01-29-08 A-3397-05T4
A judge issued a search warrant for an apartment in a
multiple unit structure but required that the police further
investigate which of two apartments was allegedly involved in
criminality; he did not require that the police return with this
additional, necessary information, but instead issued the
warrant on the condition that it not be executed until that
additional information was obtained. The court concluded that
this process violated the constitutional requirement that a
search warrant be issued by a "neutral and detached magistrate"
because the judge ceded his authority to the discretion of the
police.
The State also argued that the warrant was sufficient
insofar as it had authorized the police to search whichever
apartment was "controlled" or "possessed" by a particular
person. The court held that this loose description did not
conform to the constitutional requirement that the place to be
searched be "particularly describe[d]" in the warrant.
