Case ID: f-supp_700/html/0013-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "KAZEN, District Judge.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

UNITED STATES of America v. Vidal MOLINA.
    Crim. No. L-88-31.
    United States District Court, S.D. Texas, Laredo Division.
    March 7, 1988.
    
      Louis Menendez, Asst. Public Defender, Laredo, Tex., for defendant.
    Mark Dowd, U.S. Atty., for U.S.
   MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

KAZEN, District Judge.

Pending is Defendant’s motion to suppress. Defendant’s vehicle was stopped by a roving Border Patrol. The Court is not satisfied from the totality of the circumstances that the officer had a reasonable basis to suspect that the Defendant was participating in criminal activity at the time of the stop.

The Defendant was operating a 1981 Buick automobile with tinted windows. The Court must reject the characterization of this vehicle as a “smuggler’s vehicle” simply because it is large enough to carry several passengers. The stop was at approximately 6:00 p.m., some 80 miles from the Mexican border. The vehicle bore a Texas license plate, registered in Mission, Texas. Reviewing the official map of Texas, it is also difficult to characterize FM 1017 as a particularly suspicious route on which a person from Mission might travel north.

The most serious factor described by the agent was the alleged erratic movements of the vehicle. However, FM 1017 is a small, 2-lane highway and again it is difficult to ascribe serious criminal activity to a vehicle which at best would sometimes slide over the left or right edges of its one lane of traffic. While this factor in combination with others could lead to a finding of reasonable suspicion, in this case it virtually stands alone and cannot support such a finding.

The motion is GRANTED.