Charles E. Marquart, III - Page 10

                                                - 10 -                                                  

            case, we do not reach the question whether an egregious violation                           
            of the Fourth Amendment, in and of itself, warrants invoking the                            
            exclusionary rule.  We find that the police officers involved did                           
            not act improperly, much less egregiously, when they searched                               
            petitioner's house.                                                                         
                  As the party moving for suppression of evidence, petitioner                           
            bears the burden of proof.  Houser v. Commissioner, 96 T.C. 184,                            
            196 (1991).  Petitioner has not met his burden.  At most, he has                            
            pointed to circumstances that are subject to conflicting                                    
            interpretations and has invited us to assume bad faith on the                               
            part of the officers involved and to ignore testimony that                                  
            contradicts his hypotheses.  We decline to do so.                                           
                  To support his bad faith theory, petitioner notes that on                             
            the morning of the arrest, he left his house for a time. He                                 
            asserts that the deputies, who then had him under surveillance,                             
            should have apprehended him outside his house.  He says they                                
            waited until he went back inside simply because they wanted to                              
            get into his house and conduct a search.  This supposition is                               
            contradicted by the record.  Sergeant Steve DeFries, a                                      
            supervising officer who was at the scene, testified credibly at                             
            the hearing that his officers were not in position to make the                              
            arrest safely when petitioner left his house that morning.                                  
                  Petitioner also makes much of a hindsight observation by                              
            Sergeant DeFries, expressing disappointment with the outcome of                             





Page:  Previous  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  Next

Last modified: May 25, 2011