Source: https://openjurist.org/955/f2d/1067/united-states-v-mcneal
Timestamp: 2019-02-23 06:02:06
Document Index: 527566041

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 841', '§ 841', '§ 845', '§ 924', 'art, 483', 'art, 483', 'art, 483', '§ 1983']

955 F2d 1067 United States v. McNeal | OpenJurist
955 F. 2d 1067 - United States v. McNeal
955 F2d 1067 United States v. McNeal
955 F.2d 1067
Bill McNEAL, Defendant-Appellant.
No. 90-3834.
Defendant-appellant Bill McNeal (McNeal) has appealed the district court's denial of his Motion to Suppress Evidence together with his conviction for possession with intent to distribute cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a); possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine, 21 U.S.C. § 841(a) and 841(b)(1), both of which counts specified that the offenses occurred within 1,000 feet of a school in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 845a; and his conviction for violating 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1), charging possession of a firearm during the commission of a drug offense.
United States v. McNeal, 735 F.Supp. 738, 742 (N.D. Ohio 1990) (citation omitted). This result was supported by the discovery, after McNeal's arrest, that he resided at 1836 Van Buren Avenue, Cleveland Heights, Ohio with Patricia Moore, many miles from the King Kennedy Estates, and upon his assertion, at the time of his arrest that, "The girl has nothing to do with this. I don't stay here. I just stopped to use the telephone."
Accordingly, since the district court concluded that the appellant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in Ward's apartment, he was afforded no Fourth Amendment protection against an improper warrantless entry into her apartment because he was not the individual aggrieved or the victim of an illegal or improper entry or search of her residence, if in fact it occurred. Having decided that McNeal had no "standing" to challenge the agents' entry into Ward's apartment, the district court correctly concluded that "Because the Court holds that defendant may not challenge the search of Ward's apartment, it need not determine whether the officers had probable cause to believe that a crime was being committed in the apartment or that exigent circumstances existed." McNeal, 735 F.Supp. at 743. The court's "standing" resolution was dispositive of the appellant's motion to suppress.
The Supreme Court has directed that a person in possession of contraband seized during an illegal search of a private place has not necessarily been subjected to a Fourth Amendment deprivation. United States v. Salvucci, 448 U.S. 83, 91, 100 S.Ct. 2547, 2552, 65 L.Ed.2d 619 (1980). Reviewed against existing fundamental mandates of the Court, appellant's arguments in the instant action are neither consistent nor convincing. Both the appellant's and the dissenting opinion's analyses have confused Fourth Amendment distinctions between constitutional rights that afford protection against entry and search of a private place, and those that afford protection to a person against illegal arrest.
As indicated, subsequent to a suppression hearing during which various witnesses, other than the appellant, including Ward, testified, the trial court concluded that McNeal had no reasonable expectation of privacy in Ward's apartment. Consequently, he had no standing to challenge the legality of the entry nor to invoke the Fourth Amendment safeguard against an unjustifiable official intrusion into the privacy of Ward's apartment either on his own or Ward's behalf. The trial court's decision was expressly anchored in credibility evaluations of witnesses who testified during the suppression hearing, and accordingly, is beyond appellate review. Anderson v. City of Bessemer, 470 U.S. 564, 574, 105 S.Ct. 1504, 1512, 84 L.Ed.2d 518 (1985); see Harte-Hanks Communications, Inc. v. Connaughton, 491 U.S. 657, 688, 109 S.Ct. 2678, 2696, 105 L.Ed.2d 562 (1989), aff'g, 842 F.2d 825 (6th Cir.1988); Bose Corp. v. Consumers Union of U.S., Inc., 466 U.S. 485, 498-99, 104 S.Ct. 1949, 1958, 80 L.Ed.2d 502 (1984); Batts v. NLT Corp., 844 F.2d 331, 336 (6th Cir.1988); Sewell v. Jefferson County Fiscal Court, 863 F.2d 461 (6th Cir.1988), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 820, 110 S.Ct. 75, 107 L.Ed.2d 42 (1989); Watson v. Fort Worth Bank & Trust, 798 F.2d 791, 798-99 (5th Cir.), reh'g denied, en banc, 802 F.2d 455 (5th Cir.1986), cert. granted, in part, 483 U.S. 1004, 107 S.Ct. 3227, 97 L.Ed.2d 734, motion denied, 484 U.S. 893, 108 S.Ct. 224, 98 L.Ed.2d 183 motion denied, 484 U.S. 961, 108 S.Ct. 448, 98 L.Ed.2d 388 (1987), and vacated, 487 U.S. 977, 108 S.Ct. 2777, 101 L.Ed.2d 827 (1988).
