Search of ‘A’s Bandit’ Suspect’s Home Held Valid

A search warrant served after the legal time limit on the apartment of the “A’s Bandit” bank-robbery suspect resulted from a clerical error and should not invalidate the search, a federal judge ruled Monday.

In a hearing for David W. Malley, attorney David H. Bartick argued that evidence seized from Malley’s San Diego apartment should be suppressed because it was obtained through an invalid search warrant. Malley is accused of robbing 29 banks of more than $25,000 over three months, often wearing an Oakland A’s baseball cap.

The warrant should have been served between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., but authorities entered Malley’s apartment shortly after 10 p.m. and confiscated a number of personal items, including clothing.

U.S. District Judge Judith N. Keep said the magistrate who authorized the warrant should have extended the search past 10 p.m. but did not. Magistrates and district judges “do make mistakes,” she said.

Bartick also argued that many items confiscated in the search should not be usable as evidence because the items were not identified in the original warrant. Keep ruled that only two items--pieces of paper--could not be used as evidence. The FBI agent could not readily identify the papers as relevant to the case.

After the hearing, Bartick said exclusion of the papers--which he would not identify--was significant. Asst. U.S. Atty. Patrick O’Toole said that, although “the government doesn’t like any evidence suppressed, our most important evidence was not suppressed.”

Malley, charged with 28 counts of bank robbery, is scheduled for trial Oct. 16. He has pleaded not guilty to all counts and is being held without bail at the downtown Metropolitan Correctional Center.

Keep will rule in a separate hearing next week on Bartick’s request for a change of venue because of pretrial publicity in the case. But Keep said she is not predisposed to changing the location.

“If they can have a trial for Elizabeth Broderick in this town, and they can try (Oliver) North in D.C.,” Malley can probably get a fair trial, she said.

Malley, 22, a native of Ramapo, N.Y., listened intently to the proceedings. Wearing a Navy blue prison jump suit and white athletic shoes, he swiveled continually in his chair.