the jailer’s issuance of search warrants in Parker, Clarke was not a neutral and detached magistrate in the sense of a judicial officer. He was appointed by the governor, who set his salary and had power to remove him at will. Neb.Rev.Stat. §§ 81-102, -103. Clarke headed a corrections agency, and his duties closely involved him with prisons and prisoners. By law he was responsible “for the custody, control, safety, correction, and rehabilitation of persons committed to the department.” Id. § 83-173(3).
The fact that Clarke was not a neutral judicial officer does not end the Fourth Amendment inquiry, however. This case is quite different from the cases on which Lucas relies in which a neutral magistrate was needed to determine probable cause. Here the administrative official responsible for the custody of prisoners issued a warrant to retake an inmate who had already been convicted of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt and had fled from his lawful custody. The standard for issuance of a valid administrative warrant under the Fourth Amendment is different from the probable cause showing necessary for a warrant to arrest someone suspected of a crime.
The Supreme Court has upheld administrative warrants and has never held that administrative warrants must be issued by a neutral and detached magistrate in the sense of Shadwiclc or Coolidge. An administrative arrest warrant issued by a district director of the Immigration and Naturalization Service pursuant to a deportation statute led to a valid arrest in Abel v. United States,
The requirements for valid administrative warrants were also examined in Griffin v. Wisconsin,
Our conclusion that a warrant issued by a neutral and detached magistrate was not required for a lawful entry into Scaife’s apartment is consistent with decisions of other circuit courts. A Maryland statute authorizing prison wardens to issue retake warrants for parolees was found by the Fourth Circuit not to violate the Fourth Amendment in Henderson v. Simms,
Probable cause “in the criminal law sense” is not required for issuance of an administrative warrant, Marshall,
Like the prison escapee in United States v. Roy,
As an escapee Lucas had only a minimal expectation of privacy in Scaife’s apartment. See Rakas v. Illinois,
Lucas as an escapee from lawful custody had an even more circumscribed expectation of privacy than the probationer in Knights or the parolee in Samson v. California, -U.S.-,
Steagald v. United States,
“Reasonableness” is the standard for issuance of an administrative arrest warrant seeking to return a prison escapee to custody, see Camara,
The dissent errs by overlooking Lucas’s status as an escapee and focusing solely on the fact that the officers entered a residence. Its statement that “expectation of privacy tests ... concern places rather than persons” is contrary to the teaching of the Supreme Court, for “the Fourth Amendment protects people, not places.” Katz v. United States,
Because Lucas’s reasonable expectation of privacy was limited by his status as an escapee and the officers possessed both a valid administrative warrant and reasonable cause to believe Lucas was in Scaife’s apartment, we conclude that his Fourth Amendment rights were not violated by the entry of the officers into the apartment and his subsequent arrest.
III.
Lucas also appeals several issues related to his trial. First, he argues that the district court erred by not dismissing the conspiracy charge for lack of particularity.
To prove a single conspiracy the government relied in part on the testimony of Grant and Edwards, two gang members who had previously pled to narcotics offenses. Grant testified that he sold crack to Lucas on numerous occasions during October 2003 and saw him carrying a semiautomatic handgun during these dealings. Edwards testified that between December 2003 and early January 2004 Lucas sold him crack and that Lucas owned a semiautomatic handgun. The possibility that there were other unknown individuals involved in the drug dealing does not mean there was more than one conspiracy. The law recognizes that “[a] single conspiracy may exist even if the participants and their activities change over time, and even if many participants are unaware of, and uninvolved in, some of the transactions.” United States v. Benford,
Lucas makes two objections relating to his conviction for attempted obstruction of justice. He argues first that the phone recordings on which the charge was based should have been excluded from evidence. Telephone calls may be intercepted without a warrant if one of the parties to the call gives “prior consent.” 18 U.S.C. § 2511(2)(c). There was uncontra-dicted evidence at the suppression hearing that the Douglas County Corrections Center gave each inmate a handbook stating that all outgoing telephone calls were monitored except those to attorneys. The Center affixed placards to the inmate telephones warning that the calls were recorded, and an audio message repeated the warning before each call. In a similar situation in United States v. Horr,
Lucas next contends that there was insufficient evidence to convict him of attempted obstruction of justice. He argues that the statute under which he was convicted, 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c)(2),
Lucas also objects to the admission of evidence of his past drug dealing and gun possession under Fed.R.Evid. 404(b). The government filed a pretrial notice of intent to introduce such evidence in order to establish motive, intent, plan and design in relation to the drug and firearm charges. Police reports of Lucas’s prior arrests were introduced and there was testimony by people who dealt drugs with him before he was incarcerated in November 2000. Lucas contends that the evidence was not similar in kind or close in time to the charged offenses and that any probative value of the evidence was outweighed by its prejudicial effect.
