FL2: Failure to corroborate or support CI’s story defeats GFE

The complete failure to corroborate the CI’s story was thus a complete lack of probable cause, and the good faith exception did not apply. Chery v. State, 2021 Fla. App. LEXIS 13111 (Fla. 2DCA Sept. 17, 2021):

As explained in United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897, 920, 104 S. Ct. 3405, 82 L. Ed. 2d 677 (1984), the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule applies where “an officer acting with objective good faith has obtained a search warrant from a judge or magistrate and acted within its scope.” However, “the officer’s reliance on the magistrate’s probable-cause determination and on the technical sufficiency of the warrant he issues must be objectively reasonable, and it is clear that in some circumstances the officer will have no reasonable grounds for believing that the warrant was properly issued.” Id. at 922-23 (citation omitted) (footnotes omitted).

Here, the affidavit in support of the warrant lacked any indicia of reliability and corroboration. As such, reliance on it as proper support for a search warrant was not objectively reasonable, and the good faith exception is inapplicable. See Sanchez v. State, 141 So. 3d 1281, 1287 (Fla. 2d DCA 2014) (holding that the good faith exception was inapplicable where “an objectively reasonable officer would have known that the affidavit was insufficient to establish probable cause for the search” (quoting Gonzalez v. State, 38 So. 3d 226, 230 (Fla. 2d DCA 2010))); Garcia v. State, 872 So. 2d 326, 330 (Fla. 2d DCA 2004) (“Where, as here, the supporting affidavit fails to establish probable cause to justify a search, Florida courts refuse to apply the good faith exception.”).

Because the affidavit in support of the search warrant failed to establish that the affiant had personal knowledge of the informant’s reliability and veracity and because the affidavit lacked any corroboration of the informant’s claims, the search warrant was issued in error. As such, the fruits of the search should have been excluded. Accordingly, we reverse Chery’s convictions and sentences.

This entry was posted in Good faith exception, Informant hearsay. Bookmark the permalink.

Comments are closed.