Case Name: STATE of Louisiana v. Robert M. SHEEHAN
Court: Louisiana Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1998-12-09
Citations: 740 So. 2d 127
Docket Number: 
Parties: STATE of Louisiana v. Robert M. SHEEHAN.
Judges: Court composed of Judge WILLIAM H. BYRNES III, Judge JOAN BERNARD ARMSTRONG, and Judge JAMES F. McKAY, III.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 740
Pages: 127–136

Head Matter:
STATE of Louisiana v. Robert M. SHEEHAN.
No. 97-KA-2386
Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fourth Circuit.
Dec. 9, 1998.
Rehearing Denied Feb. 17, 1999.
Harry F. Connick, District Attorney, Susan Erlanger Talbot, Assistant District Attorney, New Orleans, Louisiana, Attorneys for State.
Louis A. Heyd, Jr., New Orleans, Louisiana, Attorney for Defendant.
Court composed of Judge WILLIAM H. BYRNES III, Judge JOAN BERNARD ARMSTRONG, and Judge JAMES F. McKAY, III.

Opinion:
|, BYRNES, Judge.
Pursuant to his guilty plea under State v. Crosby, 338 So.2d 584 (La.1976) for possession of crack cocaine, a violation of La. R.S. 40:967(C), Robert M. Sheehan reserved his right to appeal the trial court's denial of his motion to suppress.
In the early evening of January 25,1997, Officer Raymond Veit responded to a call from the ATF Crime Hotline. Without giving a description of the men, the caller said that a group of men standing on the corner of Barracks and Treme Streets was selling narcotics. When the officer drove to the intersection, he observed several people sitting on a step in the 1200 block of Treme Street and one man standing in front of them. The man standing noticed the police car and ran down Treme Street. Officer Veit and his partner, Agent Harry Bernard stopped to conduct an interview with the men. The officer asked them to put their hands on the wall so that he could perform a pat down. Agent Bernard removed a partially opened pack of cigarettes from Sheehan's shirt pocket. In the cigarette package, the agent saw crumpled cellophane in which he found a white, rock-like substance. Officer Veit acknowledged that Sheehan did not attempt to run, and he was not | ^observed in any illegal activity. The officer had no prior knowledge of the defendant.
Agent Harry of the Drug Enforcement Administration testified that when he and Officer Veit responded to the complaint of drug sales at the corner of Barracks and Treme Streets on January 25, 1997, one member of the group sitting near the corner ran. The remaining men were patted down for weapons. While Agent Bernard was searching Sheehan, Agent Bernard noticed a cigarette package in Sheehan's shirt pocket. The agent searched the package for a razor blade and found crack cocaine. When he was arrested, Sheehan stated: "He planted the stuff on me. What is it, you've got a quota of white guys you've got to arrest this time." In searching for a razor blade, the agent described the cigarette pack as being partially opened. He looked in it and saw the small cellophane pack containing cocaine inside the package.
On June 20, 1997 the trial court found probable cause and denied Sheehan's motion to suppress. This court denied Shee-han's application for writ of certiorari in State v. Sheehan, 97-K-1464 (La.App. 4 Cir. 8/12/97) (unpublished) (Judge Murray dissenting), stating that the defendant had adequate remedy on appeal. After the trial court denied Sheehan's motion for reconsideration of his motion to suppress, Sheehan entered a plea of guilty as charged under Crosby, supra, reserving his right to appeal. He was sentenced to one year in the Department of Corrections, suspended, with one year active probation, and fines of $800 to the Judicial Expense Fund, $200 to the Indigent Transcript Fund, and drug testing for 20 weeks. Sheehan's appeal followed.
At issue is whether the officers properly seized the contraband based on treasonable suspicion to make an investigatory stop of the defendant, and conduct a pat down search. A law enforcement officer may stop a person in a public place whom he reasonably believes is committing, has committed, or is about to commit an offense. La.C.Cr.P. art. 215.1. If an officer stops a person pursuant to art. 215.1, the officer may conduct a limited pat down frisk for weapons if he reasonably believes that he is in danger or that the suspect is armed. La.C.Cr.P. art. 215.1(B). "Reasonable suspicion" for an investigatory stop is something less than the probable cause required for an arrest, and the reviewing court must look to the facts and circumstances of each case to determine whether the detaining officer had sufficient articulable facts within his knowledge to justify an infringement of the suspect's rights. State v. Matthews, 94-2112 (La.App. 4 Cir. 4/26/95), 654 So.2d 868; State v. Vance, 93-1389 (La.App. 4 Cir. 2/25/94), 633 So.2d 819.
