Guam is a United States territory and it comes under the jurisdiction of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Court, sitting in Hawaii, heard United States v. Cha. It held that a 26.5 hour seizure of a residence pending the obtaining of a search warrant unconstitutional and as a result it upheld the suppression of evidence found in the house.

On Saturday evening, January 12, 2008 police officers arrived at the Blue House Lounge in Tamuning, Guam to investigate a complaint made by Sonina Suwain, a resident of Chuuk that the owners had seized her passport and were holding two of her female cousins against their will. The officers found one cousin waiting tables and the other in a hospitality room with a male patron. After interviewing the cousins Song Jaw Cha (Ms Cha) was detained on prostitution related charges. The officers did a walk through of the lounge and Ms Cha’s attached home, finding her husband in bed. They interviewed customers and ordered that the place be closed. The Chas were taken to the precinct at 1:00 Sunday morning and Ms Cha was arrested at 6:00 am. At 8:00 am Mr. Cha returned to his house but he was not allowed to enter. At 12:45 pm his lawyer arrived The lawyer returned at 2:45 and asked that Mr. Cha be allowed to retrieve his diabetes medication. The police did not allow him to get the medication until 7:00 that night. The lawyer left at 1:00 Monday morning.

At 9:20 Sunday morning Officer Perez was asked to come into work at noon for a briefing. During the briefing he was asked to prepare a search warrant affidavit. He waited for reports and started working on the affidavit at 6:30 Sunday evening. He worked until 4:00 am. He went home and returned at 7:50 Monday morning. At the request of the chief prosecutor he ran the warrant by him and presented it to a magistrate at 10:25 Monday morning. The search was not begun until 2:00 Monday afternoon and it was not completed until 1:00 Tuesday morning, when Mr. Cha was allowed to enter his house.

The court found that the officers violated the law by taking too much time to process the warrant request. In Illinois v. McArthur the Supreme Court listed four factors that must be considered in determining the constitutionality of a detention of a home prior to a search. First, they must consider the existence of probable cause. This is not disputed. Second, whether the police had good cause to fear that evidence would be destroyed. There was no reason to believe that evidence would be destroyed. Third, whether the police made reasonable efforts to meet the privacy needs of the residents. Evidence to the contrary is the refusal for four hours to provide Mr. Cha with his medication. Finally whether the police acted reasonably and with diligence in obtaining the warrant. The court found numerous unnecessary delays including Perez’s late appearance on the scene, the time that passed between his appearance and his beginning to work on the affidavit, and the time he took off in the early morning.

The Court found that the failure to suppress the evidence would allow law enforcement officers to spend an indefinite amount of time prior to the preparation of a search warrant without any repercussions and that suppression would accommodate the goal of suppressing illegally seized evidence in that it would deter future “deliberate, reckless or grossly negligent conduct.” The Court pointed out that it was a violation of the law and not a violation of fact and that the police should be aware of the law.