The good faith exception to the exclusionary rule did not apply to a probation search conducted by police officers in reliance on a “probation roster” which by design informed the officer only whether a probationer was subject to any kind of probation search condition and did not note any limitations on the search condition. Here, the defendants probation search condition limited probation searches to those for stolen property, but the officers were searching for drugs. Since the error originated with the probation department and was compounded by the law enforcement agencies failure to recognize the incompleteness of the information, it was appropriate to exclude the evidence. Suppression would motivate those employees to make the system more complete.
Case Summaries