McNeal, 735 F.Supp. at 740 (emphasis added) (footnote omitted).
In considering the appellant's first assignment of error it should be noted that the "automatic standing" conferred by Jones v. United States, 362 U.S. 257, 80 S.Ct. 725, 4 L.Ed.2d 697 (1960)3 upon defendants charged with a crime of possession to challenge the legality of an entry and search of another's private place without first proving a reasonable expectation of privacy in the premises searched, has been explicitly overruled by the Supreme Court in United States v. Salvucci, 448 U.S. 83, 100 S.Ct. 2547, 65 L.Ed.2d 619 (1980) and Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128, 99 S.Ct. 421, 58 L.Ed.2d 387 (1978):
Salvucci, 448 U.S. at 85, 89, 100 S.Ct. at 2549, 2551 (emphasis added).As we stated in Alderman v. United States, 394 U.S. 165, 174, 89 S.Ct. 961, 966, 22 L.Ed.2d 176 (1969), "Fourth Amendment rights are personal rights which, like some other constitutional rights, may not be vicariously asserted." See Brown v. United States, 411 U.S. 223, 230, 93 S.Ct. 1565, 1569, 36 L.Ed.2d 208 (1973); Simmons v. United States, 390 U.S. 377, 389, 88 S.Ct. 967, 973, 19 L.Ed.2d 1247 (1968); Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 492, 83 S.Ct. 407, 419, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963); cf. Silverman v. United States, 365 U.S. 505, 511, 81 S.Ct. 679, 682, 5 L.Ed.2d 734 (1961); Gouled v. United States, 255 U.S. 298, 403, 41 S.Ct. 261, 263, 65 L.Ed. 647 (1921). A person who is aggrieved by an illegal search and seizure only through the introduction of damaging evidence secured by a search of a third person's premises or property has not had any of his Fourth Amendment rights infringed. Alderman, supra, 394 U.S. at 174, 89 S.Ct. at 966. And since the exclusionary rule is an attempt to effectuate the guarantees of the Fourth Amendment, United States v. Calandra, 414 U.S. 338, 347, 94 S.Ct. 613, 619, 38 L.Ed.2d 561 (1974), it is proper to permit only defendants whose Fourth Amendment rights have been violated to benefit from the rule's protections.
Rakas, 439 U.S. at 133-34, 99 S.Ct. at 425 (emphasis added).
Anderson v. City of Bessemer, 470 U.S. 564, 574, 105 S.Ct. 1504, 1512, 84 L.Ed.2d 518 (1985); see Harte-Hanks Communications, Inc. v. Connaughton, 491 U.S. 657, 688, 109 S.Ct. 2678, 2696, 105 L.Ed.2d 562 (1989), aff'g, 842 F.2d 825 (6th Cir.1988); Bose Corp. v. Consumers Union of U.S., Inc., 466 U.S. 485, 498-99, 104 S.Ct. 1949, 1958, 80 L.Ed.2d 502 (1984); Batts v. NLT Corp., 844 F.2d 331, 336 (6th Cir.1988); Sewell v. Jefferson County Fiscal Court, 863 F.2d 461 (6th Cir.1988), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 820, 110 S.Ct. 75, 107 L.Ed.2d 42 (1989); Watson v. Fort Worth Bank & Trust, 798 F.2d 791, 798-99 (5th Cir.), reh'g denied, en banc, 802 F.2d 455 (5th Cir.1986), cert. granted, in part, 483 U.S. 1004, 107 S.Ct. 3227, 97 L.Ed.2d 734, motion denied, 484 U.S. 893, 108 S.Ct. 224, 98 L.Ed.2d 183, motion denied, 484 U.S. 961, 108 S.Ct. 448, 98 L.Ed.2d 388 (1987), and vacated, 487 U.S. 977, 108 S.Ct. 2777, 101 L.Ed.2d 827 (1988).
McNeal, 735 F.Supp. at 742, were not clearly erroneous and its disposition is hereby affirmed.
Having been foreclosed from invoking the Fourth Amendment safeguards that protected Ward's personal interest in the privacy of her apartment and her possessions from unjustifiable official intrusion, appellant was without standing to interpose the defense vicariously on his own behalf. Both the appellant's and the dissenting opinion's refusal to recognize the distinctions between Fourth Amendment protection against official intrusions into an individual's privacy by illegal entry and search, and the patently different Fourth Amendment protection against the illegal arrest and detention of his person is reflected by the unprecedented argument that McNeal's warrantless arrest upon Ward's premises was illegal because the officers were without probable cause before entering her apartment of sufficient weight to support a belief that he had committed a crime. The argument goes beyond the "automatic standing" rule of Jones v. United States, 362 U.S. 257, 80 S.Ct. 725, 4 L.Ed.2d 697 (1960), repudiated by the Supreme Court, which permitted any person charged with a possessory offense to challenge the entry and search of a private place wherein contraband was seized from his person by proving a reasonable expectation of privacy in the private place in controversy.
