Hammond

ORDER RE MOTIONS TO SUPPRESS AND DISMISS

This case raises the question of whether evidence obtained under a search warrant issued in excess of a magistrate judge’s authority should be suppressed. Under controlling Ninth Circuit authority, the answer is no. This case also raises the question of whether the defendant should have been advised of his Miranda rights before making incriminating statements to law enforcement officers during an interrogation at dawn in his home. This evidence must be suppressed.

BACKGROUND

The background facts are largely undisputed. Defendant Dumaka Hammond is a registered sex offender with two prior convictions for possession of child pornography. In July 2015, an FBI special agent applied to a magistrate judge in this district for a search warrant for Hammond’s home in Richmond, California. The application stated that an IP address linked to an online child pornography site had been traced to a Comcast account in Hammond’s name and with his home address.

The FBI linked Hammond to the online site during an investigation under a search warrant issued in the Eastern District of Virginia. In January 2015, the FBI had seized in North Carolina a server…