The constitution provides a reasonable expectation of privacy. Police should not violate your privacy unless they believe you have violated a law or are committing an offense. Before performing the search, the police should obtain a search warrant from the judge, which comes with requirements. A valid warrant should include reliable details to establish probable cause to search. Additionally, the warrant should specify where law enforcement wants to search and what they are looking for.

Defining a Search Warrant and Search and Seizure Law

The search and seizure law stems from the 4th Amendment to the United States Constitution. The constitutional section provides that you are protected from an unreasonable search and seizure. It safeguards you against unreasonable search and seizure of assets in which you have an expectation of privacy that is irrational.

Some of the assets or places in which you have a lawful expectation of privacy that safeguard you from search and seizure:

  • Your house
  • Your electronic storage gadgets, including computers and telephones
  • Personal assets that schoolgoing students carry to school
  • A hotel room

Some of the assets in which judges have ruled that a person does not have the expectation of privacy are as follows:

  • Your abandoned property
  • The parts of stolen cars
  • Assets inside a car: when you are a passenger with neither an interest in that asset nor the vehicle, nor do you possess it

Please note that having a lawful expectation of privacy in assets does not mean law enforcement cannot seize or search them. It implies that they might only act so if the following is true:

  • They have a valid search warrant
  • Any of the exemptions to the search warrant requirements apply

The judge issues and then signs it. It is because when the judge issues the search warrant, rather than the prosecution team, a detached, neutral person analyzes the facts of the investigation. It safeguards accused persons from subjective government intrusion.

Prior to the judge issuing the warrant, the following requirements should be satisfied:

  • You have committed a California felony or misdemeanor, and
  • That law enforcers are likely to find proof of the crime in the area described in that search warrant

If the case facts in the search warrant application are persuasive, the judge should issue the warrant. Your qualified defense lawyer can challenge it if the prosecution team in search of the search warrant offered adequate grounds.

Search Warrant Rules

There are specific rules that law enforcement officers must meet to obtain a valid search warrant. The law enforcers should establish probable cause that the areas to be searched contain fruits, instrumentalities, or evidence of the crime.

Below are instances of facts on which the judge issues a search warrant:

  • If the asset was stolen
  • If your asset was used to engage in a felonious act
  • If the asset is proof of the case circumstances that a felonious act has happened or that a person has committed a felonious act
  • If a person possessing the asset plans to utilize it to violate a law, or another individual to whom they might have delivered the asset, to hide it
  • If the asset reveals child porn
  • If the judge had already issued an arrest warrant against you

Probable Cause

The legal phrase "probable cause” refers to the belief that a crime is being committed or has been committed.

Before the judge issues the warrant, they should have probable cause that law enforcers will find the property or person described in the search warrant application (affidavit) in the area (totality of the circumstances). The judge depends on the law enforcer's honesty when presenting correct details. 

Before finding whether there is probable cause, the judge might question the following under oath:

  • Investigators who applied the affidavit
  • Witnesses whom law enforcers depended on to decide that the warrant was essential
  • Prosecutor
  • Police officer

The affidavits can be oral or written and presented via the phone, email, in person, or fax. Additionally, they should have facts that establish probable cause or grounds for thinking of their existence.

Use of Informants

Police depend on informants to provide information. The informants provide details about activities, organizations, or people without their permission.

The police should inform the judge of the reasons that made the informant conclude that you have committed a crime. An opinion that an asset or individual was involved in the offense is inadequate without proof supporting it.

Because the judge should determine whether there is probable cause before issuing a search warrant, they should consider the informant's details reliable. The police can prove it using the following:

  • The informant's identity
  • Previous incidents with that informant have proven to be credible
  • Verification by the officers' observations, among other proof

The Informant's Identity

The court might need to reveal the informant's name or require the informant to give statements under oath about the details they provided to the police. The fact that the police will reveal the informant's identity to the court does not imply the police will disclose it to your lawyer.

The judge can seal the search warrant application to safeguard the confidential informant's identity if their testimony played a significant role in establishing probable cause for issuing the search warrant.

While the court will not disclose the informant's identity because it wants to use it to challenge the probable cause finding, it might request that the prosecution reveal it if the defendant's motion to quash and recall the warrant is meritorious.

Challenging the Search Warrant Against You

A motion to suppress evidence concerns probable cause and informants in obtaining a search warrant. Understanding the timeframe for bringing the motion is vital, and you should act promptly to safeguard your constitutional rights.

The motion to recall the probable cause and affidavit that the court depended on when issuing the search warrant.

The motion objects to the adequacy of the warrant application.

While you can file the motions together or separately, these legal phrases are used interchangeably, and in this context, they will be discussed as one.

Your defense attorney can argue motions to quash and traverse a warrant in either the Franks hearing, the Lutternberger hearing, or the Hobbs hearing.

