Court Cases

On November 19, 2000, Agents arrested Miles Church ("Church") in Puerta Vallarta for purchasing chemicals used in the illegal manufacture of a controlled substance, methamphetamine (Morrisey Affidavit ("MA") (MA.5)). For more than six weeks DEA agents had observed Church purchasing chemicals used in such manufacturing. Church told DEA agent Russ Morrisey ("Morrisey") that he used the chemicals to manufacture methamphetamine and that Bigg possessed at his home in Dream Cove equipment owned by Church which was used in such manufacturing (MA.5). In a phone call made by Church to Bigg, which DEA monitored, Bigg said he was then "bubbling out a reaction" (MA.6).

After driving to Dream Cove, sixty miles away, Morrisey and other Agents knocked on the front door of Bigg's residence where Morrisey identified himself as a law enforcement agent (MA.6). The Agents t

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gave notice of their intent to investigate by following the established 'knock and talk' procedure, which the Court in United States v. Jones, 2001 WL 50521, 3, said "the Federal courts have recognized as a reasonable investigative tool when officers seek to gain an occupant's consent to search or where [they] reasonably suspect criminal activity." If such an emergency exists, the means employed to gain entry, a battering ram in this case, are irrelevant. McDonald, supra at 772. The District Court found that three and a quarter hours passed between the time Church was first questioned and the entry. In United States v. Apple, 221 F.3d 1336, 2000 WL 924610, 3 (6th Cir. 2000), the Court concluded that "waiting to obtain a warrant could have caused undue danger or led to the destruction of cocaine." Courts have tended to give law enforcement officers more leeway when evidence of an on-going or dangerous crime is present than where the search was aimed merely at possession of illegal narcotics. Here the Agents were engaged in a race against time to drive the sixty miles to Biggs' residence and arrive before all evidence of the crime had been removed. It is unclear whether the Puerta Vallarta eviden
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2501
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)

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