Opinion ID: 445460
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Weinrich's Motion to Suppress.

Text: 56 Weinrich moved below to suppress evidence obtained as the result of the illegal arrest of Weinrich and the illegal search of a motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, on February 12, 1983. Record Vol. I at 51. As noted above, Weinrich and Hartwell were arrested in room 224 of the Days Inn after a warrantless entry into the room by drug enforcement agents. Upon entry into the room, which was registered to Weinrich, agents observed a flight bag bearing Candy Santiago's name tag. Agents secured the room until a search warrant was obtained. They were in the process of drafting the affidavit at the time of the initial entry but included in it discovery of Santiago's flight bag. The eventual search of Weinrich's room pursuant to the warrant revealed incriminating evidence which was offered against him at trial. 57 Weinrich complains that all evidence from room 224 should have been suppressed, whether discovered in plain view during the initial entry or unearthed after the full search. He also complains that the taint of illegal police conduct at the Days Inn extends to statements he made at the time of his arrest and to the testimony of government witness Rick Lowery. 11 The Government argued below that exigent circumstances--the fear that Weinrich and Hartwell might destroy evidence--justified the warrantless entry into room 224. Weinrich responded that the agents themselves created any exigent circumstances that existed by deliberately postponing attempts to obtain a warrant to search room 224 in favor of placing the room under surveillance in the hope of apprehending additional parties involved in the drug activity. The district court denied the motion to suppress because (1) agents reasonably delayed their attempts to obtain a warrant in order to continue their investigation; (2) the return of Hartwell and Weinrich to the room created exigent circumstances justifying a warrantless entry; (3) the arrest of Weinrich, after the lawful entry into the hotel room, was supported by probable cause; and (4) the search warrant was also supported by probable cause and was lawfully executed. Record Vol. VII at 1514-18. 58 Weinrich argues on appeal that agents needed a warrant to enter lawfully his hotel room either to arrest him or to search the room. He argues that the warrantless entry does not fall within the exigent circumstances exception to the warrant requirement because (1) exigent circumstances did not exist or (2) if they did, they cannot be relied upon here because they were created by the agents' own conduct. Finally, Weinrich again makes alternative arguments linking the illegal entry into room 224 to the subsequent search warrant: (1) the affidavit supporting the warrant is based, in part, on information obtained from the illegal entry and (2) even assuming a wholly independent basis for the warrant, agents illegally occupied the room during the interim between the illegal entry and execution of the search warrant. 59 In order to assess these claims, we must briefly review the testimony adduced at the suppression hearing. All parties concede that probable cause to search room 224 developed in the early morning hours of February 12 when MBN agent Charles Spillers discovered the key to the room in Santiago's possession. Spillers testified that, after discovering the key, he left Indianola at about 4:00 a.m. on February 12 and drove to Memphis to coordinate surveillance of room 224. He arrived at about 8:30 a.m. and met with a Memphis narcotics officer at the Days Inn. Spillers testified that he spent the rest of the morning engaged in the following activities: (1) interviewing hotel personnel to determine if the room was occupied; (2) searching the general area around the hotel; (3) checking vehicles in the hotel parking lot; (4) setting up surveillance of room 224 from a hotel room located nearby; (5) interviewing personnel at the U-Haul outlet that owned the truck discovered at Indianola the night before; (6) awaiting the arrival of additional personnel to assist in the investigation; and (7) conferring with a United States attorney to determine whether a warrant was necessary before the room could be searched. The testimony made clear that obtaining a search warrant would require the cooperative efforts of Spillers--the only one in Memphis with full knowledge of the facts establishing probable cause--and a local officer with the authority to deal with Tennessee officials. Spillers testified that he began drafting a statement of probable cause soon after the United States attorney advised that a warrant was necessary. He had not quite finished when Hartwell and Weinrich arrived at the room. 60 The Government relies on exigent circumstances to justify entry into room 224. Of course, if agents were lawfully in the room, Weinrich's subsequent arrest there on probable cause and the plain view observation of the contents of the room were likewise lawful. We consider first whether exigent circumstances existed and, if so, whether the Government is precluded from relying on them because they were manufactured by the agents themselves. 61
62 We have recognized that a fear of the destruction of evidence is an exigent circumstance that may justify a warrantless entry into a private home. See, e.g., United States v. Thompson, 700 F.2d 944, 946, 947 (5th Cir.1983). To prevail on this exception [to the warrant requirement], the government must demonstrate that the agents had reason to believe that the evidence was in danger of imminent destruction. Id. at 947-48. The district court here held that the Government successfully discharged this burden; we do not think that finding is clearly erroneous. 63 We have indicated that important factors relevant to the degree of exigency surrounding the fear of evidence destruction include (1) the agents' subjective belief; (2) information indicating that suspects are aware that police are on their trail; and (3) the knowledge that efforts to dispose of narcotics and to escape are characteristic behavior of persons engaged in the narcotics traffic. Thompson, 700 F.2d at 948 (quoting United States v. Rubin, 474 F.2d 262, 268 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 414 U.S. 833, 94 S.Ct. 174, 38 L.Ed.2d 68 (1973). See also Scott v. Maggio, 695 F.2d 916 (5th Cir.1983). Agents here testified unequivocally that they feared the destruction of evidence. See Thompson, 700 F.2d at 948 n. 2. The suppression hearing testimony supports the conclusion that the fears were reasonable: (1) Weinrich and Hartwell likely knew that the plane had not been unloaded in Greenville as planned and that their partner Santiago had been arrested and (2) shortly after Weinrich and Hartwell entered room 224, someone peered between the curtains, as if acting as a lookout. Given these facts, we cannot characterize the district court's finding as clearly erroneous. 64
