Opinion ID: 445460
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Royalston's Motion to Suppress.

Text: 26 Royalston moved to suppress all statements and other evidentiary matters obtained as a result of his illegal arrest on or about February 12, 1984. Record Vol. I at 143. The principal matters at issue below were two oral statements Royalston made to drug enforcement agents on February 12: (1) the statement given to Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics (MBN) agent Dennis McAnally at about 9:30 a.m. at the Sunflower County Sheriff's Office in Indianola and (2) the statement given to DEA agents John Maddox and Rick Humphreys at about 7:00 p.m. at the Lafayette County Jail in Oxford. 27 Royalston argued below that Fullilove illegally seized him in violation of the fourth amendment when, early on the morning of February 12, he ordered him into his police car and drove him to the county sheriff's office for questioning. He further argued that both statements are fruit of the illegal arrest and should have been suppressed. The district court agreed that Royalston had been illegally arrested without probable cause and therefore suppressed the Indianola statement; the court found, however, that the Oxford statement was attenuated from the illegality and should be received in evidence. Royalston claims on appeal that the Oxford statement should also have been suppressed because no intervening events occurred sufficient to divorce the statement from the illegal arrest. 28 The Government seeks to uphold the district court's finding of attenuation and also to support the court's ruling on the Oxford statement on either of two additional theories rejected below: (1) Royalston consented to the trip to the Sunflower County Sheriff's Office and, therefore, had not been seized in a fourth amendment sense when he entered Fullilove's squad car and (2) at any rate, the collective knowledge of the investigating officers and agents with whom Fullilove was in contact amounted to probable cause for a full-blown arrest of Royalston as he stood on Airport Road. 29 The relevant facts, as found by the district court, are as follows: After abandoning the U-Haul and fleeing the scene, Royalston spent the night of February 11 in the woods surrounding the Indianola airport. Early the next morning, he was cold and wet and began knocking on doors in search of hot coffee. A local resident reported Royalston's behavior to the Indianola police, and Fullilove was dispatched to investigate. Fullilove drove to the area around the airport and en route spotted a man by the side of the road. The man flagged the officer down. Before Fullilove got out of the car, he received a radio call instructing him to bring whomever he discovered while investigating the citizen's complaint to the county sheriff's office for questioning. Fullilove then got out of his car and approached the man; the man told Fullilove that he needed some hot coffee and dry clothes. Fullilove told the man to get into the car and, without determining his identity or asking any investigatory questions, drove him to the sheriff's office. Once there, officers placed the man in a small conference room and advised him of his Miranda rights. When the man began emptying his pockets, officers discovered that he possessed a U-Haul key and a driver's license bearing the name Clarence Royalston. Since the U-Haul and the chevrolet discovered at the airport were both rented to a Clarence Royalston, this discovery undoubtedly gave officers probable cause to connect the man to the drug activities of the previous evening. It is undisputed, however, that until this point no one connected with the investigation knew that the man discovered by Fullilove was in fact Royalston or even knew what Royalston looked like. 30 After being advised that a drug enforcement agent was on the way to investigate, Fullilove left Royalston with sheriff's deputy Thomas Dawson. About 9:30 a.m., MBN agent Dennis McAnally arrived at the jail and was informed that Royalston wished to speak to an agent. He advised Royalston of his rights and, in the presence of agent Richard Oakes and deputy sheriff Marvin Farmer, interviewed Royalston and received a statement about his involvement in the activities at the Indianola airport. 31 Royalston remained at the Indianola jail until early afternoon when DEA agents Maddox and Humphreys arrived to transport Royalston and some of the other defendants to Oxford, Mississippi--about a two-hour drive. Before they left, Royalston informed Maddox that he would again like to talk, but Maddox told him that he would have to wait until they arrived at Oxford. Maddox and Humphreys rode to Oxford in one car with Murphy, Wells and Santiago; Royalston and Freeman rode in a separate car with Sunflower County sheriffs until they reached the county line; at that point, they were transferred to a Panola County sheriff's vehicle for the rest of the trip. At Oxford, Royalston was placed in a cell by himself for one or two hours. At about 7:00 p.m., Humphreys and Maddox again advised Royalston of his rights and received his second statement. As noted, the district court suppressed the Indianola statement but received evidence of this second statement at trial. 