Existing legal authority which has addressed the issue in Steagald v. United States, 451 U.S. 204, 101 S.Ct. 1642, 68 L.Ed.2d 38 (1981); Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 590, 100 S.Ct. 1371, 63 L.Ed.2d 639 (1980); United States v. Watson, 423 U.S. 411-23, 96 S.Ct. 820, 46 L.Ed.2d 598 (1976), and Minnesota v. Olson, 495 U.S. 91, 110 S.Ct. 1684, 109 L.Ed.2d 85 (1990), evolved from challenges asserted by defendants charged with possessory crimes who sought Fourth Amendment constitutional protection from warrantless entry into and search of either their own private premises or the private premises of another where it had been determined, by concession or adjudication, that such defendant had a reasonable expectation of privacy in those premises, as distinguished from a defendant whose claim was contingent only upon the use of evidence confiscated as a consequence of an illegal entry and search of another's private premises where it had been determined by concession or judicial decree that he had no reasonable expectation of privacy in those premises and was, accordingly, not the aggrieved party of the entry and search. The appellant's and dissent's suggestion that probable cause of sufficient weight to support a belief that he had committed a crime, to purge his warrantless arrest upon Ward's premises, had to exist before agents entered Ward's apartment would relieve appellant of his initial burden of proving an expectation of privacy in Ward's premises as a condition precedent to challenge the warrantless entry and search thereof and would shift that burden to the government by requiring justification for the entry into her apartment as a condition precedent to confronting McNeal. This analogy does not comport with the Supreme Court's pronouncements in Rakas, Salvucci, and progeny.
McNeal's and the dissenting opinion's argument to the contrary, probable cause for appellant's arrest while in Ward's apartment must be judged upon the totality of the information available to the government agents when they initially confronted and observed him after entering Ward's apartment, not before gaining entry into those premises as urged by appellant and the dissent. Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 230-31, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 2328, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983); McCray v. Illinois, 386 U.S. 300, 304, 87 S.Ct. 1056, 1059, 18 L.Ed.2d 62 (1967); Draper v. United States, 358 U.S. 307, 311-13, 79 S.Ct. 329, 332-33, 3 L.Ed.2d 327 (1959).
The district court, having determined that defendant did not have "standing" to contest the lawfulness of his arrest in Ward's apartment because he had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the apartment, correctly concluded that, "Because the Court holds that the defendant may not challenge the search of Ms. Ward's apartment, it need not determine whether the officers had probable cause to believe that a crime was being committed in the apartment or that exigent circumstances existed." McNeal, 735 F.Supp. at 743; see United States v. Sangineto-Miranda, 859 F.2d 1501, 1510 (6th Cir.1988).
Having correctly applied the law to its factual finding anchored in credibility determinations that are beyond appellate review because those findings are neither internally inconsistent, facially implausible nor contradicted by extrinsic evidence, and consequently, not clearly erroneous, the district court's decision was dispositive of the only issue presented and tried during the suppression hearing. Anderson v. City of Bessemer, 470 U.S. 564, 574, 105 S.Ct. 1504, 1512, 84 L.Ed.2d 518 (1985); see Harte-Hanks Communications, Inc. v. Connaughton, 491 U.S. 657, 688, 109 S.Ct. 2678, 105 L.Ed.2d 562 (1989), aff'g, 842 F.2d 825 (6th Cir.1988); Bose Corp. v. Consumers Union of U.S., Inc., 466 U.S. 485, 104 S.Ct. 1949, 80 L.Ed.2d 502 (1984); Batts v. NLT Corp., 844 F.2d 331 (6th Cir.1988); Sewell v. Jefferson County Fiscal Court, 863 F.2d 461 (6th Cir.1988), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 820, 110 S.Ct. 75, 107 L.Ed.2d 42 (1989); Watson v. Fort Worth Bank & Trust, 798 F.2d 791 (5th Cir.), reh'g denied, en banc, 802 F.2d 455 (5th Cir.1986), cert. granted, in part, 483 U.S. 1004, 107 S.Ct. 3227, 97 L.Ed.2d 734 motion denied, 484 U.S. 893, 108 S.Ct. 224, 98 L.Ed.2d 183, motion denied, 484 U.S. 961, 108 S.Ct. 448, 98 L.Ed.2d 388 (1987), and vacated, 487 U.S. 977, 108 S.Ct. 2777, 101 L.Ed.2d 827 (1988).
