WA: Violation of state rule that SW inventory be in presence of another officer requires suppression

Washington rules require that a search warrant inventory be done in the presence of another officer. In this case, the department had only five officers, and the search occurred during the night shift when only one officer was on duty. The hearing judge apparently was unwilling to find that the inventory was accurate, even though the contents were photographed at the time of the search. Therefore, suppression was the only remedy, and prejudice apparently need not be shown (or it was by the trial court’s finding). State v. Linder, 2015 Wash. App. LEXIS 2464 (Oct. 13, 2015).

Defendant was subjected to a search based on a year long investigation with 34 paragraphs detailing the probable cause. The officer misspoke and referred to defendant’s 1998 prior as a smuggling conviction when it was possession. This was not material for Franks purposes, even if it was grossly negligent. United States v. Rivera-Vega, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 136948 (D.Ariz. Oct. 7, 2015).*