32 The fourth amendment principles governing the resolution of Royalston's claims are easily stated; their application to the unique facts of this case is not quite so simple. The legality of police-citizen encounters, of course, depends on the degree to which the police intrude upon the liberty of the individual and the nature of the information upon which they act. Voluntary interaction between the state and its citizens, as well as police-initiated contact which a reasonable person would not feel compelled to continue, do not implicate fourth amendment protections. See, e.g., United States v. Berry, 670 F.2d 583, 590 (5th Cir.1982) (Unit B) (en banc). A seizure of the person, on the other hand, must be supported by probable cause unless it falls within a narrow exception to the probable cause requirement reserved for police activity that does minimal violence to the sanctity of the person. Reasonable suspicion suffices for seizures within this category. Dunaway v. New York, 442 U.S. 200, 99 S.Ct. 2248, 60 L.Ed.2d 824 (1979) (quoting Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 20, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1879, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968)). 33 The line between minimally intrusive seizures which must be supported by reasonable suspicion and police-citizen interchanges which are outside the scope of the fourth amendment has often been a difficult one to draw. See, e.g., United States v. Elmore, 595 F.2d 1036, 1041-42 (5th Cir.1979) (whether seizure has occurred often requires a 'refined judgment,' especially when no force, physical restraint, or blatant show of authority is involved), cert. denied, 447 U.S. 910, 100 S.Ct. 2998, 64 L.Ed.2d 861 (1980) (quoting United States v. Wylie, 569 F.2d 62, 68 (D.C.Cir.1977), cert. denied, 435 U.S. 944, 98 S.Ct. 1527, 55 L.Ed.2d 542 (1978)). In the absence of a definitive answer from the Supreme Court, we have held that police cross the fourth amendment line when under the totality of the circumstances, a reasonable person would have thought he was not free to leave. United States v. Robinson, 625 F.2d 1211, 1216 (5th Cir.1980). See also United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544, 554, 100 S.Ct. 1870, 1877, 64 L.Ed.2d 497 (1980) (Stewart, J., plurality opinion); Florida v. Royer, 460 U.S. 491, 103 S.Ct. 1319, 75 L.Ed.2d 229 (1983) (White, J., plurality opinion). 34 The Supreme Court has, however, given us greater guidance in drawing the line between brief seizures that are justified on reasonable suspicion and more intrusive police conduct that must be supported by probable cause. A brief, on-the-spot stop and a frisk for weapons for the protection of the police officer gave birth to the Terry reasonable suspicion exception to the probable cause requirement, Dunaway, 442 U.S. at 209, 99 S.Ct. at 2254; a full-blown arrest rests at the opposite end of the spectrum and, of course, is illegal unless supported by probable cause, id. at 212, 99 S.Ct. at 2256. While brief, investigatory seizures may fall within the Terry exception absent a fear for the police officer's safety, United States v. Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. 873, 95 S.Ct. 2574, 45 L.Ed.2d 607 (1975), the Court has made it clear that custodial questioning [without the consent of the suspect] on less than probable cause for a full-fledged arrest is illegal. Dunaway, 442 U.S. at 202, 99 S.Ct. at 2251. In Dunaway, detectives who admittedly lacked probable cause to arrest took petitioner, who was suspected of murder, into custody and transported him to police headquarters for questioning. After receiving Miranda warnings, petitioner made incriminating statements and drew sketches of the crime scene. The Court found that petitioner had been illegally detained and reversed his conviction because the fruit of that detention--his statements and sketches--was received in evidence. Said the Court: 35 In contrast to the brief and narrowly circumscribed intrusions involved in [Terry ] cases, the detention of petitioner was in important respects indistinguishable from a traditional arrest. Petitioner was not questioned briefly where he was found. Instead, he was taken from a neighbor's home to a police car, transported to a police station, and placed in an interrogation room. He was never informed that he was free to go; indeed, he would have been physically restrained if he had refused to accompany the officers or had tried to escape their custody. The application of the Fourth Amendment's requirement of probable cause does not depend on whether an intrusion of this magnitude is termed an arrest under state law. The mere facts that petitioner was not told he was under arrest, was not booked, and would not have had an arrest record if the interrogation had proved fruitless, while not insignificant for all purposes, obviously do not make petitioner's seizure even roughly analogous to the narrowly defined intrusions involved in Terry and its progeny. Indeed, any exception that could cover a seizure as intrusive as that in this case would threaten to swallow the general rule that Fourth Amendment seizures are reasonable only if based on probable cause. 