Aivaras Mardosas v. Florida

Whether under the Fourth Amendment, the “fellow officer rule” (or the collective knowledge doctrine) can be utilized in justifying a search warrant where the probable cause relied on at time of issuance was flawed, i.e. bare bones, and did not contain facts or circumstances to support the affiant officer’s reliance on facts known by an unknown fellow officer. Whether under the Fourth Amendment, suppression of evidence would be proper when the basis, probable cause, for the search warrant relies on facts or circumstances known by fellow law enforcement but those facts or circumstances of knowledge are not provided to the magistrate by the affiant officer when applying for a search warrant for a private dwelling, and without the application of the “fellow officer rule” the probable cause is based on essentially a ‘bare bones’ affidavit. This Court has never directly addressed these issues.