United States v. Shaw, No. 11-6433 (6th Cir. 2013)
Annotate this CaseOfficers tried to serve an arrest warrant on Brown at 3171 Hendricks Avenue in Memphis. On Hendricks Avenue, they could not find a house with a 3171 address, but found two houses on opposite sides of the street with a 3170 address. Noticing that one of the two houses was occupied, they knocked, a woman answered, and she promptly shut the door. While one officer went to the back of the house, the other knocked again. After several minutes, the occupant opened the door. Instead of asking the woman what the address of the house was, whether Brown lived there or whether this was the odd-numbered side of the street, the officer represented to the woman that he had a warrant “for this address.” The woman let the officers into the house, owned by Shaw, where they performed a protective sweep and found a lot of cocaine. They arrested Shaw. The district court denied Shaw’s motion to suppress and pled guilty to distributing cocaine, 21 U.S.C. 841(a)(1). The Sixth Circuit reversed, stating that the officers had no right to enter the house based on a falsity and that their actions were not reasonable.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.