36 Id. at 212-13, 99 S.Ct. at 2256-57 (citation omitted). 37 Royalston's trip to the sheriff's office and subsequent interrogation are in most respects indistinguishable from Dunaway's treatment: (1) Royalston was not questioned briefly where he was found; (2) he was ordered into Fullilove's squad car; (3) he was never informed that he was free to go; (4) he would have been physically restrained if he had tried to escape; and (5) he was questioned at the sheriff's office after receiving Miranda warnings. The Government claims, however, that this case is in fact distinguishable from Dunaway in three important respects: (1) Royalston consented to the trip with Fullilove to the sheriff's office; (2) at any rate, probable cause existed for a full-blown arrest; and (3) Royalston's second statement was not the fruit of his initial detention. We consider these claims in turn. 38
39 Dunaway, of course, does not change the rule that a voluntary trip to the police station for questioning does not implicate the fourth amendment. See, e.g., United States v. Brunson, 549 F.2d 348, 357 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 842, 98 S.Ct. 140, 54 L.Ed.2d 107 (1977). The Government argues that Royalston consented to the ride with Fullilove to the sheriff's office and that, therefore, no seizure occurred until [Royalston] got to the station and was informed he was not free to go and advised of his rights. Government's Brief at 61. We reject this argument because (1) we agree with the district court that the Government did not discharge its burden of demonstrating that Royalston consented to the trip to the police station for questioning and (2) even if Royalston was not arrested until he arrived at the sheriff's office, the arrest occurred without probable cause. 40 The Government argues that Royalston's appearance and behavior made Fullilove reasonably suspicious about Royalston's potential involvement in the drug operation. Thus, a Terry investigatory stop would have been justified out on Airport Road. The Government argues further, that, by ordering Royalston into the car but at the same time refraining from asking any investigatory questions, Fullilove froze the situation and merely transported them both, as if in a time capsule, to the sheriff's office where agents then permissibly carried out the investigation that could have been accomplished on the roadside. Under this theory, reasonable suspicion ripened into probable cause at the sheriff's office when Royalston's driver's license and U-Haul key were discovered. 41 We would reject this argument out of hand but for Royalston's desire for coffee and his apparent willingness to ride with Fullilove to get it. See Dunaway, 442 U.S. at 209, 99 S.Ct. at 2254. Under the Government's theory of this case, however, we should view the trip from Airport Road to the sheriff's office in isolation from the other events of the morning: Fullilove had reasonable suspicion when he approached Royalston but, before acting upon it, he and Royalston took time out for coffee; since Royalston consented to, and in fact actively sought out, a ride to a place that served coffee, and since he received coffee when he arrived at the sheriff's office, we should ignore the trip downtown for purposes of evaluating the legality of Royalston's arrest. Once the voluntary trip for coffee was out of the way, under the Government's view of the case, Royalston and Fullilove were free to resume the encounter that began on Airport Road. 42 While this argument may have a surface appeal, it cannot withstand close scrutiny. Absent Royalston's desire for coffee, these facts would present a clear case of a seizure tantamount to a full-blown arrest, virtually indistinguishable from Dunaway: Fullilove was given specific instructions to pick up Royalston and to transport him to the police station; he ordered Royalston into the car and brought him downtown for custodial questioning. We have no difficulty agreeing with the district court that a reasonable person under such circumstances would not consider himself free to end the encounter with police. 43 Moreover, we refuse to characterize Royalston's consent to a ride for coffee as consent to custodial interrogation. We hold that the Government cannot discharge its burden of demonstrating consent to what would otherwise constitute a full-blown seizure by demonstrating uninformed consent to what a reasonable person would consider an innocuous exchange. Fullilove's silence about the true nature of the trip to the sheriff's office vitiated Royalston's consent. Cf. United States v. Tweel, 550 F.2d 297 (5th Cir.1977) (consent induced by deceit, trickery, or misrepresentation is not effective). Therefore, we cannot characterize the district court's finding that an illegal arrest took place as erroneous. 44 At any rate, the record demonstrates that, once at the sheriff's office, Royalston was given Miranda warnings and subject to a seizure of Dunaway proportions prior to the discovery of the U-Haul key and the driver's license. 10 Thus, even under the Government's theory of the case, Royalston was arrested before probable cause developed. Therefore, we reject the Government's claim that the seizure of Royalston was supported by consent. 45