The lower court opinion affords no direct or implicit basis for the dissenting opinion's material departure from the trial court's explicit substantive language. To the contrary, in footnote seven of its opinion, the district court remarked, "Of course, the defendant may challenge the search of himself and his personal belongings." McNeal, 735 F.Supp. at 742 n. 7 (citations omitted); see Rakas, 439 U.S. at 142 n. 11, 99 S.Ct. at 430 n. 11.
In the instant case, appellant was arrested in Ward's apartment where, the trial court ruled, he had no reasonable expectation of privacy. Although, as a result of that ruling, he was foreclosed from suppressing the evidence confiscated from his person as the "contaminated fruit of the poisonous tree", i.e., an illegal entry and search of Ward's apartment because he was without an expectation of privacy in her apartment, he was, as the district court correctly observed, nevertheless free to assert his separate personal Fourth Amendment constitutional right to challenge his warrantless arrest and incidental confiscation of contraband from his person by asserting that the warrantless detention and search of his person while in her premises was without probable cause of sufficient weight to support a belief that he had committed a crime. Ybarra v. Illinois, 444 U.S. 85, 100 S.Ct. 338, 62 L.Ed.2d 238 (1979).5
Probable cause of sufficient weight to support McNeal's warrantless arrest in Ward's apartment must be assessed by evaluating the totality of the information available to the officers when they first observed appellant after entering Ward's apartment. Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. at 230-31, 103 S.Ct. at 2328; McCray v. Illinois, 386 U.S. at 304, 87 S.Ct. at 1059, Draper v. United States, 358 U.S. at 311-13, 79 S.Ct. at 332-33.6 This would include the information supplied to the agents before entering the premises by an informant who had provided reliable information in the past as corroborated by the agents' own initial observation of McNeal retreating into a rear bedroom of Ward's apartment and his confrontation therein.7 McCray, 386 U.S. at 304, 87 S.Ct. at 1059 (information from an informant who had provided reliable information in the past, verified by police officers' direct observations, constituted probable cause to make warrantless arrest); Draper, 358 U.S. at 311-13, 79 S.Ct. at 332-33 (same).
The operative facts concerning the circumstances that ultimately resulted in McNeal's warrantless arrest and confiscation of contraband from his person are not in controversy. Briefly, a review of those facts disclosed that a reliable informant told the officers that a heavily-armed and dangerous drug dealer named Bill, "who was a killer," was in apartment 104N with a substantial quantity of drugs. As the informant directed the officers' attention to the location of apartment 104N, they observed a person in the window of the unit. The officers first encountered McNeal after entering Ward's apartment as he was retreating into a rear bedroom in an effort to conceal himself. Upon confronting him in the bedroom, he was backing away, holding a bag in his right hand. In a coordinated single movement, McNeal transferred the bag to his left hand and with his freed right hand reached for his left armpit, for what the officers believed to be a concealed weapon. The officers ordered him to stop and raise his arms above his head. He complied immediately. At that juncture, the officers reasonably suspected that McNeal was armed and dangerous and conducted a limited protective search of his person for concealed weapons. " 'When an officer is justified in believing that the individual whose suspicious behavior he is investigating at close range is armed and presently dangerous to the officer or to others, he may conduct a limited protective search for concealed weapons.' " Adams v. Williams, 407 U.S. 143, 146, 92 S.Ct. 1921, 1923, 32 L.Ed.2d 612 (1972) (quoting Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 24, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1881, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968)).
The district court credited agent Hartman's belief, predicated upon information received from his reliable informant before entering Ward's apartment as corroborated by his own observations of McNeal therein, that appellant was armed and dangerous, which reasonable suspicion justified a limited protective search of his person for concealed weapons.8 Information from a known, reliable informant is sufficient to support the reasonable suspicion to conduct a limited search of a person for concealed weapons, Adams v. Williams, 407 U.S. at 147, 92 S.Ct. at 1924, even if the unnamed informant is "anonymous."9 The initial search disclosed a fully loaded .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol and a quantity of drugs in the bag he had dropped onto the floor, justifying McNeal's immediate arrest because the agents had probable cause to believe he had committed a crime. The search incident to his arrest conducted of his person and the bag in his possession disclosed additional quantities of cocaine, $4,768.00 in cash, and a pager.