We review the admission of Rule 404(b) evidence for abuse of discretion and will “reverse only when such evidence clearly had no bearing on the case and was introduced solely to prove the defendant’s propensity to commit criminal acts.” United States v. Thomas,
Lucas asserts that his Sixth Amendment right to compulsory process was violated when the district court did not allow all of the testimony he wanted to present about John Ezell. Ezell had been living with Theresa Scaife before Christmas 2003. One theory of Lucas’s defense was that it was Ezell who had left the Ruger revolver and crack in Scaife’s apartment either accidentally, or purposely because he was angry that Lucas was staying there and wanted to incriminate him. Lucas hoped to introduce evidence that Ezell had four arrests related to crack and handguns, but the government contended that the evidence was inadmissible. A criminal defendant’s right to compulsory process is violated if relevant evidence is excluded without sufficient justification. United States v. Bernhardt,
Finally, Lucas argues that the district court violated the Speedy Trial Act, 18 U.S.C. §§ 3161-3174. The Act requires that trial begin within 70 days after a defendant is charged or makes an initial appearance unless the running of the time is stopped for reasons set out in the statute. One authorized period of delay is triggered if a district court expressly finds that the ends of justice served by granting a continuance outweigh the interests of the public and the defendant in a speedy trial. See id. § 3161(h)(8). Shortly before Lucas’s trial was scheduled to begin, the government moved for a continuance because the prosecutor was scheduled to start a different trial the day before the Lucas case. The magistrate judge denied the motion on the grounds that it was untimely and did not comply with the local rules. The government appealed to the district court, explaining that the other trial involved numerous witnesses from outside the district and one from another country.
The district court issued an order on September 27, continuing the trial date from September 28 to November 9, 2004 for the following reasons:
[Considering all of the relevant circumstances, the Court concludes that the motion should be granted in the interest of justice. The Court finds that, under the circumstances presented, the ends of justice outweigh the interest of the public and of the Defendant in a speedy trial and failing to grant a continuance would result in a miscarriage of justice. 18 U.S.C. §§ 3161(h)(8)(A) & (h)(8)(B).
A superseding indictment with additional charges was later filed, and on October 25 another order was entered continuing Lucas’s trial to January 4, 2005 on the ground that a “failure to grant additional time might result in a miscarriage of justice.” On December 17 Lucas filed a pro se motion to dismiss all the charges under the Speedy Trial Act. The motion was denied on December 20, and trial began as planned on January 4.
Lucas argues that Zedner v. United States, — U.S. -,
The district court made explicit findings to support its ends of justice continuance on September 27, finding that “failure to grant [a continuance would] result in a miscarriage of justice.” That factor is one of the permissible reasons for a continuance, 18 U.S.C. § 3161(h)(8)(B)(i), and the court also balanced the ends of justice and the interests of the parties and
IV.
In sum, we conclude that the Speedy Trial Act was not violated, that the district court did not err by denying Lucas’s suppression motions or his motions to dismiss the conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges for insufficient evidence, and that the district court did not abuse its discretion in other trial rulings or in its jury instructions. For these reasons we affirm the judgment of the district court.
Notes
. The Honorable Laurie Smith Camp, United States District Judge for the District of Nebraska.
. The Honorable F.A. Gossett, United States Magistrate Judge for the District of Nebraska.
. This gun was not the revolver found in Scaife's apartment, but a different weapon Lucas was charged with possessing in connection with the conspiracy.
. The arrest warrant here was issued to retake Lucas into custody. It was issued by his custodian rather than by a prosecuting authority, and our conclusion that Lucas's arrest was lawful is independent of any "semantic legerdemain” put forward by the dissent.
