United States v. Ronald Ray Diaz

Government agents had a valid warrant to arrest Ronald Ray Diaz. They went to his house to arrest him, thinking he was home one weekday afternoon, as he had been in the past. When he didn’t respond they broke through the door and entered the house on their own, but Diaz wasn’t there and neither was anybody else. Inside the house, the agents discovered incriminating evidence. That evidence became the subject of a motion to suppress, denied by the district court, now before us on appeal.

The question we must consider is whether the agents, who had an arrest warrant but no search warrant at the time they entered the house and first spotted the evidence, had sufficient reason to believe Diaz was home to justify the entry. If not, then they violated the Fourth Amendment by entering the house, and the evidence discovered in the subsequent search was inadmissible against Diaz.

The district court ruled that the agents had sufficient reason to believe Diaz was at home and therefore did not violate his constitutional rights when they entered. We agree and affirm the district court’s denial of Diaz’s motion to suppress.

I. Background

Diaz lived on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation in…