At the conclusion of its opinion, the district court stated, "Because the Court holds that the defendant may not challenge the search of Ms. Ward's apartment, it need not determine whether the officers had probable cause to believe that a crime was being committed in the apartment or that exigent circumstances existed." United States v. McNeal, 735 F.Supp. 738, 743 (1990).1 The majority opinion states that the district court's " 'standing' resolution [is] dispositive of the appellant's motion to suppress." I disagree. The district court and majority fail to understand that a defendant does not need an expectation of privacy in the place where he is arrested in order to give him standing to argue that his arrest was not based on probable cause. An arrest must always be based on probable cause, whether it occurs in a public place, in the defendant's home, or in a third party's residence in which the defendant lacks a reasonable expectation of privacy. See United States v. Watson, 423 U.S. 411, 423-24, 96 S.Ct. 820, 828, 46 L.Ed.2d 598 (1976); Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 603, 100 S.Ct. 1371, 1388, 63 L.Ed.2d 639 (1980); Minnesota v. Olson, 495 U.S. 91, 110 S.Ct. at 1687 n. 1, 109 L.Ed.2d 85.2 Even if appellant McNeal lacks a reasonable expectation of privacy in Tina Ward's apartment, he still has "standing" to contend that the officers lacked probable cause to arrest him. Before the district court, appellant argued that his arrest violated the Fourth Amendment because the informant's tip did not provide probable cause to arrest him.3 Moreover, the evidence he sought to suppress was the evidence found during the search of his person and property, not the search of Tina Ward's apartment. As the Supreme Court made clear in Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128, 99 S.Ct. 421, 58 L.Ed.2d 387 (1978), an expectation of privacy in a third person's dwelling is necessary to give standing to contest the validity of the search of the premises, but is not necessary to contest the "lawfulness of the seizure of evidence or the search [of the person ] if [his] own property [is] seized during the search." Id. at 142 n. 11, 99 S.Ct. at 430 n. 11. One does not lose one's own Fourth Amendment rights to contest the search of one's person or property or to argue that an arrest is not based on probable cause merely because one is arrested in a third party's residence. Thus, even if appellant McNeal were only a casual visitor in Tina Ward's apartment and did not have standing to contest the search of the premises, he has standing to contest whether or not there was probable cause to believe that a crime was being committed, which would warrant the arrest and detention of his person.
I disagree with the majority's conclusion that a Terry stop may take place in a private residence without the police first obtaining lawful entry into the residence. The district court in a footnote acknowledged that appellant McNeal could challenge the search of himself and his personal belongings, but concluded that the informant's tip gave reasonable suspicion to conduct a "Terry stop" to detain and frisk him. McNeal, 735 F.Supp. at 742 n. 7.4 The district court and majority failed to recognize that a Terry stop based on the reasonable suspicion provided by an informant's tip is permissible inside a private residence only if the police first gain lawful entry into the residence. The reasonable suspicion standard was developed in the context of street encounters between citizens and police officers to justify a stop and frisk for investigatory purposes when a person appears to be engaging in suspicious activity. Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 20-23, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1879-81, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968). In the present case, the district court and the majority attempt to transfer a doctrine developed in the context of police encounters with citizens in public places--the "Terry stop doctrine"--to a private residence. The majority states that under the Fourth Amendment, the reasonable suspicion provided by an informant's tip may be used to justify a Terry stop within a private residence as long as the person the police wish to stop and frisk does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the premises. I do not agree. The Supreme Court has never held that after an unjustified, warrantless entry into a private residence, a Terry stop may be conducted based on reasonable suspicion provided by an informant's tip. The Supreme Court developed the Terry stop doctrine and the reasonable suspicion standard in the context of public encounters between police and citizens where no third party privacy rights would be infringed upon. I believe that the Terry stop doctrine is limited in its application to these public encounters and that the only time a Terry stop is permissible within a private residence is when the police are already lawfully on the premises.
If appellant McNeal had been in the type of public place in which the Terry stop doctrine has traditionally been applied, perhaps the informant's tip would have provided reasonable suspicion to stop and frisk him. See Adams v. Williams, 407 U.S. 143, 146-47, 92 S.Ct. 1921, 1923, 32 L.Ed.2d 612 (1972). However, appellant McNeal was not in a public place, but in a private residence, and he had never been observed by the police engaging in any suspicious criminal activity. Therefore, the entire rationale for making a Terry stop based on the informant's tip simply does not apply in the present case. The majority seeks to obliterate the walls of Tina Ward's apartment, indicating that a private residence is no different than a bar, airport, or bus terminal for the purpose of making a Terry stop if the suspect does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the premises. There is absolutely no authority for this extreme position. To the contrary, the court in United States v. Flippin, 924 F.2d 163, 166 (9th Cir.1991) stated, "When the police have lawfully entered a dwelling and have a reasonable suspicion that a suspect is armed, a Terry pat down for weapons is permissible" (emphasis added). In Flippin, the court found that the police had a legitimate right to enter based on consent. Id. at 165-66. In contrast, in the present case, the officers pushed their way into Tina Ward's apartment without her consent and in spite of the fact that she tried to prevent their entry by demanding to see a warrant. Implicit in the reasoning of Flippin is that a Terry pat down for weapons would not have been permissible unless lawful entry into the private residence had first been obtained. See also, United States v. Salazar, 945 F.2d 47 (2nd Cir.1991) (a Terry stop of a visitor to a private apartment was permissible because police were lawfully on the premises when he arrived).
