Category Archives: Staleness

M.D.Fla.: Email SWs are almost never stale; the email is always there

Posted on October 23, 2015 by Hall

Staleness as to an email search warrant is hard to prove. It’s always going to be on the email provider’s server. United States v. Khateeb, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 143007 (M.D.Fla. Aug. 4, 2015). Defense counsel was not ineffective for … Continue reading →

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CT: CI said he was a regular purchaser of MJ from def; that overcame 11 day staleness challenge

Posted on October 13, 2015 by Hall

The CI said he was a regular purchaser of marijuana from defendant, and thus the fact that the last was eleven days before the warrant was not stale. State v. Flores, 2015 Conn. LEXIS 289 (Oct. 20, 2015). Defendant was … Continue reading →

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W.D.Pa.: 1-2 yr old info coupled with current info showed ongoing drug operation at house

Posted on October 5, 2015 by Hall

Information that was 1-2 years old was included in the affidavit, and there was current information, too. The old information supported showing that defendant’s counterfeiting operation was “protracted and continuous and that it was ongoing just two days to two … Continue reading →

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W.D.Pa.: Police daily briefing provided PO with RS of a probation violation

Posted on July 28, 2015 by Hall

Defendant’s PO received a daily brief from the police that mentioned that defendant was in a car stopped and identified as a gang member. One of his conditions of parole was to avoid gang activity. That was justification for a … Continue reading →

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Cal.2d: SW for records and computers in 23 year old cold case was not stale, and GFE applied

Posted on July 14, 2015 by Hall

This is a 1986 cold murder case solved in 2009 by DNA involving the killing by an LAPD officer of the wife of her lover at the time. All the forensics were retested with current DNA techniques and sent to … Continue reading →

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D.Mass.: “Business records, as a class, are repositories of historical facts and, therefore, are largely immune from claims of staleness.”

Posted on June 11, 2015 by Hall

In an ongoing drug conspiracy with money laundering, a broader time period is permitted in the business records to be seized by a warrant. “Business records, as a class, are repositories of historical facts and, therefore, are largely immune from … Continue reading →

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E.D.N.C.: Charged, but yet unproved, conduct can appear in a search warrant affidavit

Posted on June 10, 2015 by Hall

There were four GPS warrants on the defendant’s car, owned by his wife, June-October 2014, renewed in state court every 30 days. The court can’t conclude they were started on stale information since it referred to an ongoing drug operation. … Continue reading →

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MO: Trial court erred in suppressing car search incident without also considering automobile exception

Posted on May 8, 2015 by Hall

The trial court erred in applying the search incident doctrine to defendant’s vehicle search and suppressing when the state also argued the automobile exception. Remanded for consideration of that issue, too. State v. Walker, 2015 Mo. App. LEXIS 501 (May … Continue reading →

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CA9: No prohibition to placing GPS on car at night

Posted on May 2, 2015 by Hall

A tracking order was issued with probable cause, and there’s no special requirement that a GPS device can’t be placed at night, compared to the nighttime search requirements. United States v. Brock, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 7195 (9th Cir. April … Continue reading →

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D.Ariz.: When a SW expires before execution, a new affidavit is not required if timeliness can still be met

Posted on April 17, 2015 by Hall

The first search warrant in defendant’s child pornography case expired when it wasn’t timely served, so another was sought on the same affidavit. While staleness is always a potential issue, there is no mandatory requirement that a new affidavit be … Continue reading →

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D.Nev.: Apt was small enough that protective sweep was valid, even to balcony

Posted on April 3, 2015 by Hall

While the record isn’t clear, the apartment here appears to be small enough that a protective sweep validly covered all the space inside, including the balcony near where defendant was arrested. United States v. Washington, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 43617 … Continue reading →

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D.Mass.: Power company was not a state actor in providing electrical usage information

Posted on April 2, 2015 by Hall

“The aphorism that ‘one man’s trash is another man’s treasure’ would certainly apply to the law enforcement officials who investigated this case.” Here, the city sanitation workers were seeing large amounts of marijuana debris coming in, and they called the … Continue reading →

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M.D.La.: Telling employees they couldn’t leave during a regulatory inspection was a seizure of their person

Posted on March 23, 2015 by Hall

In a regulatory inspection, “An order not to leave the business premises for two hours can reasonably be understood to constitute a detention as well as a seizure. Although the inspection was conducted according to regulatory authority, the statutory provision … Continue reading →

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IN: CI was uncorroborated and his information old; no PC or GFE

Posted on February 28, 2015 by Hall

The CI’s statement here was uncorroborated and 3-4 months old. Thus, the search warrant lacked probable cause and it was so lacking in probable cause, that the good faith exception cannot apply. Cartwright v. State, 2015 Ind. App. LEXIS 107 … Continue reading →

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W.D.Pa.: Five week old information in a weapons case not stale

Posted on February 23, 2015 by Hall

Because weapons have enduring value to the possessor, a five week delay in using that information to search defendant’s house was not stale. United States v. Korey, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20532 (W.D.Pa. February 20, 2015). Defendant’s wife could consent … Continue reading →

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OH5: Six weeks after second controlled buy not stale where there’s ongoing drug dealing

Posted on January 1, 2015 by Hall

There were two controlled buys of marijuana from defendant’s store on May 3d & 21st. A third buy was July 2d but the test results weren’t back when a search warrant was obtained on July 3d. The July 2d buy … Continue reading →

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W.D.N.C.: How ten day old information in an ongoing drug operation doesn’t get stale

Posted on December 30, 2014 by Hall

The ongoing nature of defendant’s drug trafficking operation did not make the search warrant go stale where it was issued only ten days later. United States v. Black, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 176761 (W.D. N.C. December 23, 2014): Taking these … Continue reading →

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W.D.Ky.: Staleness is a function of the totality of the circumstances, and it is more than just the passage of time

Posted on December 12, 2014 by Hall

Staleness is a function of the totality of the circumstances, and it is more than just the passage of time. United States v. Fuqua, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 169173 (W.D. Ky. December 8, 2014):

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OH6: Small amount of MJ in trash pull wasn’t PC for SW for evidence of cultivation or trafficking

Posted on September 20, 2014 by Hall

Officers had three year old information that defendant was involved in marijuana cultivation, and nothing was done about it. A trash pull was done that produced a tiny amount of marijuana. The stale information had to be disregarded, and the … Continue reading →

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S.D.Ohio: Old background info coupled with new info doesn’t make warrant stale

Posted on September 18, 2014 by Hall

The search warrant was not stale. It had pretty old background information that alone would be stale, but it provided recent information as well, and that was sufficient to overcome staleness. United States v. Thomas, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 125410 … Continue reading →

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