Motion to Suppress Evidence and Statements — United States v. Ryan Dales (District of Maryland)

Summary

A Motion to Suppress Evidence and Statements Obtained From Invalid Search Warrant, filed October 10, 2023, as Document 48 in United States v. Ryan Dales, Case 1:23-cr-00026-GLR, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. The defendant, by undersigned counsel, moves to suppress all evidence seized on January 20, 2023, as a violation of Fourth Amendment rights, along with any statements made as a result of the warrant. The motion states that the warrant was issued on January 18, 2023, and that the supporting affidavit contains no information related to any crime after September, 2021. It argues that the affidavit lacked probable cause because it was stale, and cites United States v. McCall. The signature block names Richard Bardos.

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“Motion to Suppress Evidence and Statements — United States v. Ryan Dales (District of Maryland).” Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/gov-uscourts-mdd-529188-48-0-1c455bf921/, SHA-256 030e850d691cfff0cf57ea66c9805c41f049d534d6e02da683c92a861adc7416.

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Case 1:23-cr-00026-GLR Document 48 Filed 10/10/23 Page 1 of 5

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF MARYLAND

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA *

V. * Cr. No. GLR-22-026

RYAN DALES *

Defendant *

For: RYAN DALES *

MOTION TO SUPPRESS EVIDENCE AND STATEMENTS OBTAINED FROM
INVALID SEARCH WARRANT

Defendant, RYAN DALES, by his undersigned counsel, hereby moves this

Honorable Court to suppress all evidence seized on January 20, 2023, from 900 East Fort

Avenue, Apartment 537, Baltimore, Maryland in violation of his Fourth Amendment

Rights, and and any statements made by him as a result of the invalid warrant and as

grounds states:

1. Ryan Dales is charged with various offenses related to unemployment insurance

fraud and weapons and drug offenses.

2. On January 20, 2023, law enforcement agents, including Baltimore City

homicide detectives, executed a search warrant that had been issued two days

earlier at 900 East Fort Avenue, Apartment 537, an address registered to Mr.

Dales. The warrant was issued on January 18, 2023. The affidavit filed in

support of the warrant contains no information related to any crime after

September, 2021, sixteen months before the affidavit was filed and was therefore

lacking of probable cause at the time it was issued.
Case 1:23-cr-00026-GLR Document 48 Filed 10/10/23 Page 2 of 5

3. “The fourth amendment bars search warrants issued on less than probable cause,

and there is no question that time is a crucial element of probable cause.”

United States v. McCall, 740 F.2d 1331, 1335 (4th Cir. 1984). A valid search

warrant may issue only upon allegations of “facts so closely related to the time

of the issue of the warrant as to justify a finding of probable cause at that

time.” Sgro v. United States, 287 U.S. 206, 210-11 (1932).

4. A warrant may be “suspect because the information on which it rested was

arguably too old to furnish ‘present’ probable cause.” Id. The question to be

decided is “did the facts alleged in the warrant furnish probable cause to believe,

at the time the search was actually conducted, that evidence of criminal activity

was located at the premises searched?” Id. (emphasis added).

5. The staleness of the probable cause contention depends, in large part, on whether

“criminal activity alleged in the warrant is not ongoing in nature, nor the

evidence sought intrinsically likely to remain at the location where it was

originally observed…” Id.

6. The affidavit in support of the warrant alleges three separate offenses, but the

latest criminal act alleged is that in September, 2021, the Maryland Department

of Labor paid out unemployment benefits to Dales.1

1
The unemployment fraud is charged in the instant indictment, the other two alleged
crimes are not. The search warrant affidavit also discusses an EIDL fraud that occurred
in December, 2020, when Dales lived at the halfway house, and a PPP fraud that occurred
in March, 2021. No activity on either of these alleged offenses is claimed after March,
2021. Thus, the September, 2021, time frame is the latest alleged in the affidavit. The
indictment, however, alleges other crimes, including drug and gun offense and identity
theft, all of which arise from evidence found during the search on January 20, 2023, and
are not mentioned in any way in the January 18, 2023, affidavit.
Case 1:23-cr-00026-GLR Document 48 Filed 10/10/23 Page 3 of 5

7. All of the probable cause in the affidavit relates activity prior to September,

2021.

8. Nearly all of the activity addressed in the affidavit is claimed to have occurred

not when Dales lived at 900 East Fort Avenue, but when he lived at the

Volunteers of America at 5000 East Monument Street in Baltimore.

9. The affidavit does not allege any illegal activity occurring at 900 East Fort

Avenue.

10. That fact, coupled with the sixteen months between any allegation of illegal

activity and the search of Dales’ residence renders the affidavit insufficient.

11. At a minimum, the affidavit fails to meet the mandatory requirement identified

in Srgo, that “ it is manifest that the proof must be of facts so closely related to

the time of the issue of the warrant as to justify a finding of probable cause at

that time.” Srgo, at 210.

12. Thus, even if false unemployment claims were filed in December, 2020, and

paid as late as September, 2021, those payments were made a full sixteen months

before the search warrant was executed. Simply put, the affidavit lacks any

facts in this case that would indicate that law enforcement had evidence that

evidence of this crime would ever be found at the defendant’s property.

13. Here, the affidavit in support of the warrant alleges neither an ongoing crime nor

allegations that evidence of the alleged crime would still be at the defendant’s

property.
Case 1:23-cr-00026-GLR Document 48 Filed 10/10/23 Page 4 of 5

14. Because the affidavit is wholly lacking in current probable cause, United States v.

Leon, 486 U.S. 897 (1984) is inapplicable here. See United States v. Dequasie,

373 F.3d 509, 519-520 (4th Cir. 2004), quoting Leon, at 923.

15. Consequently, “evidence seized pursuant to a warrant supported by "stale"

probable cause is not admissible in a criminal trial to establish the defendant's

guilt.” McCall, at 1336.

16. Further, as a direct result of the execution of the warrant, Mr. Dales was

subsequently interrogated and made allegedly incriminating statements.

17. As fruit of the illegal search, those statements must be suppressed as well.

18. For all of the reasons stated in the instant motion, the defendant’s subsequent

statements must be suppressed as the fruit of the initial illegal activities. Brown

v. Illinois, 422 U.S. 590 (1975), Dunaway v. New York, 442 U.S. 200, 216-219

(1979), Davis v. Mississippi, 394 U.S. 721, 726 (1969), Wong Sun v. United

States, 371 U.S. 471 (1963).

WHEREFORE, defendant, RYAN DALES, moves this Honorable Court to

suppress all evidence seized on January 20, 2023, from 900 East Fort Avenue, Baltimore,

Maryland, in violation of his Fourth Amendment Rights, and and any statements made by

him as a result of the invalid warrant

Respectfully submitted,

_______/s/__________________
Richard Bardos
Schulman, Hershfield & Gilden, P.A.
1 East Pratt Street, 9th Floor
Baltimore, Maryland 21202
(410) 332 0850
Case 1:23-cr-00026-GLR Document 48 Filed 10/10/23 Page 5 of 5

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

I HEREBY CERTIFY that on this 10th of October, 2023, a copy of the foregoing
Motion was served electronically by ECF to: Office of the United States Attorney, 36
South Charles Street, Fourth Floor, Baltimore, Maryland 21201 and all defense counsel.

_____/s/______________________
Richard Bardos

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