In assessing the reasonableness of an investigatory stop, the court must balance the need to search and seize against the invasion of privacy that the search and seizure entails. State v. Tucker, 604 So.2d 600 (La.App. 2 Cir.1992), affirmed in part, reversed in part on other grounds, 626 So.2d 720 (La.1993); State v. Washington, 621 So.2d 114 (La.App. 2 Cir. 1993), writ denied, 626 So.2d 1177 (La. 1993). The intrusiveness of a search is not measured so much by scope as it is by whether it invades an expectation of privacy that society is prepared to recognize as reasonable. Twenty-Three Thousand Eight Hundred Eleven and No/100 ($23,811) Dollars in U.S. Currency v. Kowalski, 810 F.Supp. 738 (W.D.La.1993).
In reviewing the totality of circumstances, the officer's past experience, [ draining and common sense may be considered in determining if his inferences from the facts at hand were reasonable. State v. Short, 96-1069 (La.App. 4 Cir.5/7/97), 694 So.2d 549. The reputation of an area is an articulable fact upon which an officer can rely and which is relevant in the determination of reasonable suspicion. State v. Richardson, 575 So.2d 421 (La. App. 4 Cir.1991), writ denied, 578 So.2d 131 (La.1991). Flight, nervousness, or a startled look at the sight of a police officer may be one of the factors leading to a finding of reasonable cause to stop under La.C.Cr.P. art. 215.1. State v. Belton, 441 So.2d 1195 (La.1983), certiorari denied, Belton v. Louisiana, 466 U.S. 953, 104 S.Ct. 2158, 80 L.Ed.2d 543 (1984); State v. Noto, 596 So.2d 416 (La.App. 4 Cir.1992); State v. Preston, 569 So.2d 50 (La.App. 4 Cir.1990).
In State v. Huntley, 97-0965, p. 3 (La.3/13/98); 708 So.2d 1048, 1050, the Louisiana Supreme Court found that: "A reviewing court must take into account the 'totality of the circumstances — the whole picture,' giving deference to the inferences and deductions of a trained officer that might well elude an untrained person.... The court must also weigh the circumstances known to the police 'not in terms of library analysis by scholars, but as understood by those versed in the field of law enforcement.'..
In State v. Ganier, 591 So.2d 1328 (La. App. 4 Cir.1991), police officers were patrolling a housing project in New Orleans known to be a center of drug trafficking. The juvenile saw the officers, turned "sus piciously", began to walk away slowly, and then began to run. The officers chased the defendant until he was apprehended. This court found that two factors were sufficient to justify a stop of |5the defendant: the area's reputation for drug trafficking, and the suspicious actions of the defendant. This court noted:
. Drug activity and crimes which it generates have become a major problem endangering innocent people and severely taxing police resources. Although an innocent individual who has nothing to hide from police might flee so that such flight would be irrational, the action of fleeing in itself is inherently suspicious and justifies an investigation by a police officer exercising common sense. This is not a case of a man merely standing on a street corner who is detained by the police simply because he is there. State v. Ganier, 591 So.2d at 1330. [Emphasis added.]
The test for determining whether one has a reasonable expectation of privacy is not only whether the person had an actual or subjective expectation of privacy, but, rather whether that expectation is of a type which society at large is prepared to recognize as being reasonable. State v. McKinney, 93-1425 (La.App. 4 Cir.5/17/94), 637 So.2d 1120, writ denied 97-1339 (La.12/19/97), 706 So.2d 444; State v. Lambright, 525 So.2d 84 (La.App. 3 Cir. 1988), writ denied 530 So.2d 83 (La.1988). Deference should be given to the experience of the policemen who were present at the time of the incident. State v. Shori, supra. A certain look or gesture may not mean anything to the ordinary person; however, a policeman has sound judgment based on long experience to interpret these acts. An officer should react for his safety under the conditions and events as they occur.