. Lucas and the dissent claim that the government waived its right to argue that he lacked a reasonable expectation of privacy. The waiver doctrine is most appropriately applied when the government has taken inconsistent positions during the course of the litigation and such inconsistency has affected the factual record. See United States v. Hansen,
. In light of this conclusion we need not address the government's argument based on United States v. Leon,
. 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c)(2) provides: "Whoever corruptly ... obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.”
Concurrence Opinion
concurring in part, dissenting in part, and concurring in the judgment.
I join in the dissents of Judge Beam and Judge Riley to the extent they conclude part II of the Court’s analysis is flawed. But I concur in the Court’s judgment affirming the district court’s denial of Lucas’s motion to suppress the evidence found at Lucas’s primary residence because, in my judgment, while the administrative warrant was invalid, the Leon
I
The majority contends “the [Government has never claimed that Lucas had a reasonable expectation of privacy in Scaife’s apartment” and therefore did not waive “its right to argue that he lacked a reasonable expectation of privacy.” Ante at 779 n. 5. Why would the government ever argue a defendant had a reasonable expectation of privacy? Such an argument would be raised by a defendant challenging a warrantless search, not by the government where the government claims the search was executed pursuant to a valid warrant.
In fact, Lucas argued, in his pre-trial briefing prior to the suppression hearing, that he had “standing to challenge the officers’ warrantless entry of the residence to effect his arrest” based on his status as an overnight guest at his girlfriend’s house. Def.’s Br. Support Mot. Suppress at 2. Did the Government challenge this claim of standing? No. Instead, the Government responded: “A valid arrest warrant ‘carries with it the authority to enter the residence of the person named in the warrant in order to execute the warrant so long as the police have a reasonable belief that the suspect resides at the place to be entered and that he is currently present in the dwelling.’ ” Gov’t Br. Opposition Mot. Suppress at 5 (quoting United States v. Clayton,
At oral argument before the panel in this case, the Government conceded it had never before argued Lucas lacked a reasonable expectation of privacy due to his escapee status:
Judge Beam: As an escapee from custody, was a warrant necessary?
Government: Well, your honor, at this point in time that is, that’s an issue and—
Judge Beam: It, well, it wasn’t an issue that you raised, was it?
Government: No. It wasn’t.
The Government further volunteered at oral argument before the panel that the only issues raised concerning the suppression issue were (1) whether the arrest warrant was valid, and (2) if not valid, whether the officers relied on the warrant in good faith. The record demonstrates the Government presented its Johnny-come-lately theory — in essence, that the Director of Correctional Services is detached and neutral enough for the purposes of issuing an arrest warrant because
Generally, both the government and defendants are barred from raising Fourth Amendment arguments for the first time on appeal. See, e.g., United States v. Alvarez-Sanchez,
As Judge Beam explains in his dissent, in Steagald v. United States, the Supreme Court determined that the government had waived its right to raise a standing issue in circumstances similar to those presented here.
the Government was initially entitled to defend against petitioner’s charge of an unlawful search by asserting that petitioner lacked a reasonable expectation of privacy in the searched home.... The Government, however, may lose its right to raise factual issues of this sort before this Court when it has made contrary assertions in the courts below, when it has acquiesced in contrary findings by those courts, or when it has failed to raise such questions in a timely fashion during the litigation.
Id. at 209-10,
II
The now-vacated panel decision in this case noted the Leon good-faith exception exists because the exclusionary rule is not meant to deter magistrate judge errors — it is meant to curb overzealous law enforcement officials. I agree. Because the panel found the Nebraska Director of Correctional Services was too intertwined with Nebraska law enforcement officials and the state executive branch to be “detached and neutral,” the panel concluded the Leon good-faith exception did not apply. Similarly, in his dissent, Judge Beam contends the Leon good-faith exception is “inapplicable” because the warrant was not issued by a neutral magistrate. This conclusion is at odds with the Supreme Court’s interpretation of Leon in Illinois v. Krull,
Less than three years after deciding Leon, the Supreme Court handed down Krull. The Krull Court described the question in the case as “whether a good-faith exception to the Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule applies when an officer’s reliance on the constitutionality of a statute is objectively reasonable, but the statute is subsequently declared unconstitutional.”
