UF Animal Forensics Conference 2024: Informed Consent vs Search Warrants with Lauryn Day

DrG: 00:00:05

Our first guest for the second day is Animal Cruelty Unit Chief Lauren Day.

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Thank you so very much for

being here at The Junction.

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Lauryn Day: Thank you for having me.

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DrG: So let's start with your background.

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What your studies were, what

brought you here, and how your

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field relates to animal forensics.

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Lauryn Day: Sure, so I, um, went to

NC State University for undergrad.

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I got my Bachelor of Science

in Animal Science, thought I

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wanted to be a veterinarian.

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Kind of realized at the last minute,

didn't want to do that, but still

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kept my Bachelor's program the same.

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And, um, I had always wanted to get,

you know, a graduate level degree.

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And so basically at that point,

the, or the options were, you

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know, law school, medical school,

any of those types of things.

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But law school was the only one that

didn't have certain prerequisites

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that I wouldn't have to like do a

victory lap in undergrad to get.

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So I applied to law school and

ended up going to Florida State.

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While I was there at Florida State, um,

in law school, I did a lot of mock trial,

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fell in love with that, and that led me

to prosecution, becoming an assistant

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state attorney for the Ninth Circuit.

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That's how I started my career, that's

where I've been for the last seven years.

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And everything was kind of able to

come full circle because my passion

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as a prosecutor was victim crimes, sex

crimes, child abuse, domestic violence.

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Um, those types of things, and

of course crimes against animals.

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We had an animal cruelty unit established

at the office, I asked to join it, um,

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I found that my background in animal

science allowed me to have a different

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perspective on the cases because I was

familiar with necropsy, I was familiar

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with a lot of the terms that the

veterinarians used, I had worked as a

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vet tech so I could easily spot neglect

and not have to convince somebody about

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that, like some of the other attorneys

who maybe even never even owned an animal.

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Um, and so that's kind of how

everything was able to come full circle.

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I'm able to use my degree in animal

science in prosecuting the animal crimes.

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And then I currently prosecute all of

our high profile, um, or torture cases.

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And then I supervise the attorneys in

our unit for all of the other general

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felony or misdemeanor animal crimes.

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DrG: So you're very well poised

to manage cases related to like

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the link, right, between animal

cruelty and interpersonal violence.

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Yes.

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That's great.

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And I mean, I can relate a little

bit because I've always been

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interested in criminology, but

I wanted to be a veterinarian.

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Yeah.

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So I'm kind of a little

bit backwards, right?

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Yeah.

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So I decided to go through the vet

school and everything else, and then

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once the field of veterinary forensic

started growing, then I figured, hey,

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this is the perfect like merge for me.

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The perfect meld.

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Yeah.

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That I can be kind of a criminologist,

but still be a veterinarian.

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Definitely.

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So that's kind of cool.

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So your topic today was on, uh,

issuing warrants and informed consent.

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So I think that there's a, how do

you say, a lack of understanding

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of people of what these terms mean.

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So can you discuss what is informed

consent and what is a warrant?

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Lauryn Day: Sure.

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So every person in our country

has the right to be, um, free from

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an unreasonable search procedure.

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What that basically means at its

very basic level is we all have this,

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Fourth Amendment right, that police

officers can't search me, they can't

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search my car, my house, any of my,

you know, private areas where I have my

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expectation of privacy unless they have

a warrant, which is based on probable

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cause that I've committed a crime.

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And therefore they need to

search me, which is considered

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like an arrest warrant as well.

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So search me or search my property or

take my things because they have probable

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cause that I've committed a crime.

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Informed consent is an exception

to the warrant requirement.

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So at the very base level, we all

have our Fourth Amendment right.

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You cannot search us.

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You can't take our things

unless you have a warrant.

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Or, unless I consent to that, and I

have to have an informed consent where I

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knowingly and voluntarily say, yes, you

may search me, you may search my house,

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my car, you may take whatever that you

find in that search, and I am openly

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and voluntarily consenting to that.

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So, the, the difference in the two is that

consent is just one of the many exceptions

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to police having to have a warrant in

order to search you or take your things.

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DrG: So what are the other

exceptions to not needing a warrant?

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Lauryn Day: So, the other exceptions are

if If officers are in a place where they

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are lawfully allowed to be, which we say

is anywhere that any other citizen is

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allowed to be, and they can see things

in plain sight, evidence of a crime

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in plain sight, that's an exception.

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You don't need a warrant for that.