The Supreme Court has never extended the Terry doctrine based on the reasonable suspicion standard within the confines of a private residence except when lawful entry into the residence has already been obtained. In Maryland v. Buie, 494 U.S. 325, 110 S.Ct. 1093, 108 L.Ed.2d 276 (1990), the Supreme Court stated that in executing an arrest warrant on the defendant, a protective sweep of the residence in which he was arrested could be made based on reasonable suspicion. Id. 110 S.Ct. at 1098. However, in Buie, the police were lawfully on the premises because an arrest warrant based on probable cause had already been obtained. Id. at 1095. In the present case, I believe a search of appellant McNeal's person and belongings is permissible only if the police had probable cause to enter the apartment to arrest him, as was the case in Buie. In other words, the reasonable suspicion that perhaps would be sufficient to make a Terry stop in a public place cannot be used to justify the seizure of a suspect, who is in a private residence, unless legal entry into the residence is first obtained.
The majority's conclusion that a Terry stop may be made in a private residence as long as the defendant lacks a reasonable expectation of privacy in the residence is inconsistent with this court's holding in United States v. Prior, 941 F.2d 427 (6th Cir.1991) in which Judge Merritt held that a seizure had correctly been characterized as a Terry stop because it occurred in a public area of a housing project and the police had observed the suspect engaging in suspicious behavior while in the public area. This opinion's emphasis on the public nature of the area in which the defendant was seized would be unnecessary if it were true, as the majority contends, that it does not matter whether a Terry stop occurs in a public or a private place if the suspect lacks a reasonable expectation of privacy in the area where he is seized.
In the Supreme Court's development of the Terry stop doctrine and reasonable suspicion standard, the determining factor was the fact that the encounter between police and citizen occurred in a public place per se. The Supreme Court stated in Terry, "But we deal here with an entire rubric of police conduct--necessarily swift action predicated upon the on-the-spot observations of the officers on the beat--which historically has not been, and as a practical matter could not be, subjected to the warrant procedure." 392 U.S. at 20, 88 S.Ct. at 1879 (emphasis added). In the present case, the police made no on-the-spot observations of appellant while on the beat. Even if appellant McNeal lacks a reasonable expectation of privacy in Tina Ward's apartment, this lack does not turn Tina Ward's apartment into a public place similar to a bar, airport, or hallway of a housing project, as the majority implies. The relevant issue in regard to the applicability of the Terry stop doctrine is whether Tina Ward's apartment is a public or a private place per se--not whether appellant had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the apartment. Because Tina Ward's apartment is a private residence, I do not believe the Terry stop doctrine is applicable in the present case unless the officers were lawfully on the premises.
I believe the majority distorts "the totality of the circumstances" test, which the Supreme Court developed in order to determine whether or not an informant's tip provides probable cause to make a search or an arrest. Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 230-31, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 2328, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983). The majority argues that under this test, the reasonable suspicion provided by an informant's tip may be corroborated by observations the police make after illegally entering a private residence. The cases upon which the majority relies do not support this argument. In Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. at 230-31, 103 S.Ct. at 2328, McCray v. Illinois, 386 U.S. 300, 304, 87 S.Ct. 1056, 1059, 18 L.Ed.2d 62 (1967), and Draper v. United States, 358 U.S. 307, 311-13, 79 S.Ct. 329, 332-33, 3 L.Ed.2d 327 (1959), the informants' tips were corroborated by observations the police made of the defendants in public places. In these cases, the police did not illegally enter a private residence based merely on the reasonable suspicion provided by an informant's tip and then develop corroborating evidence once inside the residence, as the majority implies.
In Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. at 238, 103 S.Ct. at 2332, the Supreme Court adopted a "totality-of-the-circumstances" approach to determine whether an informant's tip establishes probable cause, "whereby the informant's veracity, reliability, and basis of knowledge are highly relevant." Alabama v. White, 496 U.S. 325, 110 S.Ct. 2412, 2413-14, 110 L.Ed.2d 301 (1990). In the present case, the informant's tip consisted of the bare assertion that a person named Bill was in the apartment, was armed, and had drugs. Although Inspector Hartman testified that the informant had provided reliable information in the past, there was no corroboration of the informant's tip in order to verify whether or not it was an accurate statement. Moreover, there was no indication of the informant's basis of knowledge. The officers did not know and did not ask whether this information was based on first-hand knowledge or on hearsay, whether the informant had seen drugs or a weapon on appellant or in the apartment, or whether the informant was involved in dealing drugs or had prior drug convictions. Although Inspector Hartman vouched for the informant's reliability in the past, there was absolutely no indication how the informant gained his information about "Bill." Therefore, the informant's statement is not commensurate with the criteria usually required to establish probable cause. The mere statement by an informant, even one that has provided reliable information in the past, that someone is in an apartment with drugs and a weapon is not sufficient to constitute probable cause for an arrest without more specific corroboration of drug activity and without any indication whatsoever of the informant's basis of knowledge.
