Misstatements and omissions from affidavit for search warrant precluded summary judgment for defendants in § 1983 case

Suit against state SPCA would proceed for time being because of misstatements shown in the affidavit for the search warrant which undermined the probable cause. Also, federal § 1983 case was not “inextricably intertwined” with state case and state law to be barred by Rooker-Feldman doctrine. Allen v. Pennsylvania SPCA, 488 F. Supp. 2d 450 (M.D. Pa. 2007).*

The government failed to show reliability of their informant and reasonable suspicion, and the motion to suppress should have been granted. The government argued that the defense did not properly assert that there was no reasonable suspicion, but it carried the burden. United States v. Martinez, 486 F.3d 855 (5th Cir. 2007):

Without establishing the reliability of the informant, the government had to establish reasonable suspicion based on some or all of the other factors listed above: the specificity of the information provided, the extent to which the information is corroborated by officers in the field, and whether that information concerns recent activity or has instead gone stale. At the time of this stop, the police had (1) a tip that a person named “Angel” was storing weapons that had been used in a crime in his girlfriend’s house; (2) corroboration by the individual leaving the specified house that a man named “Angel” was inside; and (3) visual verification that two people left the residence 20 minutes after a phone call was placed asking Angel to pick up his car, and that those two people drove toward the location where the pick-up was supposed to occur. Therefore, at the time of the stop, the only verified information that the police had was that a man named Angel was in a specified residence. Notably absent, however, is any verified information that “criminal activity may be afoot.” Jaquez, 421 F.3d at 340-41. Our review of precedent, both our own and that of the Supreme Court, makes clear that this is insufficient to give rise to reasonable suspicion.

Spending an hour interviewing the informant was sufficient for the officer to establish reliability. O’Connor v. City of Philadelphia, 233 Fed. Appx. 161 (3d Cir. 2007)* (unpublished).

Disputed facts on exigency for warrantless entry precluded summary judgment. The same standard that precludes summary judgment on the facts may preclude application of qualified immunity, and here it does. Woods v. Valentino, 511 F. Supp. 2d 263 (M.D. Fla. 2007).*

Reasonable suspicion existed based on the similarity with the occurrence at hand and another one. That justified the longer detention and request for consent. United States v. Thompson, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35074 (E.D. Mo. May 14, 2007)*:

Here the officers had reasonable suspicion based on the conduct of Defendant and the other suspects at the hotel and the marked similarity between this incident and the incident that had occurred the previous month, including that the Uplander [the vehicle] had been rented by the same individual who had rented the Pontiac G6 and the fact that bulky items appeared to be concealed in the Uplander in the same manner as before. Defendant’s statement regarding the purpose of his current travels appeared to be inconsistent with the surveillance conducted by the officers, providing further basis to expand the scope of the stop. Consequently, even if the officers had not, in the interim, determined that there was a large quantity of marijuana in the Uplander, they would have been justified in expanding the scope of the stop to request consent to search. ….