U.S. v. Struckman, 603 F.3d 73 (9th Cir., 2010)
May 04, 2010OUTCOME: Following appeal, conviction vacated. Case dismissed following remand to District Court. Client released from custody of the Bureau of Prisons.
On December 7, 2004, three uniformed police officers entered the fenced-in backyard of a private home in a residential neighborhood of Portland. Guns drawn, but without a warrant, one officer scaled th ... e fence and another officer kicked open apadlocked gate leading into the backyard. Important to note: the only information the officers had at that time was (1) a call from a neighbor reporting that the owners were at work and that a white male wearing a black jacket, age unknown, had thrown a red backpack over the fence and climbed into the backyard; and (2) their visual confirmation that a red backpack was lying against a porch in the backyard and that the person they saw in the yard, who turned out to be the appellant, was a white male wearing a black jacket, which he allowed to fall to the ground after being confronted by the officers. The officers’ first statements to Mr. Struckman were to order him to get down on the ground. Mr. Struckman’s first statement to the officers was that he lived at the house. As it turned out, he did, but the officers only found that out after Mr. Struckman was arrested and after they had searched the backpack, finding an unloaded handgun. Officers then learned of Mr. Struckman's prior felony conviction, and arrested him as a felon in possession of a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the district court’s order denying Mr.Struckman’s motion to suppress the handgun found in a backpack. As the handgun was critical to his conviction (felon in possession of a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), it was vacated (along with the 17 year sentence that went along with it.