For example, in United States v. MacDonald, 916 F.2d 766 (2nd Cir.1990), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 111 S.Ct. 1071, 112 L.Ed.2d 1177 (1991), the court held that once a police officer has first-hand knowledge of the presence of drugs and weapons in an apartment, probable cause and exigent circumstances to enter the apartment without a warrant were present. Id. at 770. In MacDonald, after an informant had alerted the New York Drug Enforcement Task Force about a possible narcotics operation in a Manhattan apartment building, the Task Force established surveillance outside the apartment building and observed numerous indications that a retail narcotics exchange was being operated. One of the agents attempted to make a buy, observed men with weapons inside the apartment, and smelled marijuana smoke when the door was opened. Id. at 768. The court determined that it was at this point that probable cause and exigent circumstances to enter the apartment without a warrant existed. Id. at 770. In contrast, in the present case, no surveillance was conducted, no one attempted to make a buy, and after Tina Ward opened her door, none of the officers observed drugs or weapons in the apartment.
In United States v. Sangineto-Miranda, 859 F.2d 1501, 1508 (6th Cir.1988), this court found that probable cause existed to enter a dwelling to make a warrantless arrest based on exigent circumstances after a reliable informant furnished law enforcement officials with detailed information regarding the defendant's efforts to sell cocaine, much of that information was verified by police recordings of the informant's negotiations with the defendant in the apartment, and the informant stated that he had observed cocaine in the apartment. In contrast, in the present case, the information provided by the allegedly reliable informant was not corroborated or verified, the information was not detailed, and the informant did not state that he had seen drugs or a weapon on appellant or in the apartment.
For these reasons, I would reverse the decision of the district court. Because the informant's tip did not provide probable cause to arrest appellant, the officers had no justification for conducting a pat-down search incident to arrest of his person and belongings. Therefore, the drugs, weapon, and money found on appellant's person and property were the contaminated fruit of the unlawful arrest and should not have been admitted into evidence. See Taylor v. Alabama, 457 U.S. 687, 694, 102 S.Ct. 2664, 2669, 73 L.Ed.2d 314 (1982); Dunaway v. New York, 442 U.S. 200, 218-19, 99 S.Ct. 2248, 2260, 60 L.Ed.2d 824 (1979); Brown v. Illinois, 422 U.S. 590, 605, 95 S.Ct. 2254, 2262, 45 L.Ed.2d 416 (1975). The motion to suppress should have been granted.
Ward, of course, as the apartment's legal tenant of record, had the option of pursuing a civil action for damages against the officers pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 to vindicate any asserted personal Fourth Amendment right to privacy in her home. Monroe v. Pape, 365 U.S. 167, 81 S.Ct. 473, 5 L.Ed.2d 492 (1961). However, any violation of Ward's personal Fourth Amendment rights which may have resulted from an illegal warrantless entry into her apartment did not inure to appellant. Steagald v. United States, 451 U.S. 204, 101 S.Ct. 1642, 68 L.Ed.2d 38 (1981); United States v. Salvucci, 448 U.S. 83, 100 S.Ct. 2547, 65 L.Ed.2d 619 (1980); Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128, 99 S.Ct. 421, 58 L.Ed.2d 387 (1978); United States v. McNeal, 735 F.Supp. 738 (N.D.Ohio 1990)
Under the "automatic standing" rule of Jones v. United States, 362 U.S. 257, 80 S.Ct. 725, 4 L.Ed.2d 697 (1960), any person charged with a possessory offense could challenge the search in which incriminating evidence was confiscated
In Minnesota v. Olson, 495 U.S. 91, 110 S.Ct. 1684, 109 L.Ed.2d 85 (1990), the Supreme Court in a narrow decision suggested that an "overnight guest" could acquire a legitimate expectation of privacy in the residence of a third party. The Court, however, expressly rejected a factor-counting test in disposing of the issue as "too complex", and suggested that a defendant's possession of a key to the private premises of a third party viewed in isolation was not conclusive evidence of a reasonable expectation of privacy. Id. 110 S.Ct. at 1688. Olson directed that the issue be decided on a case by case basis, always mindful of the fundamental principal that a subjective expectation of privacy is "legitimate" only if it is "one that society is prepared to recognize as 'reasonable.' " Rakas, 439 U.S. at 128, 99 S.Ct. at 421 (quoting Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 361, 88 S.Ct. 507, 516, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967) (Harlan, J. concurring))
