Suppression of Evidence

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: United States of America v. Michael Thomas

Case No.: 21-3169

Officials: Easterbrook, Hamilton, and Lee, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Suppression of Evidence

Federal officials suspected that Thomas was supplying large quantities of illegal drugs in Indiana. Thomas was wanted by state officials too, and warrants had been issued for his arrest. In order to lie low (and continue trafficking drugs), Thomas obtained several fake identification documents, including one issued by North Carolina under the name “Frieson Dewayne Alredius”. Using this fictitious identity, Thomas leased a condominium in Atlanta, Georgia.

Federal officials tracked Thomas to Atlanta and arrested him outside the condo building. Thomas’s landlord told the officers that she had rented the unit to someone she knew as “Alredius Frieson”. With the landlord’s consent, officers searched the condo, finding drugs, drug paraphernalia, and six cell phones. After obtaining warrants to search the phones, the officers discovered evidence that Thomas was trafficking methamphetamine. A grand jury indicted Thomas for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(A), 846.

Thomas moved to suppress the evidence obtained from the search of the condo, contending that his landlord could not consent to a search of the property he had leased. The United States conceded that the lease gave Thomas a subjective expectation of privacy in the condo. But it argued that this is not an expectation that society is prepared to accept as reasonable, because Thomas had obtained the lease by deceiving the landlord about his identity, which is a crime in Georgia. Thomas’s landlord could not summarily terminate his protections without violating Georgia law, nor could she consent to a warrantless search of his condo.

Reversed and Remanded.

Decided 04/19/23

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