46 The Government argues that, at any rate, probable cause to arrest Royalston existed when Fullilove approached him as he stood on Airport Road. The Government concedes that Fullilove himself did not know all the facts constituting probable cause; rather, the Government argues that the arrest was legal because the collective knowledge of the agents working on the case amounted to probable cause to arrest Royalston. Since Fullilove communicated with the other agents, the Government argues, their knowledge is imputed to him for purposes of evaluating the legality of the arrest. We reject this claim because it is clear to us that the collective knowledge of the agents working on this case did not establish probable cause to arrest Royalston as he stood on Airport Road. Collective knowledge did perhaps establish probable cause when agents discovered Royalston's driver's license and U-Haul key; by that time, however, the illegal arrest had already occurred. 47 Probable cause to arrest exists where 'the facts and circumstances within [the arresting officers'] knowledge and of which they had reasonably trustworthy information [are] sufficient in themselves to warrant a man of reasonable caution in the belief that' an offense has been or is being committed. United States v. Preston, 608 F.2d 626, 623 (5th Cir.1979), cert. denied, 446 U.S. 940, 100 S.Ct. 2162, 64 L.Ed.2d 794 (1980) (quoting Draper v. United States, 358 U.S. 307, 313, 79 S.Ct. 329, 333, 3 L.Ed.2d 327 (1959)). That is not to say, however, that the arresting officer himself must have personal knowledge of all the facts constituting probable cause for an arrest. The Government correctly points out that  'probable cause can rest upon the collective knowledge of the police, rather than solely on that of the officer who actually makes the arrest,' when there is 'some degree of communication between the two.'  United States v. Ashley, 569 F.2d 975, 983 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 853, 99 S.Ct. 163, 58 L.Ed.2d 159 (1978). 48 It is equally clear, however, that we will not allow the collective knowledge doctrine to be used as a subterfuge to evade probable cause requirements. Cf. Whiteley v. Warden, 401 U.S. 560, 91 S.Ct. 1031, 28 L.Ed.2d 306 (1971) (Government may not bootstrap probable cause from innocent act of police officer following instructions to arrest). We have applied what has been loosely labelled the collective knowledge doctrine in two distinct types of cases: (1) those where the arresting officer has no personal knowledge of any of the facts establishing probable cause, but simply carries out directions to arrest given by another officer who does have probable cause, e.g., United States v. Impson, 482 F.2d 197 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 414 U.S. 1009, 94 S.Ct. 371, 38 L.Ed.2d 246 (1973); United States v. Allison, 616 F.2d 779 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 857, 101 S.Ct. 156, 66 L.Ed.2d 72 (1980); and (2) those where the arresting officer has personal knowledge of facts which standing alone do not establish probable cause but, when added to information known by other officers involved in the investigation, tips the balance in favor of the arrest, e.g., United States v. Nieto, 510 F.2d 1118, 1120 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 854, 96 S.Ct. 101, 46 L.Ed.2d 78 (1975); United States v. Agostino, 608 F.2d 1035, 1037 (5th Cir.1979). In the former cases, the officer who issues the directive must himself have probable cause to arrest. Weeks v. Estelle, 509 F.2d 760, 765 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 872, 96 S.Ct. 139, 46 L.Ed.2d 103 (1975); United States v. Simpson, 484 F.2d 467, 468 (5th Cir.1973). In the latter cases, the laminated total of the information known by officers who are in communication with one another must amount to probable cause to arrest. United States v. Edwards, 577 F.2d 883, 895 (5th Cir.) (en banc), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 968, 99 S.Ct. 458, 58 L.Ed.2d 427 (1978); Agostino, 608 F.2d at 1037. 49 In this case, Fullilove received a radio call directing him to accomplish what we consider an illegal arrest of Royalston. See part III, B, 1, supra. Apparently, Fullilove was directed to bring in whomever he discovered while investigating a citizen complaint that a man was knocking on doors in search of hot coffee. If the Government's position is that the collective knowledge of the agents issuing that directive to Fullilove constituted probable cause, we emphatically reject it. To accept that position would be to hold that police have probable cause to arrest anyone who, located in the general vicinity of criminal activity hours after the crime has occurred, acts in a manner that is out of the ordinary. It is, of course, wholly irrelevant that those issuing the directive had probable cause to arrest a man named Clarence Royalston; at the time of the directive, however, no one knew that the man discovered by Fullilove was in fact Royalston. 