The state trial court found the warrant-less administrative search of licensees unconstitutional and suppressed the evidence seized. The Appellate Court of Illinois held the officer’s good-faith reliance on the statute might be relevant and remanded the matter to the trial court. On remand, the state trial court adhered to its original decision and found the good faith of an officer is relevant only when he acts pursuant to a warrant. The government appealed the trial court’s decision directly to the Supreme Court of Illinois which affirmed. The Supreme Court of Illinois held the statute unconstitutional because it vested too much discretion in state officials to decide who, when, and how long to search. The court also held the good-faith exception did not apply to a procedural statute directly authorizing warrantless searches.
The United States Supreme Court reversed the Supreme Court of Illinois decision. The Krull Court stated the Leon exception applies where an officer’s reli-
In addition, the Krull Court noted Leon had set forth two situations in which the good faith exception would not apply: where the issuing magistrate wholly abandoned his judicial role or where the warrant was so facially deficient the executing officers could not have reasonably presumed it to be valid. Similarly, the Krull Court found evidence seized pursuant to a statute later invalidated would not qualify for the good-faith exception if the legislature (1) “wholly abandoned its responsibility to enact constitutional laws,” or (2) if the statute’s “provisions are such that a reasonable officer should have known that the statute was unconstitutional.” Id. at 355,
Finally, I submit it is not apparent from the face of the statute the administrative warrant is invalid. The Supreme Court has held warrantless arrests of escapees are valid if the arrest is made in public. United States v. Watson,
. United States v. Leon,
. Our case law suggests plain error review is inapplicable under these circumstances. See United States v. Harrison,
. Consent was an issue early on in the case but was not an issue before the Supreme Court.
. The Krull Court noted in a footnote: “The answer to this question might well be different when police officers act outside of the scope of the statute, albeit in good faith.” Krull,
Concurrence Opinion
concurring in part, dissenting in part, and concurring in the judgment.
Judge Beam, Judge Murphy, and Judge Bye have prepared thorough and persuasive opinions. As a member of the original three-judge panel, I agree with Judge Beam that the government has mended its hold by raising new arguments in its petition for rehearing en banc. See Steagald v. United States,
BEAM, Circuit Judge, with whom WOLLMAN and ARNOLD, Circuit Judges, join, dissenting, and with whom BYE and RILEY, Circuit Judges, join in part.
This is a garden variety separation of constitutional powers case gone awry. A majority of the judges in regular active service in this circuit employed late blooming, previously unannounced legal concepts, advanced by the government for the first time in its petition for rehearing en banc to vacate the unanimous opinion of the three-judge panel and to create an en banc court. The en banc panel, contrary to existing Supreme Court and circuit precedent, now accepts these new government theories to administer to Tylan Lucas what the court apparently believes are his just desserts for being a bad person and an escaped felon. To reach this result, the court performs a Texas “Sidestep”
BACKGROUND
Tylan Lucas was convicted of two felonies by the State of Nebraska in 2000. He was sentenced to prison for each crime. In 2003, in anticipation of his release from incarceration, he was assigned a job in the
He was taken into custody within his home
The officers used a warrant issued by Harold Clarke, the Director of Correctional Services, an executive officer of the State of Nebraska, to force entry into Lucas’s home without consent. Clarke was statutorily authorized to and did issue the warrant authorizing and directing Lucas’s seizure and return to state custody. Neb. Rev.Stat. § 83-173(11). Accordingly, any commissioned police officer “authorized by law to make arrest[s]” in Nebraska having knowledge of the walk away or being apprised of the contents of Clarke’s warrant, with or without actual use of the administratively issued document, was authorized to arrest Lucas if found on the street or in any other place not affording him a pro-tectable expectation of privacy as defined by the Constitution. But, neither Nebraska statutes and regulations nor Clarke’s administrative arrest warrant purport to authorize or could authorize a nonconsen-sual entry into Lucas’s home to arrest him for a felony or to search for evidence of new federal drug crimes, especially federal crimes for which neither reasonable suspicion nor probable cause existed at the time of entry. Whether or not the warrant authorized Lucas’s return to Nebraska’s custody to serve the remainder of his previously imposed felony sentences or to stand trial for his 2003 felony escape is not at issue here. The plurality opinion authored by Judge Murphy contends that Lucas had signed a “personalized plan” that required him to return to the Omaha Community Corrections Center after work. I find nothing in the record that supports the existence of such an agreement signed by Lucas. But, I find this irrelevant. At all times relevant here, Lucas was chargeable with a Class III felony for the crime of escape when he walked away from work release, with or without an agreement to return. Neb.Rev.Stat. § 28-912(5).
