CA3: Ghostwritten SW affidavit not a Franks violation because there was indisputably PC

A police officer’s admission at trial that the affidavit for search warrant was ghostwritten for him didn’t show a Franks violation because there clearly was probable cause. United States v. Ware, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 16568 (3d Cir. June 3, 2021).

“The affidavit provided abundant probable cause concerning Lozano’s drug trafficking activities. There was physical evidence, including three kilograms of methamphetamine, text messages on Guerra and Duarte’s phones, and the photo of Lozano on Duarte’s phone, as well as the incriminating statements by the co-defendants. Given the sources and volume of evidence, no reasonable agent would have believed the affidavit was so lacking in probable cause that the magistrate judge was deficient in signing it. The Leon good faith exception applies.” United States v. Lozano, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 103900 (W.D. La. May 12, 2021).*

Defendant’s Kansas traffic stop was attenuated from what the officers otherwise knew about him. “In the case sub judice, law enforcement officers learned that appellant possessed 40,000 grams of marijuana in his residence independent of the Kansas trooper’s observations that occurred one week before Detective Purdin’s encounter with appellant.” There was probable cause. State v. Lask, 2021-Ohio-1888, 2021 Ohio App. LEXIS 1830 (4th Dist. May 26, 2021).*

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