In United States v. Estrella, --- F.4th ---, No. 22-10027 (9th Cir. 2023), the Court affirmed the district court’s denial of Christian Alejandro Estrella’s motion to suppress evidence in a case in which Estrella entered a conditional guilty plea to being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition.
The opinion's introduction provides a good summary. Here it is:
On August 14, 2019, Appellant Christian Alejandro Estrella (“Estrella”) was arrested as a felon in unlawful possession of a firearm after two officers discovered a handgun and ammunition concealed in his vehicle. At the time of this encounter, Estrella was a registered gang member on California state parole, and was subject to a suspicionless search condition that has been upheld by the Supreme Court. See Cal. Penal Code § 3067(b)(3); see also Samson v. California, 547 U.S. 843, 857 (2006). After entering a plea of guilty and preserving his right to appeal, Estrella appeals the district court’s denial of his motion to suppress evidence, arguing that the officers did not have advance knowledge that he was on parole at the time of this encounter. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and we affirm.It is firmly established that “[a] search of a parolee that complies with the terms of a valid search condition will usually be deemed reasonable under the Fourth Amendment.” United States v. Cervantes, 859 F.3d 1175, 1183 (9th Cir. 2017). As a threshold requirement, we have held that “an officer must know of a detainee’s parole status before that person can be detained and searched pursuant to a parole condition.” Moreno v. Baca, 431 F.3d 633, 641 (9th Cir. 2005). However, this Court has yet to specifically address how precise that knowledge must be.For the reasons articulated below, we now hold that a law enforcement officer must have probable cause to believe that a person is on active parole before he may be detained and searched pursuant to a parole condition. Although a law enforcement officer must have “advance knowledge” that the detainee remains on active parole, United States v. Cesares, 533 F.3d 1064, 1076 (9th Cir. 2008), the officer need not “know to an absolute certainty,” with precise day by-day or minute-by-minute information of the detainee’s parole status, People v. Douglas, 193 Cal. Rptr. 3d 79, 89 (Cal. Ct. App. 2015). It is sufficient for the officer to determine, using the well-established rules governing probable cause, that the individual to be detained and searched is on active parole, and that an applicable parole condition authorizes the challenged search or seizure.Applying this standard, we conclude that the arresting officers had probable cause to believe that Estrella remained on active parole when he was detained and searched on August 14, 2019. We further hold that this encounter did not violate California’s independent prohibition on arbitrary, capricious, or harassing searches. Accordingly, we affirm the denial of Estrella’s motion to suppress.