DISCUSSION
I. Waiver
The government argued in the district court that Director Clarke was the “neutral and detached magistrate” required by Payton or, if not, that the police entered Scaife and Lucas’s home by consent. The district court rejected the government’s “consent” argument, which ruling was not appealed, but accepted the government’s
Because it obviously believed that a Payton warrant was necessary to validate Lucas’s arrest and search, the government reasserted its neutral and detached magistrate argument (or an argument that the warrant was close enough to the real thing to do the job) in its en banc papers. Undeterred in its quest to prosecute Lucas for federal drug crimes, the government in its petition for rehearing en banc also raised for the first time two new and different legal theories. First, the government asserted that as an at-large felon, Lucas had a diminished expectation of privacy that permitted the arrest, the residential search and the property seizure notwithstanding the strictures of Payton and Shadwick. The government’s second new theory asserted that the warrant was a valid administrative warrant that obviated the requirements of Payton and Shad-wick altogether.
As noted, the en banc court correctly rejects the neutral and detached magistrate argument. Further, the en banc court accepts and adopts the government’s new legal theories over Lucas’s well-articulated objections that the government waived these arguments by failing to raise them in the first instance. Neither of these government suppositions were presented to nor argued before the three-judge panel.
In Steagald v. United States,
“Arguments and issues raised for the first time on appeal are generally not considered,” especially when “no good reason has been advanced to depart from that rule.” Aaron v. Target Corp.,
Frankly, I don’t think we anticipated the nature and the scope of the [three-judge] court’s ruling in this matter. And again, I stand by the works of my colleagues and the position of my office, but had I been writing the brief [on appeal], I would have taken a different tack ... and different argument.
This essentially amounts to a confession by the government that they thought they would win with the arguments advanced but when they did not, they needed to assert a new theory in their petition for rehearing en banc.
Likewise, matters raised for the first time in a reply brief on appeal have been routinely and peremptorily rejected by this court. Bearden v. Lemon,
II. Arrest
The “physical entry of [Lucas’s] home is the chief evil against which the wording of the Fourth Amendment is directed.” United States v. United States Dist. Ct.,
The right of officers to thrust themselves into a home is ... a grave concern, not only to the individual but [also] to a society which chooses to dwell in reasonable security and freedom from surveillance. When the right of privacy must reasonably yield to the right of search is, as a rule, to be decided by a judicial officer, not by a policeman or government enforcement agent.
Johnson v. United States,
Even though an administrative warrant based specifically upon Lucas’s escape from work release was used to force entry into his home, the government contends in its petition for rehearing en banc that “[t]he [Clarke] warrant was not based on a new criminal charge.” The court en banc appears to join this contention when it says in support of the newly created administrative warrant theory, which theory I will discuss in more detail shortly, “[t]he standard for issuance of a valid administrative warrant under the Fourth Amendment is different from the probable cause showing necessary for a warrant to arrest someone suspected of a crime.” Ante at 776 (emphasis added).
It is more than obvious that the Fourth Amendment prohibited police entry into Lucas’s home if he was not suspected of a crime. It is equally obvious that breaching the privacy of his home to arrest him for a suspected felony required compliance with Payton and Shadwick. However, adherence to these cases did not occur.
The en banc court concedes that the three-judge panel was correct in finding that Clarke’s warrant did not pass muster under Payton. It says
Although Director Clarke’s role in issuing the arrest warrant for Lucas was quite different from the jailer’s issuance of search warrants in [United States v.] Parker, [
Ante at 776. To extract themselves from this constitutional dilemma, the government and the court en banc advance this “no new crime” argument, a clearly spurious contention under the facts of this dispute. But, even if correct, it leads them nowhere.
