U.S. v. Shelton

Dist. Ct. erred in denying defendant's motion for new trial on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, arising out of defendant's alleged performance of campaign work on her own behalf during time that she was on clock for government job, where defendant had filed during trial motion to suppress documents that informant had gathered from defendant's office without warrant and at direction of FBI agent. Dist. Ct. erred in finding that defendant did not have reasonable expectation of privacy in her office, where informant had only limited access to defendant's office, where he signed in and out using time sheets located in defendant's office, and record otherwise showed that: (1) informant was acting as government agent when searching defendant's office without search warrant; (2) agent gave informant direction to search based on mistaken belief that informant had right of general access to defendant's office; (3) defendant's office was enclosed with door, which defendant used to exclude co-workers and others from her office; (4) defendant was sole occupant of her office for more than seven years; (5) on at least one occasion, defendant turned papers down so visitor could not see them; and (6) there was no evidence that informant collected documents when he was in defendant's office as business invitee. As such, documents gathered by informant should have been excluded, as well as other evidence obtained pursuant to warrant that was issued in reliance on information contained in documents previously obtained through informant's improper search of defendant's office.