Filed: Apr. 20, 2018
Latest Update: Apr. 20, 2018
Summary: MEMORANDUM ORDER JOSEPH H.L. PEREZ-MONTES , Magistrate Judge . Defendants Nathan Burl Cain II ("Cain") and Tonia Bandy Cain ("Tonia"), were indicted on six counts of wire fraud and a forfeiture count (Doc. 1). Defendants filed this Motion to Suppress (Doc. 34), seeking to suppress use of evidence seized by an investigator for the Louisiana Office of the Inspector General ("OIG"). Cain was Warden of the Avoyelles Correctional Center ("ACC") in Cottonport, Louisiana from 2012 to May 2016, wh
Summary: MEMORANDUM ORDER JOSEPH H.L. PEREZ-MONTES , Magistrate Judge . Defendants Nathan Burl Cain II ("Cain") and Tonia Bandy Cain ("Tonia"), were indicted on six counts of wire fraud and a forfeiture count (Doc. 1). Defendants filed this Motion to Suppress (Doc. 34), seeking to suppress use of evidence seized by an investigator for the Louisiana Office of the Inspector General ("OIG"). Cain was Warden of the Avoyelles Correctional Center ("ACC") in Cottonport, Louisiana from 2012 to May 2016, whe..
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MEMORANDUM ORDER
JOSEPH H.L. PEREZ-MONTES, Magistrate Judge.
Defendants Nathan Burl Cain II ("Cain") and Tonia Bandy Cain ("Tonia"), were indicted on six counts of wire fraud and a forfeiture count (Doc. 1). Defendants filed this Motion to Suppress (Doc. 34), seeking to suppress use of evidence seized by an investigator for the Louisiana Office of the Inspector General ("OIG").
Cain was Warden of the Avoyelles Correctional Center ("ACC") in Cottonport, Louisiana from 2012 to May 2016, when he retired. Tonia was employed at ACC through May 2016, when she retired.
In June 2016, Nicole Compton, a criminal investigator with the Louisiana Office of the Inspector General, obtained a search warrant for Defendants' former residence on the grounds of ACC. That house is owned by the State.1 The United States contends in its brief that the Defendants had left their employment at ACC and vacated the warden's residence (Doc. 38, p. 2/9). In the OIG investigator's search warrant application, the investigator stated the Defendants were no longer employed at ACC, and had "partially vacated the residence" (apparently meaning some things had been left in the house) that is owned by the State (Doc. 34-2, p. 2/5). The Defendants have not stated whether or not they still had possession of the house.
The evidence seized from the house was eventually turned over to the United States Attorney's Office for the Western District of Louisiana, which in turn used it to indict Defendants for wire fraud.
Defendants argue all evidence obtained pursuant to the warrant must be suppressed because the Louisiana Office of the Inspector General does not have the authority to obtain and execute search warrants. The Court must first determine whether Defendants have "standing" to object to the search of their former home on the ground of the Avoyelles Correctional Center.
The parties did not address the issue of "standing."2 Accordingly,
IT IS ORDERED that Defendants shall file a supplemental brief addressing only the issue of standing on or before April 30, 2018.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the United States shall file a supplemental brief addressing only the issue of standing on or before May 7, 2018.