The Franks Hearing

If a defendant asks this court to traverse and quash a search warrant because they believe the affidavit contains false details, they should explain why they believe it is false. The defense lawyer can file a motion to suppress based on violations and challenge the validity of the search warrants. The attorney can achieve this by proving the following:

  • The affidavit has false statements.
  • The informant made the statement with disregard for authenticity or knowingly.
  • The informant's statement was essential to prove probable cause

If the attestor deliberately eavesdrops or omits material information, the judge deems them to have offered false details by omission.

The court should schedule an in-camera court hearing when the judge thinks you have challenged the truth of the affidavits. The meeting is private.

During the hearing, the court can question the informant or affiant to determine whether the search warrant application is misleading, false, or accurate.

The judge will recall the search warrant if your defense lawyer proves that the search warrant application has false material details, and the rest of the details cannot reinforce a probable cause finding. After the judge quashes the warrant, they will suppress any proof seized under your warrant.

Luttenberger Hearing

If the informant is a witness regarding your innocence or guilt (eyewitnesses to the crime are a perfect example), the prosecutor is not obligated to reveal their identity.

The Luttenberger hearing happens if you are considering challenging the authenticity of the search warrant application but are unaware of the informant's identity. During the hearing, your lawyer can request details about:

  • The informants' reliability
  • Their intention in offering the details
  • The statements that informants made in relation to your criminal case

If your lawyer casts doubt on the credibility of the informant's testimony, the judge will schedule an in camera court hearing to decide whether the informant's statements are vital. If they are, the judge will remove any details that might reveal the informant's identity before giving you the warrant application or supporting documentation.

If, during the hearing, you learn that the informant is a witness to the criminal case, you can proceed to reveal the identity at the Hobbs court hearing.

Hobbs Hearing

During this hearing, your legal counsel requests that the court disclose the informant.

When the court has sealed the warrant application to safeguard the informant's identity, it can be hard even to be eligible for the Luttenberger hearing. In this case, the judge should hold the in camera court hearing after receiving the motion to recall the warrant.

Unless the prosecution agrees, the court hearing will happen without your presence. During the hearing, the court will determine whether to keep the informant confidential and the search warrant application properly sealed.

When the judge believes the application is sealed but does not find its details misleading or false, they will deny the motion. However, if the judge believes you might succeed on the motion, they will allow the prosecutor to reveal the informant or dismiss the criminal case. Typically, prosecutors dismiss cases before disclosing their informants.

What the Law Allows Law Enforcers to Do

The particulars of the warrant against you should be clear without anything left to the law enforcer executing it. It applies to the space the police will search and the asset or person they will seize. It implies that law enforcement officers should execute the search warrant based on the details in the warrant.

Some descriptions are not sufficiently clear, including stolen assets, specific personal assets used to commit larceny, other proof, and every financial record.

Examples of items described clearly include personal assets designed to identify the individual in control and illegal game meat.

Time of the Search Warrant Execution

Law enforcement officers should execute a search warrant within 10 days of the judge issuing it. Otherwise, it becomes invalid.

If the search warrant expires, the judge might reissue it, provided they believe there is probable cause to support it.

The police should execute the search warrant from 7 AM to 10 PM. However, if the judge has good cause, they may authorize its execution at any time, whether during the day or night.

A "good justified cause" implies that there is a ground for justifying executing the warrant at night, founded on exigent circumstances, including the existence of multiple search warrants.

What Happens to Your Seized Assets

The law enforcer should provide a comprehensive receipt for the property they confiscated during their search. The police should leave the statement (receipt) with:

  • The individual from whom they seized the asset
  • The owner of the asset
  • The place at which they discovered the asset, if they took it without any person being present

After seizing the property, the police should keep it in their custody before presenting it to the judge.

Motion to Suppress Proof

You can file the motion to suppress evidence if you want to recover your seized proof or exclude the seized proof from trial.

Your defense lawyer can file the motion based on the following:

  • There was no probable cause to issue the warrant
  • Your seized asset was not described in your search warrant
  • The warrant's execution was unlawful

If the search was illegal, the discovered proof will be dismissed. 

Find Competent Legal Assistance Near Me

A search warrant is crucial to the criminal investigation process and an indicator that you are a suspect. The rationale for requiring a warrant is that some spaces are so intimate that law enforcement's invasion offends your freedom and privacy. Understanding the legal requirements for a search warrant can help you protect your rights and take the right steps. If you believe the police violated your rights, it is advisable to seek legal guidance immediately.

Asset Forfeiture Attorney can help you understand your rights. We can also review your case to check whether the police obtained evidence through an improperly executed or invalid search warrant. If that is the case, we can aggressively fight to have that evidence suppressed in court. Please call us at 888-571-5590 to schedule your initial free consultation. We offer our legal services to those in California and nationwide.