## Facts

- Ohio County, Kentucky officers executed search warrants at Barbara Jean Sutton and Peter Jansen Sutton’s residence on July 21 and July 24, 2001.
- The searches yielded seventy-one firearms, marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, drug paraphernalia, explosive materials, and allegedly stolen personal property, implicating Suttons and David Jeremy Parker.
- The warrants were issued by Ohio County Trial Commissioner Michelle Madison, sworn in on July 2, 2001.
- Madison simultaneously worked at the Ohio County Detention Center as an administrative assistant within the jailer’s office.
- Her jail duties included administrative and financial tasks connected to incarceration, including collecting fees and handling related paperwork.
- Defendants moved to suppress, arguing Madison was not a “neutral and detached” Fourth Amendment warrant issuer due to her jail employment.
- The district court held Madison was not neutral and detached, invalidated the warrants, suppressed the evidence, and ruled the Leon good-faith exception inapplicable.
- The United States filed an interlocutory appeal from the suppression order.

## Issues

1. Whether a trial commissioner who is also employed at the county jail qualifies as a “neutral and detached magistrate” for Fourth Amendment warrant issuance.
2. If the warrant issuer was not neutral and detached, whether the exclusionary rule is avoided under the United States v. Leon good-faith exception.

## Decision

- The Sixth Circuit affirmed the suppression order.
- The court held Madison was not a neutral and detached warrant issuer because her jail employment aligned her too closely with law enforcement functions.
- The court held Leon did not apply because warrants issued without a qualifying neutral and detached magistrate reflect a fundamental defect, and officers could not objectively and reasonably rely on such warrants.

## Legal Principles

- The Fourth Amendment requires that warrants be issued by a neutral and detached magistrate independent from law enforcement activities.
- A warrant issuer’s connection to law enforcement that is more than minimal—such as employment within a jail’s administrative structure—can defeat neutrality and detachment.
- The Leon good-faith exception does not apply where the issuing official lacks the required neutral and detached status and thus fails to perform the required judicial role.
- Suppression is appropriate when the warrant process lacks a constitutionally qualified neutral issuer and reliance on the warrant is not objectively reasonable.

## Conclusion

The court affirmed suppression because the warrants were issued by a trial commissioner whose simultaneous jail employment compromised Fourth Amendment neutrality, and the resulting structural defect barred application of Leon’s good-faith exception.


United States v. Parker, 373 F.3d 770 (6th Cir. 2004)