In Ybarra v. Illinois, 444 U.S. 85, 87, 100 S.Ct. 338, 340, 62 L.Ed.2d 238 (1979), police obtained a warrant to search a bar and one of its employees, a bartender whom they had probable cause to believe was distributing heroin on the premises. When the officers executed the warrant, they frisked each of the bar's patrons, and in the process found contraband on the person of plaintiff Ybarra. Id. at 88, 100 S.Ct. at 341. The Supreme Court determined that, because a search of Ybarra was not within the scope of the search warrant, he could not have been subjected to a limited search of his person for concealed weapons unless the officers, upon observing him inside the bar, formed a reasonable suspicion that Ybarra was armed and imminently dangerous. As it were, however, Ybarra's observable conduct was entirely unsuspicious, because his "hands were empty, [he] gave no indication of possessing a weapon, made no gestures or other actions indicative of an intent to commit an assault, and acted generally in a manner that was not threatening." Id. at 93, 100 S.Ct. at 343. McNeal's behavior, in stark contrast to Ybarra's, was very threatening and gave every indication that he was, as the informant warned, armed and dangerous
Id. at 304, 87 S.Ct. at 1059 (quotations and citations omitted). Similarly, in Draper, the officers, through the hearsay tip from a known informant who had provided reliable information in the past corroborated by their own observations, had probable cause and reasonable grounds to believe that the defendant was committing a crime. Draper, 358 U.S. at 314, 79 S.Ct. at 333; see Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 242-43, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 2334-35, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983).
"In this case the informant's tip and Inspector Hartman's belief that the defendant was about to draw his gun constituted reasonable suspicion sufficient to support the Terry stop and frisk of the defendant. Once the gun was found, the police were authorized to arrest the defendant and perform a Chimel search of the blue bag because it was within reach of the defendant and from it he might have obtained either a weapon or something that could have been used as evidence against him. See Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968); Chimel v. California, 395 U.S. 752, 89 S.Ct. 2034, 23 L.Ed.2d 685 (1969)." United States v. McNeal, 735 F.Supp. 738, 742 n. 7 (N.D.Ohio 1990)
Appellant's and the dissent's inferences to the contrary, an unverified tip by a known informant who has provided reliable information in the past alone carries sufficient indicia of reliability to justify a forcible Terry stop. Adams v. Williams, 407 U.S. at 147, 92 S.Ct. at 1924. Further, such a tip, whether based on hearsay or the informant's direct observation when corroborated by the police officers' direct observations, is a sufficient basis for probable cause to arrest. McCray, 386 U.S. at 304, 87 S.Ct. at 1059; Jones v. United States, 362 U.S. 257, 269, 80 S.Ct. 725, 735, 4 L.Ed.2d 697 (1960); Draper, 358 U.S. at 311-13, 79 S.Ct. at 332-33. There is no requirement that law enforcement agents inquire into the source of the informant's information. Furthermore, the identity of the informant need not be disclosed to verify reliability:
McCray, 386 U.S. at 305, 311, 87 S.Ct. at 1059, 1062; Jones, 362 U.S. at 271, 80 S.Ct. at 736.
The appellant's and dissenting opinion's contention that the police must inquire into the background of the informant to discover if he has been involved in past crimes in order to determine reliability is unprecedented. To the contrary, an informant's history in similar activity may enhance his reliability because of personal knowledge acquired from his criminal experiences. United States v. Hensley, 469 U.S. 221, 234, 105 S.Ct. 675, 683, 83 L.Ed.2d 604 (1985). Moreover, a standard that leaves virtually no place for anonymous citizen informants is not required by the Fourth Amendment. Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 238, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 2332, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983).
The district court was correct in stating that a reasonable expectation of privacy in Tina Ward's apartment would be necessary for appellant to contest whether exigent circumstances justified a warrantless arrest. Minnesota v. Olson, 495 U.S. 91, 110 S.Ct. 1684, 1687, 109 L.Ed.2d 85 (1990). However, in Olson, the Supreme Court did not hold that a defendant needs an expectation of privacy in the place where he is arrested in order to contest whether his arrest was based on probable cause. In Olson, the Supreme Court stated that the appellate court had not reviewed the trial court's determination that the police had probable cause for the arrest. Therefore, the Supreme Court judged the case on the assumption that there was probable cause. Id. 110 S.Ct. at 1687 n. 1