United States v. Zula Jones

In this appeal, we consider whether the government’s efforts to ensure compliance with a forthwith subpoena fall under the O’Connor v. Ortega, 480 U.S. 709 , 107 S.Ct. 1492 , 94 L.Ed.2d 714 (1987), exception to the warrant requirement. We conclude that the search does not fall within the O’Connor exception and that the government’s efforts gave rise to an illegal search.

I

In 1999, the federal government conducted an investigation into possible criminal wrongdoing in the San Francisco Human Rights Commission’s (“HRC”) program for certifying minority ownership of businesses that bid on public contracts. On June 25, 1999, the U.S. Attorney’s office served a grand jury subpoena on the City Attorney’s office seeking records from the HRC by August 12, 1999. On Friday, July 30, 1999, federal investigators received information from a source within the HRC that documents responsive to the subpoena were being shredded. Federal prosecutors prepared a “forthwith” grand jury subpoena for those records, as well as shredded records. That afternoon several FBI agents, Assistant United States Attorney Thomas Carlucci (“Carlucci”), Deputy City Attorney Loretta Giorgi (“Giorgi”), and two…