The government and the court do not tightly reason the details of their position. Presumably the contention relies upon a diminished or nonexistent expectation of privacy approach which in some way relates to Lucas’s year 2000 convictions and sentences. In other words, they seem to say that a mantle of criminality carrying with it the evaporation of constitutional protections hovered over Lucas, even in
First the facts. The “warrant of arrest,” issued by Director Clarke was “for [2003] escaped prisoner” Tylan Lucas. It referred to his underlying convictions and sentences of January and June 2000 and noted that Lucas had been “delivered to the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services on March 1, 2000, [and] has [now] escaped from the custody of the Department.” It further “authorized and directed [the] arrest of said escapee.” (Emphasis added). The escape set forth in the warrant resulted when Lucas failed to return from this work-release assignment to community corrections following temporary leave granted for work release for a limited period. See Neb.Rev.Stat. § 28-912(1). It was this warrant that was used to force a nonconsensual entry into the residence of Theresa Scaife and Lucas at 2316 Ogden Street, Omaha, Nebraska. At that time, Lucas was arrested by Omaha Police Department Task Force officers, as permitted and required by Nebraska law, for escape, a Class III felony and not for unstated continuing obligations arising from his year 2000 sentences or for violation of any work release administrative rules established by Nebraska statutes or duly promulgated agency regulations.
Now the precedent. Ignoring that the warrant clearly targeted the commission of the new crime of escape, the government contends, and the en banc court seemingly agrees, that, with or without a warrant, Lucas’s home, because he was a prison escapee, afforded him only a diminished (or non-existent in the view of some) measure of constitutionally protected privacy.
Roy involved the search of the passenger compartment and trunk of an automo
“[T]he guaranty of freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures by the Fourth Amendment has been construed, practically since the beginning of Government, as recognizing a necessary difference between a search of a store, dwelling house or other structure in respect of which a proper official warrant readily may be obtained, and a search of a ship, motor boat, wagon or automobile, for contraband goods, where it is not practicable to secure a warrant because the vehicle can be quickly moved out of the locality or jurisdiction in which the warrant must be sought.”
Id. at 390,
Further, Judge Friendly, concurring in Roy, said
I am not at all convinced that Roy’s Fourth Amendment claims should be dismissed on the ground that, because he had escaped from prison, he had no expectation of privacy “that society is prepared to recognize as ‘reasonable’.” Katz v. United States,389 U.S. 347 , 361,88 S.Ct. 507 ,19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967) (Harlan, J., concurring). When Justice Harlan’s much-quoted observation is read in context, it becomes apparent that he was speaking of the places where society would be prepared to recognize an individual's reasonable expectation of privacy, not adumbrating a doctrine whereby certain classes of persons could be denied Fourth Amendment protections that would otherwise extend to them.
Roy,
We have not before been called upon to decide the specific question whether the Fourth Amendment applies within a prison cell, but the nature of our inquiry is well defined. We must determine here, as in other Fourth Amendment contexts, if a “justifiable” expectation of privacy is at stake. Katz v. United States,
Id. at 524-25,
III. Administrative Warrant
With regard to the government and the plurality opinion’s administrative warrant emanations, the court advances ten cases in support of its analysis. With one exception, none involve a home search by a police agency. The one exception is directly contrary to controlling Supreme Court precedent. I will briefly discuss each case.
Abel v. United States,
Camara v. Municipal Court,
“The right of officers to thrust themselves into a home is also a grave concern, not only to the individual but to a society which chooses to dwell in reasonable security and freedom from surveillance. When the right of privacy must reasonably yield to the right of search is, as a rule, to be decided by a judicial officer, not by a policeman or government enforcement agent.”
Id. at 529,
The en bane court substantively ignores the principal thrust of Henderson v. Simms,
In United States v. Cardona,
The warrantless search in United States v. Knights,
Marshall v. Barlow’s, Inc.,
Griffin v. Wisconsin,
Joseph Griffin, a probationer, had his home searched without a warrant. The supervisor of Griffin’s probation officer received a tip that Griffin’s apartment might contain contraband. Based upon this information, he authorized Griffin’s probation officer to conduct a search of Griffin’s home, in which the supervisor participated.
Wisconsin law puts probationers in the legal custody of the State Department of Health and Social Services and renders them “subject ... to ... conditions set by the court and rules and regulations established by the department.” Wis. Stat. § 973.10(1) (1985-1986). One of the Department’s regulations permits any probation officer to search a probationer’s home without a warrant as long as his supervisor approves and as long as there are “reasonable grounds” to believe the presence of contraband.
