Judge Sandra Feuerstein
On Oct. 2, 2012, DEA agents arrested Munteanu under outstanding arrest warrants while detective Stueber was at the federal courthouse drafting an affidavit for a warrant to search Munteanu’s hotel room. A hotel employee informed detectives Nimmo and Cabra that Munteanu may have had a companion. Concerned that contraband may be destroyed Nimmo and Cabra entered the room without a warrant, but found nothing in areas where an adult could hide. Cocaine was discovered when DEA agents searched the room under warrant. Munteanu pleaded not guilty to possessing with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine. Discussing the four-tiered test in United States v. Nixon, district court quashed Munteanu’s subpoena duces tecum seeking the sign-in log for the U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) at the courthouse. The subpoena was neither evidentiary nor relevant because it did not tend to prove a material fact in the case. The page from the sign-in log did not tend to establish that Stueber was not in the USAO, then at the hotel when Munteanu was arrested. All the sign-in sheet establishes is that Stueber was either at the USAO or not on Oct. 2, 2012.
