01-3767 U.S. v. Koerth

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“Inv. Sturz obtained the warrant to search Defendant Koerth’s house on August 31, 2000. We are unaware of any cases decided prior to that date, nor have any been cited to us by the defendant, where a federal court suppressed evidence in a case involving an affidavit with materially similar factual recitations as the one before us, where the officers provided a magistrate with indicia of probable cause based on information from a named informant making statements almost contemporaneous with his arrest, which were based on personal knowledge and determined to have been against the informant’s penal interest. Although Savage’s affidavit lacks the detail or corroboration necessary to establish probable cause, the affidavit does make clear that Savage had repeatedly purchased drugs from Koerth on previous occasions, including a purchase within the previous 56 hours, at which time Savage had the opportunity and did observe a large quantity of the same drugs, which he estimated to be 150-200 pounds of marijuana, two pounds of methamphetamine, and a bag of cocaine, along with illegal weapons and an unusually large amount of cash at Koerth’s residence. We are convinced that it was objectively reasonable for Inv. Sturz to rely in good faith upon the state trial judge’s decision to issue the warrant to search the defendant’s residence for drugs and drug-related paraphernalia. We hold that the district judge properly denied Larry L. Koerth’s motion to suppress the evidence based upon the good-faith exception set forth in United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897 (1984).”

Affirmed.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, Crabb, J., Coffey, J.