United States v. Robert Louis Scharf

Robert L. Scharf appeals from his conviction for having passed one twenty-dollar counterfeit Federal Reserve note and having possessed fifty-four counterfeit twenty-dollar Federal Reserve notes in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 472 .

Appellant asserts that the evidence introduced at trial should have been suppressed as the product of two searches which violated the Fourth Amendment. The relevant facts are as follows: On May 5, 1968, United States Secret Service Agent Robert Sowers learned that the manager of the Selma Hotel in Hollywood, California had received a counter feit twenty-dollar bill from a tenant, Daniel Parker. Sowers and the manager went to Parker’s room. After Sowers knocked on the door and received no response, they used the manager’s passkey to enter the room. A man — known to the manager as Bob Green and later identified as appellant — was found asleep in a bed and could not be awakened.

Sowers then learned of a second counterfeit bill which had been passed to a Mrs. Anderson, the manager of the Mission Hotel nearby. He went to that hotel a short time later to investigate. In the meantime the manager of the Selma Hotel without Sower’s knowledge had telephoned Mrs.…