United States v. Calvin Colbert, Jr.

MEMORANDUM

Calvin Colbert appeals his conviction and sentence for possession with intent to distribute cocaine base, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841 (b)(1)(B)(iii), and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924 (c)(1)(a). We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we affirm.

1. The district court did not err when it denied Colbert’s motion to suppress the evidence seized under the search warrant on the basis that Officer Gerald Beall’s affidavit included alleged misstatements and omissions in violation of Franks v. Delaware, 438 U.S. 154 , 98 S.Ct. 2674 , 57 L.Ed.2d 667 (1978). Although Beall’s affidavit included ambiguous statements that made the source of some of the observations in his affidavit uncertain, the district court did not clearly err when it found that Beall was credible and did not seek to mislead the magistrate judge by leaving attribution of the observations ambiguous.

As the district court noted, Beall was part of an investigative team that made real-time reports of observations to Beall, some of which he included in his affidavit. An affidavit need not specifically and accurately attribute…