The Honorable Russell G. Clark, United States District Judge for the Western 1

District of Missouri.

United States Court of Appeals

FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT

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No. 96-3974

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United States of America, *

*

Appellee, * Appeal from the United States

* District Court for the Western

v. * District of Missouri.

*

Donald L. Grider, * [UNPUBLISHED]

*

Appellant. *

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Submitted: April 18, 1997

Filed: August 5, 1997 

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Before LOKEN, MAGILL, and MORRIS SHEPPARD ARNOLD, Circuit Judges.

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PER CURIAM.

Donald L. Grider appeals from his convictions on charges of possessing

methamphetamine with the intent to distribute it and carrying a firearm during and in

relation to a drug trafficking offense, in violation, respectively, of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1)

and 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1). He complains that the district court erred in failing to

suppress the physical evidence against him and in finding him guilty, after a bench trial,

of the firearms charge. We affirm the judgment of the district court.1
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Mr. Grider's first argument in support of his complaint with respect to the denial

of his motion to suppress is that the state trooper who stopped him on the highway and

later searched his vehicle did not have probable cause to do so. Mr. Grider did not

make this argument in support of his motion to suppress below, and he has therefore

forfeited it. See United States v. Buchanan, 985 F.2d 1372, 1380 (8th Cir. 1993), cert.

denied, 512 U.S. 1228 (1994).

Mr. Grider also maintains that the trooper detained him longer than was

necessary to conduct an investigation " 'reasonably related in scope to the

circumstances which justified the interference in the first place,' " United States v.

Cummins, 920 F.2d 498, 502 (8th Cir. 1990), cert. denied, 502 U.S. 962 (1991),

quoting Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 20 (1968), because, after giving him a warning

ticket, the trooper asked him if there were any drugs or guns in his van and then

requested permission to search the vehicle. Mr. Grider therefore asks us to hold that

the search of his van that the trooper made thereafter was the result of an illegal

detention. The district court seems to have ruled that the trooper had in fact a legal

right to detain Mr. Grider to make the inquiries that Mr. Grider claims the Fourth

Amendment does not authorize.

The government, on the other hand, does not ask us to adopt this legal

conclusion of the district court. Instead, it urges us to view the facts of this case in light

of our holding in United States v. White, 81 F.3d 775 (8th Cir. 1996), cert. denied, 117

S. Ct. 518 (1996). In that case, which involved facts in all relevant ways identical to

ours, we held that after an officer issued a warning ticket, "the encounter became

nothing more than a consensual encounter between a private citizen and a law

enforcement officer," id. at 778, and was, as a matter of law, no longer a seizure,

because in the circumstances a reasonable person in the defendant's position would feel

free to go about his or her business, id. at 779. We think that the government is correct

that the holding in White applies to this case and that Mr. Grider was not unlawfully
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detained when the trooper asked him if he had drugs or guns in his van and requested

permission to search it. His argument in this respect therefore necessarily fails.

Mr. Grider also maintains that the consent that he gave to search his van was

involuntarily given. But the district court's determination that Mr. Grider voluntarily

consented to the search finds ample support in the record and is thus not clearly

erroneous. We therefore reject this argument.

Finally, we have carefully considered Mr. Grider's arguments that the district

court wrongly convicted him of the firearms offense, and we detect no error of law or

fact in the record that would entitle Mr. Grider to relief.

We therefore affirm the judgment of the district court in all respects.

A true copy.

Attest:

 CLERK, U.S. COURT OF APPEALS, EIGHTH CIRCUIT.