50 If the Government's position is that facts observed by Fullilove, when added to the collective knowledge of the other agents working on the case, constituted probable cause to arrest Royalston, it fares no better. The only additional fact observed by Fullilove before the arrest that conceivably bears on the probable cause question is that Royalston's clothes were real muddy and wet from the chest down. Even if we could answer in the Government's favor the difficult question whether Fullilove had been given that minimum quantum of reliable information necessary to application of the collective knowledge doctrine, United States v. Head, 693 F.2d 353, 359 (5th Cir.1982), we are still faced with an arrest based solely on (1) presence in the general vicinity of a crime hours after its commission; (2) while wearing muddy clothes; and (3) acting in an unusual manner. We do not think that the laminated total of those facts constitutes probable cause to arrest. 51
52 The Supreme Court has written extensively on the attenuation issue. The mode of analysis we must employ, therefore, is clear: evidence of Royalston's second statement was properly received in evidence if the statement was voluntary and  'sufficiently an act of free will to purge the primary taint [of the illegal arrest].'  Brown v. Illinois, 422 U.S. 590, 602, 95 S.Ct. 2254, 2261, 45 L.Ed.2d 416 (1975) (quoting Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 486, 83 S.Ct. 407, 416, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963)). This is essentially a factual test, id., which the Government must satisfy. Taylor v. Alabama, 457 U.S. 687, 690, 102 S.Ct. 2664, 2667, 73 L.Ed.2d 314 (1982). Relevant factors that inform the inquiry include: (1) the temporal proximity of the arrest to the statement; (2) the presence of intervening circumstances; and (3) the purpose and flagrancy of the official misconduct. Brown, 422 U.S. at 603-04, 95 S.Ct. at 2261-62. Miranda warnings factor into the analysis, but it is clear that voluntariness in a fifth amendment sense is merely a threshold requirement for admission of a statement following an illegal arrest; Miranda warnings alone do not break the causal connection between police misconduct and a subsequent statement. Id. at 603, 95 S.Ct. at 2261; Dunaway, 442 U.S. at 216-17, 99 S.Ct. at 2258-59. 53 While an initial tainted confession does not perforce render all statements that follow it likewise inadmissible, one statement may well bolster ... the pressure for [defendant] to give the second, or at least vitiate any incentive on his part to avoid self-incrimination. Brown, 422 U.S. at 605 n. 12, 95 S.Ct. at 2262 n. 12. The district court nonetheless found that by the time Royalston reached Oxford and gave his second statement, the occurrence of several intervening events purged the taint that shrouded the Indianola statement: (1) Royalston's desire to talk to agent Maddox; (2) the car trip away from the scene of the crime to Oxford; (3) the giving of additional Miranda warnings at Oxford; (4) the care with which Maddox and Humphreys conducted the Oxford interrogation; and (5) the lapse of almost twelve hours. We cannot agree that these circumstances are sufficient to demonstrate that Royalston's second statement was an act of free will purged of the taint of his illegal arrest. Rather, we think, on the record before us, that the Government failed to discharge its burden of demonstrating that the statement was untainted. 54 We agree with Royalston that, as to attenuation, this case involves little that distinguishes it from Brown and Dunaway. The district court's reliance on intervening circumstances such as the care with which the second interrogation was accomplished, the giving of additional Miranda warnings and Royalston's desire to speak betrays a lingering confusion between 'voluntariness' for purposes of the Fifth Amendment and the 'causal connection' test established in Brown. Dunaway, 442 U.S. at 219, 99 S.Ct. at 2260. The only intervening event that arguably contributed to Royalston's ability to consider carefully and objectively his options and exercise his free will, Taylor, 457 U.S. at 691, 102 S.Ct. at 2668, was the car ride from Indianola to Oxford. We note, however, that this circumstance is itself ambiguous: the trip was made in the presence of law enforcement agents under circumstances that arguably had a coercive effect. In short, in light of the facts that Royalston was in continuous custody, did not consult with a lawyer, was not able to contact family or friends, was not brought before a neutral magistrate, had likely been without sleep for a long period, and had already given one tainted statement, we must conclude that the Oxford statement was the product of Royalston's illegal arrest. Therefore, the district court erred in refusing to suppress the Oxford statement. 55