CA4: USMJ had correct attachment emailed but wrong one was presented and signed; technical violation, not a constitutional one; no suppression

The government emailed the issuing magistrate the correct attachments, but brought the wrong attachments to the court for signature. The magistrate had the correct ones on her desk, but signed the wrong one when it was handed to her. This was a technical error, not a constitutional violation, and there would be no suppression. United States v. Qazah, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 19911 (4th Cir. Nov. 17, 2015):

The error in this case was a technical one, as the district court found, which did not influence the warrant’s issuance, nor adversely affect its execution. Alquza does not contend that probable cause was lacking or that the applicant’s affidavit misstated any facts. Nor does he identify any defect in the email version of the warrant that the magistrate judge reviewed to make her decision to issue it. Moreover, he does not complain that the actual search conducted or the items seized were unauthorized by the correct version of the warrant.

The record supports the district court’s findings that the magistrate judge made her decision to issue the warrant based on the email copy that was sent to her by the Assistant U.S. Attorney and that the email version included the correct version of Attachment B. When she signed the physical copy of the warrant presented to her by the AFT agent and the Assistant U.S. Attorney, she assumed, as did the agent and the Assistant U.S. Attorney, that she was signing the same version. In addition, the search team executed the warrant by seizing items based on a summary list prepared from the correct version of the warrant. Consequently, both the issuance and the execution conformed to the warrant as if it had contained the correct version of Attachment B. The only discrepancy in the process was that the actual warrant that was signed by the magistrate judge and given to Alquza contained the wrong version of Attachment B. The executing officer did not realize the discrepancy until after the search had been completed, when Alquza’s wife called the officer.

In these circumstances, we conclude that the judicial officer did not wholly abandon her judicial role in issuing the warrant. See Leon, 468 U.S. at 923. Nor did she “merely rubber stamp[] the warrant.” United States v. Gary, 528 F.3d 324, 329 (4th Cir. 2008). To the contrary, she examined the email version of the proposed warrant, which was the correct version, before deciding to sign it, although she unwittingly signed an incorrect version. And Alquza does not challenge the correct version that was considered by the judge.