After losing a key ruling in YoungBoy Never Broke Again’s felony gun case in Louisiana, prosecutors are asking a federal judge to “reconsider”Her landmark decision will allow jurors to view videos obtained by what the court calls a faulty search warrant.
You can find the latest paperwork at Rolling StoneAccording to prosecutors, they “regrettably” failed to fully brief the court on two issues they believe would have torpedoed YoungBoy’s successful effort to suppress the video purportedly showing him with one or more firearms before his September 2020 arrest outside his grandfather’s home in Baton Rouge.
Prosecutors that had been focusing their efforts on the defense of the search warrant are now arguing that YoungBoy, Kentrell Gaulden’s legal name, didn’t have enough standing to even challenge the admissibility and use of the videos. “Gaulden has no Fourth Amendment property interest in the videos as they were commissioned by a limited liability company named Big38Enterprise,”They claim in their new filing.
Prosecutors claim Gaulden is not protected by the Fourth Amendment privacy rights in the videos. “conduct he knowingly exposed to the public on the streets of Baton Rouge.”
“Gaulden alleges that the seized videos contain ‘intimate footage of Gaulden with his family,’”The Tuesday’s nine-page new request for reconsideration reads. “However, as described in the United States’ original opposition and never disputed by Gaulden, the only videos that the United States intends to offer as evidence at trial do not depict such private matters. Rather, they depict Gaulden engaging in criminal activity — i.e., possessing firearms — in public.”
“The compelling evidence of Gaulden’s brazen criminal activity should not be excluded from trial because Gaulden’s personal rights were not violated by the searches and seizures at issue. It was Gaulden’s burden to prove standing, and he did not do so. The video evidence should therefore be admitted at trial,”The prosecutors claim.
“This is just an unproductive attempt to get [the judge] to reconsider. They won’t get the result that they want,” YoungBoy’s lawyer Drew Findling tells Rolling Stone. “Her order was extremely comprehensive. I cannot imagine there’s one thing she missed. So I really doubt any second-guessing on their part is going to have her reconsider what she’s already spent a tremendous amount of time deciding.”
U.S. District Court Chief judge Shelly Dick ruled Feb. 24 that the videos had been improperly searched by Baton Rouge Police after SD storage card were seized close to the spot YoungBoy was taken into custody Sept. 28, 2020 with other associates. The warrant “was invalid on its face,”The judge noted in her split decision that she denied a separate defense motion seeking suppression of firearms found at the scene.
The judge ruled that the warrant for video surveillance was valid. “rendered invalid”Because it was signed by the officer who made it “misleading information,”This includes a claim that it is a “reliable witness”He told police that a group of people had been shooting rap videos outside his home with guns on Sept. 28, 2020. The allegation was false. “rap video”A so-called “senior officer” relayed the information to him on Sept. 27, by a “reliable source,”Judge ruled that although the allegation regarding people brandishing guns was made anonymously by a 911 call on Sept. 28,
“The whole truth would have included that the tip about the rap video came in on September 27th — not September 28th — which would have negated probable cause to search the SD cards and camera for evidence of who possessed firearms or narcotics on September 28th,”Judge Dick wrote in her ruling.
Now serving pre-trial house arrest after his release from jail in October, YoungBoy has pleaded not guilty to charges he was a felon in possession of unregistered guns. His trial was rescheduled for July 11.