Case Name: STATE of Louisiana v. Cleveland PARKER
Court: Louisiana Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1994-11-17
Citations: 645 So. 2d 1309
Docket Number: No. 94-KA-0624
Parties: STATE of Louisiana v. Cleveland PARKER.
Judges: Before SCHOTT, C.J., and BYRNES and WALTZER, JJ.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 645
Pages: 1309–1310

Head Matter:
STATE of Louisiana v. Cleveland PARKER.
No. 94-KA-0624.
Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fourth Circuit.
Nov. 17, 1994.
Harry F. Conniek, Dist. Atty., Karen E. Godail, Asst. Dist. Atty., New Orleans, for plaintiff-appellee.
Sherry Watters, Orleans Indigent Defender Program, New Orleans, for defendant-appellant.
Before SCHOTT, C.J., and BYRNES and WALTZER, JJ.

Opinion:
|1SCHOTT, Chief Judge.
Defendant pled guilty to possession of crack cocaine in violation of R.S. 40:967(0(2) and was sentenced to three years. His sentence was suspended and he was placed on five years active probation with special conditions. In connection with his plea he reserved his right to contest the trial court's earlier denial of his motion to suppress in accordance with State v. Crosby, 338 So.2d 584 (La.1976). Thus the only issue is the validity of the trial court's denial of the motion to suppress the evidence.
On October 20, 1992, two police officers on routine patrol were flagged down by a pedes trian who said someone was selling drugs on a nearby street corner. The citizen who would not give his name said the subject was a black male wearing a white T-shirt and purple pants with the letters LSU on the side and he was riding a bicycle. The officers proceeded to the corner and found the defendant meeting the citizen's description. They called him over and he approached them with a clenched fist. They asked him to open his fist and found that he was carrying a plastic bag of rocks which later proved to be crack cocaine. The officer testified that this street corner was in a high-drug-|2trafficking area.
Defendant argues that the officers lacked reasonable suspicion to stop defendant and the search was illegal in the absence of surveillance and corroboration of the citizen's complaint.
C.Cr.P. art. 215.1 authorizes a law enforcement officer to stop a person whom he reasonably suspects is or was committing a crime. In this case a citizen flagged the officers down and told them a subject whom he described was selling drugs on a nearby street corner. When they went to that corner and found the defendant who matched the description they had a reasonable suspicion that defendant was indeed selling drugs. To hold otherwise would seriously discourage a citizen from reporting an on-going crime to a policeman.
Having legitimately stopped the defendant whom they were just told moments before was selling drugs they saw that his fist is clenched. Common sense dictated that he was holding the merchandise he was selling in the clenched fist. Defendant had no expectation of privacy in his clenched fist under these circumstances. In addition since the clenched fist in all probability held drugs the situation was analogous to the drugs being in the plain view of the officers.
To suppress this evidence would make a mockery of law and order. The defendant was caught red-handed. Constitutional protection against unreasonable search and seizure should not be construed to create a technicality for the acquittal of the defendant under these circumstances.
AFFIRMED.
WALTZER, J., dissents.