People v. Gales

At 1:00 p.m. one afternoon, a confidential informant reported to Officer Shaefer that earlier that day, Bernard Gales (defendant) gave the informant marijuana at one house and then Gales sold the informant marijuana at another house across the street. Police learned that Michael Thornton owned the first house and that Gales lived in an apartment in the second house. Based upon the informant’s tip, Shaefer obtained search warrants for both houses, and police executed the warrants at 9:30 p.m. that night. Police seized a gun and cocaine from Gales’s apartment, and Gales was charged with possession with intent to deliver cocaine and possession of a weapon by a felon. Gales filed a motion for a Franks hearing, a hearing in which a defendant may attack the truthfulness of a search warrant. At the Franks hearing, Shaefer testified to the above information. Gales also presented additional witnesses, including an employer who testified that Gales attended a training from approximately 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on the day in question and Thornton, who testified that he and Gales were not friends and that Gales had no access to his house. Gales requested production of the confidential informant during the Franks hearing. The trial court interviewed the informant in camera without any attorneys or a stenographer present. The trial court determined that the informant provided Shaefer with the information in Schaefer’s application for a search warrant and that the informant corroborated Shaefer’s testimony. The trial court did not disclose the informant’s identity and did not specify what time the informant claimed to purchase marijuana from Gales. The trial court denied Gales’s motion to quash the warrant, finding that Gales failed to prove Shaefer made any false statements in the warrant affidavit. A jury convicted Gales of possession with intent to deliver cocaine and possession of a weapon by a felon. Gales appealed, asserting that he had a right to know the informant’s identity.