The probable cause showing was thin, but it was enough, and the good faith exception applies in any event. United States v. Mills, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 102174 (E.D. Mich. May 29, 2025)*:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Nevertheless, although it is a close case, the affidavit and search warrant pass constitutional muster. Cases in which courts have found probable cause lacking\u2014or at least expressed grave doubt about the existence of probable cause\u2014typically involve affidavits that contain even fewer connections between the officer’s suspicions and the specific facts of the case. See Schultz, 14 F.3d at 1097-98 (finding probable cause lacking where the only probable cause nexus to search a safe deposit box was the officer’s training and experience that records of drug distribution are often kept in such boxes); Lavallis, 515 F. Supp. 3d at 692-93 (expressing doubt about the existence of probable cause to search a cell phone where the probable cause nexus included factual circumstances that did not bear on the defendant’s phone specifically, and the officer’s training and experience that those involved in the unlawful possession of firearms often use phones to facilitate the acquisition and transfer of those firearms); Glatz, 2023 WL 4503981, at *11 (finding probable cause lacking where the only probable cause nexus to search a cell phone was the officer’s belief that incriminating evidence would be found on the cell phone, without connecting her belief to her training and experience or the facts of the case).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In contrast, Agent Brown connected some facts of the case to the evidence likely to be found on the phone\u2014namely, the fact that Mills had just been released from MDOC custody when his girlfriend bought her first gun, and the fact that Mills’ phone was likely to have location data placing him in the vicinity of his girlfriend’s guns. Agent Brown also tied some of the evidence to be found to his training and experience. Noting that the probable cause determination is a practical and commonsense endeavor, and mindful that the magistrate judge’s determination of probable cause “should be paid great deference” and only overturned where she “arbitrarily exercised \u2026 her authority,” the warrant in this case was based on sufficient probable cause. Christian, 925 F.3d at 311-12.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The probable cause showing was thin, but it was enough, and the good faith exception applies in any event. United States v. Mills, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 102174 (E.D. Mich. May 29, 2025)*:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-good-faith-exception","category-probable-cause"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61148"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61149,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61148\/revisions\/61149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}