United States v. Thompson, No. 14-3262 (7th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseA judge issued a warrant to search Thompson's house, based exclusively on the affidavit of officer Lane stating that an informant had told him that “a black male” named Sidney “routinely sells cocaine” from his Peoria house; the informant claimed to have gone to Sidney’s house twice, most recently within 72 hours, and both times saw Sidney with “a quantity of an off white like rock substance that was represented to be cocaine.” The informant provided Thompson’s address and physical description. Lane knew from prior investigations that Thompson matched that physical description and the informant had picked Thompson from a photo array. Lane checked Thompson’s criminal history and found 14 arrests involving drugs and four convictions. A state database and Lane’s surveillance verified Thompson’s address. Lane stated that once previously the informant had made a controlled buy of marijuana and another time had given information which led to a suspect’s arrest for possessing a controlled substance. Officers executed the warrant and found 17 grams of cocaine in Thomson’s house. The Seventh Circuit affirmed denial of a motion to suppress. Even if the affidavit did not include sufficient facts to establish probable cause, the evidence was admissible under the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule.
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