Id. at 870-71,
Justice Scalia writing for a five-member Court in Griffin, noted that a state’s operation of a probation system or other possible plans, including, specifically, a work-release program, present “ ‘special needs’ beyond normal law enforcement” activities, id. at 873-74,
While the direct facts of Griffin encompass a probationer (as opposed to a work release walk away) and a residential search for contraband (as opposed to a residential arrest and search incident thereto), there is little doubt, even giving the government and the court en banc the case’s best gloss, that Griffin establishes legal principles fully applicable to Lucas. Thus, the following analysis controls the outcome of this case. The usual warrant and probable cause requirements were fully practical. There was nothing that prohibited the securing of the Ogden Street residence while a judicial officer was consulted. The probation supervisor’s approval of the probation officer’s search can probably be considered a reasonable substitute for Director Clarke’s administrative warrant. The supervisor’s approval was directed to an agency employee (the searching probation officer) but Director Clarke’s directions were addressed only to police personnel authorized by law to make arrests. The supervisor’s approval was based upon a finding of reasonable grounds to believe that there was contraband in Griffin’s home but Clarke’s warrant was based upon a finding that Lucas “had escaped from ... custody,” not that he could or would be found at his home. However, I concede that the Omaha police officers developed reasonable suspicion that he was at his home on Ogden Street. The Griffin supervisor’s actions were based upon Wisconsin’s comprehensive administrative rules regime. But, there is no showing in the record that Nebraska has any administrative agency procedures that are at all comparable to the Wisconsin scheme. Indeed, a search of the record and research beyond the record reveals a contrary environment.
Finally, and most importantly, the Nebraska legislature has affirmatively deemed escape a Class III felony rather than an administrative rules violation, and, as interpreted by State v. Coffman, has made Lucas’s arrest an apprehension for a “routine felony” requiring a warrant that passes constitutional muster under Pay-ton. Accordingly, the evidence seized in Lucas’s home must be suppressed.
IV. Theresa Scaife
The court’s rhetoric that Lucas has no standing “to assert Scaife’s Fourth Amendment” rights is beside the point. The record establishes that the intruding police officers were ultimately concerned with Scaife’s connection with drugs found in her coat in the residence and with a weapon found under the mattress of the only bed in the premises. Except for the limited “non-prosecution” agreement she has with the United States, Appendix at 21, she, too, is at risk of prosecution for state and federal drug crimes, especially, for instance, for possession or conspiracy to possess illegal drugs for her own use, if not for distribution.
At the time Scaife refused to give the police permission to enter, she was not suspected of committing a crime nor was she on parole, probation or in an escape status. Nonetheless, if the fruits of this search are declared valid, Scaife and many other similarly situated individuals in this circuit who share an abode with an alien, OSHA or housing code violator, parolee, probationer or escapee, will have little if any basis to exclude evidence in a criminal prosecution. See Georgia v. Randolph,
CONCLUSION
The police arrived at the home of Theresa Scaife and Tylan Lucas and used an administrative arrest warrant that con-cededly did not pass Payton v. New York constitutional muster to enter, arrest and search Lucas. The court, acting upon new theories advanced in the petition for rehearing en banc, finds these acts to be constitutional.
In doing so, the court offers a series of inapposite and distinguishable cases supposedly authorizing this entry because the administrative warrant was constitutionally sufficient or because Lucas had a limited expectation of privacy in his home as a result of his escape status. This is error.
Lucas is not a model citizen. And it is almost certain that a valid warrant would have been issued by a neutral and de
I dissent.
APPENDIX A
[[Image here]]
. This is the dance routine dramatizing the Texas Governor's reluctance to follow existing law as made famous in the 1978 Broadway play The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. Scott Cain, Cincinnati: The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, http://www. talkinbroadway. com/regional/cincylcincyl9.html.
. The evidence indicates that Lucas lived at this address with Scaife and the Omaha Police considered it his “primary residence.” Officer Carmody, an Omaha Police Sergeant, testified that the Omaha Police consider a place where a person is believed to be residing a primary residence. The government has not disputed that this Ogden Street primary residence was Lucas's home at all times relevant to this litigation.
. The Task Force is a multi-agency task force encompassing the United States Marshals Service, the Douglas County Sheriffs Office, the Omaha Police Department, the Nebraska State Patrol and the Council Bluffs Police Department.
