United States v. James L. Issacs

A jury convicted James Louis Issacs on two counts of possession with intent to distribute methaqualone and cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841 (a)(1). He now challenges: 1) the denial in part of his pretrial motion to suppress certain journals seized during a search of his apartment pursuant to a warrant; 2) the trial court’s ruling which permitted the government to impeach his testimony with illegally seized journals; and 3) the trial court’s denial of his motion to suppress a gun and related items seized during the same search.

FACTS

Agents of the Secret Service obtained a warrant to search Issacs’s residence for rent receipts and counterfeit Federal Reserve notes. While searching the apartment in Issacs’s presence and pursuant to the warrant, the agents uncovered a gun, shoulder holster, and ammunition. The agents also discovered drug paraphernalia and considerable quantities of methaqualone and cocaine on a shelf in the bedroom closet. There is no dispute that the gun, drugs, and related items were in plain view.

In the same closet the agents noticed a safe, the combination to which Issacs gave, them. Upon opening the safe, they found six journals bound together with a…