State v. Goecks

An affidavit for a search warrant must contain a connection between the defendant and the illegal activity to be considered to have probable cause.

Defendant was convicted of unlawful possession, manufacture, and delivery of marijuana. He appeals the trial courts denial of his motion to suppress based on a lack of probable cause to issue a warrant. Here a police officer set forth in his affidavit for a search warrant information provided to him by a named informant. The information turned out to be mostly fabricated by the named informant in cooperation with one of the officer's confidential informants. Defendant moved the court to controvert certain information in the affidavit. The court ordered that the inaccuracies be deleted from the affidavit and addition information that was developed on the motion to controvert should be added to the motion. On appeal, the Court held that because of the bias of the named informant, there were problems with the information provided to affiant, such as the fact that the uncontroverted information did not connect Defendant to the residence to where the marijuana was being grown. Reversed and remanded.