. Judge Bye in his dissent and concurrence takes exception to my contention that a good faith exception under Leon is inapplicable in this case. He cites Illinois v. Krull,
. In footnote 4, ante at 776, the plurality opinion concedes, at least by implication, that its several conclusions are erroneous if Tylan Lucas was arrested for a felony at 2316 Ogden Street in Omaha. Although it makes no real difference as I point out below, to dispel the erroneous contention that the administrative warrant was issued only to "retake” Lucas, I attach a copy of the document to this dissent as Appendix A. To buttress its arrest arguments, the plurality appears to contend that the words "arrest” and "retake” have different meanings in this dispute. At best, this finding is an act of semantic legerdemain, that is, it advances a difference without a distinction to reach a predetermined result while steadfastly resisting the application of clearly established Fourth Amendment law. And, unfortunately, Judge Shepherd's concurrence seems also to incorporate elements of this same fiction. United States v. Sager,
In support of his position, Mr. Sager invites our attention to the statutory language. The statute dealing with parole violations, 18 U.S.C. § 4213, empowers the Parole Commission to "issue a warrant and retake the parolee.” 18 U.S.C. § 4213(a)(2) (emphasis added). By contrast, Rule 4, dealing with the apprehension of a person wanted to answer a criminal charge, employs the word "arrest.” Fed.R.Crim.P. 4. Similarly, 18 U.S.C. § 3606, dealing with the apprehension of probation violators and those on supervised release, speaks in terms of "arrest.” Therefore, Mr. Sager argues, section 1071 is not applicable because there was no outstanding arrest warrant for Carlos Aubrey at the time Mr. Sager allegedly concealed him.
Id. at 365 (footnote omitted).
The Seventh Circuit then said:
While it is true that a parolee is "in custody,” it is also true that he retains a legally cognizable liberty interest that is significantly greater than that enjoyed by
Id. at 366-37 (footnotes omitted).
Tylan Lucas, as a work-release assignee, even in escapee status, had a "legally cognizable liberty interest that is significantly greater than that enjoyed by one who is [confined within a prison] incarcerated.” Id. at, 366. This is especially true because he is now being confined, at least in large part, for prosecution for a new federal drug crime on the basis of the unconstitutionally gathered evidence, not for his year 2000 offenses or for the crime of escape.
. The plurality opinion says "[a]s an escapee Lucas had only a minimal expectation of privacy in Scaife's apartment.” Ante at 777. See also Judge Shepherd’s concurrence.
. In footnote 5, ante at 779, the plurality opinion and Judge Shepherd, in apparent agreement, contend that the “government has never claimed that Lucas had a reasonable expectation of privacy in Scaife’s apartment.” As carefully and correctly noted by Judge Bye in his dissent and concurrence, the record clearly demonstrates the inaccuracy of this statement.
. While the Supreme Court in Hudson found no expectation of privacy inside the prison cell, the Court has not addressed the Fourth Amendment rights of prisoners outside the cell, even while in an incarcerated status. See Thompson v. Souza,
. For example, see California v. Carney,
. Griffin stresses the completeness of Wisconsin's probation scheme as promulgated by statute and regulation. The statutory and regulatory scheme under-pinning Nebraska's work-release program is not comparable. Nebraska Revised Statute § 83-183(1) provides that individuals in custody of the Department of Correctional Services should be put into the work force to aid their rehabilitation. The same statute requires that the Director of the Department of Correctional Services “shall make rules and regulations governing the hours, conditions of labor, and the rates of compensation of persons committed to the department.” Neb.Rev.Stat. § 83-183(2). Generally, "[i]t is the Department’s policy to provide ... employment programs to those inmates who are in need of such ... programs.” 68 Neb. Admin. Code Ch. 7, § 002 (2007). Other than this general statement, the Nebraska Administrative Code's chapter for the Department of Correctional Services is silent on the administration of work release. However, more detailed regulations may be found at http:// www.corrections.state.ne.us/policies/index.
Concurrence Opinion
with whom COLLOTON and BENTON, Circuit Judges, join, concurring in part and concurring in the judgment.
I concur in Parts I and III of the Court’s opinion and that portion of Part II that holds that, as an escapee, “Lucas had no legitimate expectation of privacy while hiding out in Scaife’s residence,” ante at 779. Therefore there can be no Fourth Amendment violation in this case. See Smith v. Maryland,
