United States v. Willie Sledge and Doni Williams

The question before us is the legitimacy of a police search of appellants’ apartment, an apartment which appeared to have been abandoned when in fact the appellants may have intended to return. Appellants were convicted under 21 U.S.C. § 841 (d)(1) (1976 & Supp. Ill 1979) of knowingly and intentionally possessing 55 gallons of piperidine with intention to manufacture phencyclidine (PCP). The principal contention on appeal is that incriminating evidence was illegally seized. We determine the search was valid and affirm.

The circumstances leading to the search were these: appellants, Sledge and Williams, rented an apartment from a landlord named Sehammann. On March 1, 1979, the appellants gave Sehammann thirty days notice of intent to vacate their apartment “by Sunday, March 31, 1979.” The rent had been paid through March. Sehammann talked with Sledge and Williams about their leaving early so the apartment could be prepared for new tenants on April 1.

*1076 Shortly after March 15, Schammann went to the apartment to ask the tenants when they were going to vacate. No one was there, so he left a note on the door asking them to telephone him. They did not, and no one answered his…

dissenting:

From a review of the facts, I believe that defendants exhibited a subjective expectation of privacy which society should be prepared to recognize as reasonable, Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 361 , 88 S.Ct. 507, 516 , 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967) (Harlan, J., concurring). Accordingly, I dissent.

Defendants had paid the rent to the end of their unexpired lease period, had left valuable items in the apartment, had not yet forfeited their cleaning deposit, had not surrendered keys or advised the landlord that they had vacated, and did in fact return to the apartment. All but the last of these facts were known to the landlord at the time of the search, and were conveyed by the landlord to the government agents.

The only facts suggesting abandonment were that the apartment’s door had been open for a period of several hours the previous day until closed by the landlord, that the landlord’s note had not been removed from the door, and that the apartment was in considerable disarray. I cannot agree that these facts give rise to a reasonable belief that the apartment had been abandoned. To the contrary, they are at least as consistent with the conclusion that defend *1083…

650 F.2d 1075 UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Willie SLEDGE and Doni Williams, Defendants-Appellants. Nos. 79-1577; 79-1633. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Submitted Feb. 6, 1980. Decided July 7, 1981. Alan Zarky, Los Angeles, Cal., argued for defendants-appellants; Roger J. Rosen, Los Angeles, Cal., Phillip A. DeMassa, San Diego, Cal., on brief for Sledge. Daniel J. Gonzalez, Asst. U. S. Atty., Los Angeles, Cal., for the U. S. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California. Before KENNEDY, FLETCHER and POOLE, Circuit Judges. KENNEDY, Circuit Judge: 1 The question before us is the legitimacy of a police search of appellants' apartment, an apartment which appeared to have been abandoned when in fact the appellants may have intended to return. Appellants were convicted under 21 U.S.C. § 841 (d)(1) (1976 & Supp. III 1979) of knowingly and intentionally possessing 55 gallons of piperidine with intention to manufacture phencyclidine (PCP). The principal contention on appeal is that incriminating evidence was illegally seized. We determine the search was valid and affirm. 2 The circumstances leading to the…