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So for example, if we are at a stoplight,

I'm in my car, an officer is in their

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patrol car, I've got my windows down

and I'm snorting cocaine off my steering

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wheel, and they can clearly see that

just like an ordinary citizen would

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be able to see it, then, you know,

they wouldn't need a warrant to stop,

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to stop me and, and to search my car

or to take my cocaine from me, right?

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Um, and so plain sight

is one of the exceptions.

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Um, another exception is what we call

exigent circumstances or things that

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are emergencies where there's no time to

get a warrant because of the emergency.

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A lot of times we think of, you know, fast

and furious or hot pursuit of a fleeing

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felon if somebody's fleeing and they're a

felon, you don't need a warrant to go and

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arrest them for that or chase them down.

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Um, so hot pursuit is an exception.

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Um, welfare checks are an exception and

then imminent destruction of evidence.

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So if somebody is, you know, flushing,

Uh, drugs down the toilet, those

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types of things where you're trying to

prevent the destruction of evidence.

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There's other exceptions

to the warrant requirement.

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There's many of them.

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Like, I could probably

name eight or nine of them.

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But other ones are like kids

who are in public school.

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They don't have the same

expectation of privacy.

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And so you can search a backpack.

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Schools can search backpacks.

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Or they can do, you know, those

metal detector searches for public

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safety, like border patrol or in

the airport with the, with the dogs.

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All these other things are.

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Um, if you're on probation or you're a

parolee, again, you're, you can have a

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warrantless search of your, of yourself or

your property because you're on probation

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and you're in that special status.

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So there's many exceptions to

the warrant requirement, consent

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and, and exigent circumstances.

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And then plain view are

just the most popular ones.

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DrG: And plain view is basically

something that can be seen

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from a public area, right?

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So like if you're, if you're going to

somebody's house and peeking over a

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fence, then that's not going to meet.

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That's not going to constitute plain view.

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Lauryn Day: Correct.

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Correct.

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Yeah, an ordinary person wouldn't

be able to just go up to the side of

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your backyard fence and put a stool

up and jump over, you know, and look

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over and see what you got going on.

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That's not going to be

considered plain view.

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DrG: So what are the issues if somebody

does a warrantless search and it's found

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that it was not performed properly?

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Lauryn Day: So the thing that happens

with that is there's It's probably

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going to be a motion to suppress if the

person's already been formally charged.

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Defense, their defense attorney

should file a motion to suppress

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that their Fourth Amendment rights

were violated, we litigate that.

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If they were in fact violated, then a

judge can and should suppress the evidence

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in that case by, Um, which means we are

not allowed to talk about it, introduce

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it, you know, if it was the cocaine, the

cocaine's not coming into evidence at

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the trial, it's going to be suppressed.

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If it's a confession because of something

else, that's going to be suppressed,

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nobody can mention the confession.

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Which materially alters kind

of the direction of the, of the

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state's presentation of the case.

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Sometimes it's dispositive, which

means, you know, If you throw out

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all my cocaine and it's a possession

of cocaine case, I'm probably

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going to have to drop the case now.

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Um, but sometimes it's not.

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If it's, you know, they're suppressing

one thing but not another thing, the

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case may still be able to move forward.

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DrG: What are the steps that officers

should take in obtaining a warrant

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and what should be included in it?

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Lauryn Day: First, they need to have

probable cause, so they need to have

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a reasonable belief that a crime has,

um, been committed or being committed.

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And that probable cause is supported

by certain facts that they've observed.

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It can be based, um, on hearsay, so

maybe anonymous tips or things that

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other people have informed officers.

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Oh yeah, I saw.

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You know, Lauren over there doing

this on this day and time that can

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be in the affidavit for a warrant.

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Um, so any facts and any evidence

that they have at that point that

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brings them the probable cause that

the crime is being committed needs

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to be included in the affidavit.

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And it also has to be sworn to by a

person who has the same authority.

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So a sworn officer or the statute says

attorney for the government as well.

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So anybody who has that sworn capacity

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DrG: I know that some officers, uh,

think about the things to include

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in the warrant because there are

things that we don't think about

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as far as above and below ground or

animals that are, have not been born.

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Right.

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So, uh, what, what's the importance

of having those details in there?

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Lauryn Day: The more details, the

better, the more details, the better.

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It's really important to think

about all the things that

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are unique to animal cases.

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Um, and at least in our jurisdiction,

our animal control officers don't have

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the they're not sworn so they can't

write warrants so they have to rely

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on a deputy or an officer to write

a warrant and they have to work with

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them to, you know, make sure that

they include all of those things.

