Motion to Suppress – Search Warrant

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: United States of America v. Lance Slizewski

Case No.: 15-2397

Officials: MANION, KANNE, and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges

Practice Area: Motion to Suppress – Search Warrant

Omissions and misrepresentations in search warrant were immaterial and unintentional.

“Slizewski next addresses the cars. He contends that Peterson misled the state judge by suggesting that Slizewski’s car resembles cars seen in the two robberies, but omitting that Slizewski’s is an Impala and the car in the surveillance video of the third robbery was a Malibu. But those two cars are similar—both are black, four‐door Chevy sedans with similar body shapes and taillights. True, they are not identical—the license plates hang slightly differently and one car has five‐spoke wheels while the other has six spokes. But negligence in not noticing those slight differences does not justify a Franks hearing. See Johnson, 580 F.3d at 671. In any event, a witness to the second robbery said that the suspect used a black sedan “similar” to a Malibu. And as the magistrate judge noted, “the Malibu is the Impala’s little brother.” Thus Slizewski has not shown that Peterson made an intentional misstatement about the cars’ similarity”

Affirmed

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.