The officers relied on specific, ar-ticulable facts in determining whether there was reasonable cause for an investigatory stop. In the early evening of January 25, 1997, the agents were dispatched following an anonymous informant's tip just received by the ATF crime hot fine. The informant stated that on a routine basis a |figroup of males stand at Barracks Street and Treme Street and sell narcotics to passing vehicles and pedestrians. The tip was corroborated by Officer Veit and Agent Harry when they approached the intersection in their vehicle. When they saw one man standing with several people sitting on a step in the 1200 block of Treme Street, the officers' suspicions were raised when they observed that the standing man fled. Even though the defendant himself did not flee, the action of the other subject fleeing cast a cloud of suspicion that an illegal activity was taking place.
The facts in the present case provide more than a situation where a person is stopped by a police officer just because he is on the street. It is well known to law enforcement officers that people involved in narcotics activity stay outside in the street and conduct sales to people in vehicles and pedestrians who pass by. The officer had reasonable suspicion to stop the defendant. The officers had just received a complaint of narcotic activity on the same corner. The agents and officers immediately responded to the radioed dispatch based on the tip from the ATF hot line. The officers testified that the location was known as a high drug trafficking area. One of the subjects fled. Under these circumstances, the officer had reasonable suspicion to believe that the subjects were engaging in illegal activity.
In State v. Curtis, 681 So.2d 1287 (La. App. 4 Cir.1996), this court held that contraband can be seized from a pack of cigarettes. The officer reasonably suspected the subject was involved in criminal activity and could be armed. The officer was entitled to conduct a search for weapons. When the suspect reached |7toward his leg, the officer was justified in investigating the bulge in the suspect's sock. Upon removing the object, the officer discovered a partially opened pack of cigarettes. The officer determined that the pack of cigarettes contained something other than cigarettes. This court found that based on the totality of circumstances, the officer had probable cause to believe that the cigarette pack contained contraband, and seizure of the contents of the cigarette pack was justified. This court noted:
Common sense dictates that a police officer should be permitted to pat-down a suspect who reasonably appears to be dealing drugs. We can take notice that drug traffickers and users have a violent lifestyle, which is exhibited by the criminal element who are generally armed due to the nature of their illicit business. Therefore, a police officer should be permitted to frisk a suspect following an investigatory stop (based on reasonable suspicion) relating to drug activities. The police officers acted reasonably on information, which proved accurate.
Id. at 1292.
In State v. Wartberg, 586 So.2d 627 (La.App. 4 Cir.1991), this court noted that a reasonably cautious policeman was entitled to fear that a subject who is suspected of dealing drugs could be armed and dangerous, and the officer is justified in searching for weapons for his safety and for the safety of other officers.
Because the officers stated that they had just received an anonymous tip, they were in a high crime area, and they thought that the defendant was engaging in illegal activity, in the present case the officers reasonably believed that they were in danger and that the suspect possessed a dangerous weapon so that the pat down search of the defendant was proper under La.C.Cr.P. art. 215.1; State v. Short, supra.
In the present case, when the agent was conducting a pat down search for weapons, through his sense of touch he testified that he felt a cigarette pack. From his past experience of knowing that razor blades are often concealed in cigarette packs, removing and looking at the cigarette pack was a reasonable intrusion designed to discover a weapon. In the interest of protecting himself and the other agents, Agent Harry was justified in looking inside the partially opened cigarette pack that contained something other than cigarettes. In the cigarette pack he saw crumpled cellophane that he properly opened and found a substance that looked like crack cocaine.
Based on the facts and testimony in this case, when the officer saw the substance, the officer had probable cause to believe that the object in the defendant's pack of cigarettes was crack cocaine. There was prior justification for the officer's intrusion into the protected area to make an investigatory stop. Under the totality of circumstances, the intrusiveness of the seizure of the contraband did not invade an expectation of privacy which society is prepared to recognize as reasonable. There was no invasion of the suspect's privacy beyond that authorized by the officer's search for weapons.
Accordingly, the defendant's conviction and sentence are affirmed.
AFFIRMED.
McKAY, J., dissents with reasons.