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Just like you said, any animals that

may not be born yet, um, anything

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above or below ground and also

things that are very particular.

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to the cases that a judge may

not otherwise think is important,

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like a treadmill, right?

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If you're, if you're dealing with, you

know, conditioning dogs, a judge may

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say, why do you need to take a treadmill?

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But we know that that's something

that they do to condition the

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dogs for certain dog fighting

operations or breeding operations.

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You know, a rape stand to the naked eye,

it doesn't really look like anything

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to a person who's unfamiliar with it.

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And so including all of those

things in those descriptions, um,

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in the warrant for the judge will

just make it much easier, much less

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litigation for us on the back end.

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Because if they take a treadmill,

a defense attorney might be

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like, you took a treadmill.

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What was the point of that?

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You know, but that's something that would

be considered maybe paraphernalia for us.

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So the more the better.

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DrG: A lot of people get really upset

when, um, When cases of suspected

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animal cruelty are not prosecuted.

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And I think that they don't understand

that just thinking that somebody

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did something, you know, like, Fifi

that has not had water or whatever,

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go ahead and send them to jail.

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But they don't understand.

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So what are the, what are the

factors that need to be there for

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you to be able to prosecute a case?

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Lauryn Day: So one thing that I always

say is, you know, officers operate

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from probable cause and we have to

operate from beyond a reasonable doubt.

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And so even sometimes, even if there

is probable cause, there's not beyond

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a reasonable doubt because there is

reasonable doubt there to things.

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And we also have to charge

based on all the elements.

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When I do my training with the officers,

I find it really helpful to tell them

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look at the jury instructions, look at

what I have to prove, so you can see

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I have to prove element 1, 2, 3, 4.

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Go get me some evidence to

prove element 1, 2, 3, 4.

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Um, I also try to train on the common

defenses so you can also try to

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combat that in your investigation.

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Like we already know this

person saying I didn't have the

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money to take them to the vet.

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Go try to get some evidence to

show that they did have the money.

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Um, or get the vet

records or lack thereof.

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You know, get a sworn

statement from a vet that says.

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They, they said they

have an appointment here.

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We've never had this person ever, you

know, call here and make an appointment.

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That appointment's not on the books.

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Even omissions can

assist us in those cases.

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So the more evidence, the better,

and really comparing it with the

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elements that we have to prove

on our end is really helpful.

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A lot of times we get cases where,

you know, it's definitely there

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for maybe one or two elements,

but that third one is lacking.

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There just isn't enough

evidence for that one.

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And we have so many cases.

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We don't always have the time

to go back with the officers and

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say, Hey, I need X, Y, and Z.

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We also have to go against

certain timelines and deadlines,

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which I don't think that law

enforcement always keeps in mind.

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That we have speedy trial deadlines, we

have statute of limitation deadlines, and

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the minute somebody's arrested, that clock

is ticking, which also puts a big strain

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on things and sometimes it's just like,

you know, I really needed this, but my,

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my time is up and now I can't file it.

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It's not to say that maybe we

couldn't have, but the time expired,

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we didn't get what we needed.

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DrG: The audience for

this podcast is very broad.

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So there are people that are just

animal lovers and animal advocates.

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And I know that people will, it's so

emotionally charged that people see an

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animal behind a fence and they don't

see food or they don't see shelter.

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And they're like, I'm going to

jump over and take that animal.

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So what would you say

to these individuals?

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Lauryn Day: I would say, I

understand where you're coming

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from, even as a prosecutor and

this, you know, type of, of crime.

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I see those things too, you know,

and I see things on Facebook.

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I see things in my own neighborhood

and I so desperately want to get

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on my computer and charge that

person with a crime, but I can't.

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All right.

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There are rules in place because even

if you try to be a good Samaritan

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and you try to go do the right thing,

you're not It could still backfire.

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We could totally lose a case

because of your interference.

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The best thing to do is

just follow the protocols.

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As flawed as they may be, they're

there for a reason to try to streamline

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everything and keep everything

consistent so we don't lose cases

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and people don't get animals returned

to them who shouldn't have animals.

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Call animal control.

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Call the police.

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Do what, do, you know, do things

the right way so that we can kind of

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protect the system and protect the

evidence the best way we know how.

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DrG: Excellent.

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Well, thank you so much for talking

to us and sharing your information

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and thank you for everything that

you're doing for the animals.

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Lauryn Day: Thank you so much.

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This is fun.