Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Fourth Amendment

Criminal Law

: Fourth Amendment

E.D.N.Y.: SW for human remains under basement concrete floor did not justify searching a file cabinet, too

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

A search warrant was issued for the remains of Jane Doe #1 under the concrete basement floor of a Brooklyn house. The affidavit was 24 pages long and clearly showed probable cause. However, entry into a file cabinet and seizure of a pair of women’s panties off from the floor was outside the warrant. The officers testified they were looking for human remains in the file cabinet, too. United States v. Yakovlev, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6537 (E.D. N.Y. January 21, 2011).* “The CI here was new; thus, his past reliability was something that Agent Belcher could not assess. However, Agent Belcher took several precautions to insure that the CI was not simply sacrificing an innocent person to satisfy his obligations to the DTF.” The court then details what the officer did to corroborate the CI...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on January 27, 2011 (boomark / email).