CA7: Fire scene consent search exceeded scope of consent to find “origin and cause” of fire

After a fire destroyed defendant’s café and lounge with apartments above, his consent to search for the origin and cause of the fire did not give investigators the authority to search his basement after it was excluded as the source of the fire. Defendant was acquitted of the arson but convicted of a false statement which is reversed for insufficient evidence. Also, the Davis good faith exception does not apply. “As the common-law trespass theory has always bound government actions, the government cannot rely on the Davis good faith exception. Therefore, the evidence that we have previously deemed excluded is not saved by Davis since binding appellate precedent at the time of the search would have prohibited the fire investigators’ search.” United States v. Rahman, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 19486 (7th Cir. Nov. 9, 2015).