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N.D.Ga.: No duty to investigate to negate PC under Franks

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Officers do not violate Franks by not investigating further to negate what they already know. United States v. Lebowitz, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 120538 (N.D. Ga. March 12, 2009): Courts have uniformly rejected defense arguments that further investigation should have been conducted to either corroborate or to negate the information in the affidavit or else the search warrant lacks probable cause. See, e.g., United States v. Shields, 458 F.3d 269, 280 (3rd Cir. 2006) (rejecting the defendant's contention that affidavit lacked probable because FBI could have conducted more investigation, the court stated that "[w]hether the FBI could have provided more information is not the benchmark," the question is whether the "valid information it supplies satisfies the 'fair probability' standard"); United States v...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on December 31, 2009 (boomark / email).