65 Agents, of course, cannot deliberately create exigent circumstances in order to subvert the warrant requirements of the fourth amendment. United States v. Scheffer, 463 F.2d 567 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 409 U.S. 984, 93 S.Ct. 324, 34 L.Ed.2d 248 (1972). Our first concern in analyzing a claim of manufactured exigency is whether agents could have obtained a search warrant prior to the development of the exigent circumstances upon which they relied. Thompson, 700 F.2d at 949. The district court here apparently found that agents could have obtained a warrant, in the sense that they had probable cause for a warrant, in the early morning hours of February 12. Of course, having probable cause alone is not enough; a warrant obviously cannot issue until an affidavit is prepared and a judge or magistrate with the proper authority is located. Considering these factors, the district court found that, practically speaking, the agents could not have obtained a warrant until early afternoon on February 12. In light of the testimony summarized above, we cannot say that determination is clearly erroneous. 66 We are faced therefore with a delay of only a few hours in obtaining a warrant during which time Spillers, according to his own testimony, was actively preparing an affidavit. The district court determined that this delay did not preclude agents from acting upon the exigent circumstances that arose when Weinrich and Hartwell returned to the room. We agree. In evaluating Weinrich's claim of manufactured exigency we must distinguish between cases where exigent circumstances arise naturally during a delay in obtaining a warrant and those where officers have deliberately created the exigent circumstances. It is, of course, axiomatic that agents are not required to obtain a search warrant as soon as it is practicable to do so. See Cardwell v. Lewis, 417 U.S. 583, 595, 94 S.Ct. 2464, 2471, 41 L.Ed.2d 325 (1974). Moreover, an officer's failure to avail himself of an early opportunity to obtain a warrant will not automatically preclude him from relying on exigent circumstances that may arise thereafter. Id. at 595-96, 94 S.Ct. at 2472 (The exigency may arise at any time, and the fact that the police might have obtained a warrant earlier does not negate the possibility of a current situation's necessitating prompt police action.); Thompson, 700 F.2d at 950. That the exigency was foreseeable at the time the decision was made to forego or postpone obtaining a warrant does not, by itself, control the legality of a subsequent warrantless search triggered by that exigency. See United States v. Hultgren, 713 F.2d 79, 88 (5th Cir.1983) (citing United States v. Mitchell, 538 F.2d 1230, 1233 (5th Cir.1976) (en banc), cert. denied, 430 U.S. 945, 97 S.Ct. 1578, 51 L.Ed.2d 792 (1977)). 67 Of course, we disapprove of gambling as police procedure; where possible, it is always preferable to go forward with efforts to obtain a warrant rather than to wait in hopes that factors of exigence will arise. Mitchell, 538 F.2d at 1233. Warrantless searches based on exigent circumstances must, of course, be reasonable, and the opportunity to obtain a warrant is one of the factors to be weighed. Vale v. Louisiana, 399 U.S. 30, 40, 90 S.Ct. 1969, 1975, 26 L.Ed.2d 409 (1970). We have recently recognized that the reasonableness inquiry should also be informed by the nature of the investigation of which the warrantless activity is a part: a delay in obtaining a warrant is more likely to be reasonable when part of an immediate, ongoing investigation rather than a planned or routine search or arrest. Hultgren, 713 F.2d at 87 & n. 11. As we said in Hultgren: 68 Indeed, in the case of the immediate ongoing investigation, new suspects and evidence of crimes committed became known only later in the investigation. Thus, unlike the case of the routine felony arrest, where a given individual and a distinct crime is involved, the fluidity of an ongoing investigation of the distribution of narcotics makes the obtaining of an adequate search warrant more difficult to time in the flow of events. While the possibility of discovering additional participants or evidence of crimes does not negate the warrant requirement, we find that it is one factor to weigh in determining the reasonableness of the government's warrantless arrest. 69 Id. at 87. 70 As noted, we treat cases differently where agents do more than delay attempts to obtain a warrant and then act upon exigent circumstances that naturally arise. Where agents create the exigency themselves, warrantless activity is per se unreasonable and we require suppression of any evidence obtained thereby. United States v. Scheffer, 463 F.2d at 574. 71 Weinrich claims that agents created exigent circumstances for the search of room 224 by (1) placing the room under surveillance rather than immediately attempting to obtain a warrant and (2) by allowing Weinrich and Hartwell to enter the room instead of stopping them as they approached. We reject the claim that agents manufactured exigent circumstances by placing the room under surveillance. This is simply a case of exigency arising naturally during a delay in obtaining a warrant. See United States v. Mitchell, 538 F.2d at 1233. This case does not involve the kind of deliberate conduct that we have indicated may amount to creation of, rather than reliance on, exigent circumstances. See Thompson, 700 F.2d at 951 (undercover agent confronting suspect knowing that suspect will recognize him); Hultgren, 713 F.2d at 88 (faking a transmitter failure). 72 Nor do we think that the failure to stop Weinrich and Hartwell before they entered the hotel room amounts to the deliberate creation of exigent circumstances. This simply is not a case where the agents deliberately arrang[ed] to arrest the defendant while he is within certain premises so that they may take advantage of their presence within to seize evidence in plain view. 2 LaFave, Search & Seizure Sec. 6.7(d) (1978). We think agents acted reasonably in not stopping Weinrich and Hartwell before they entered the room; this action allowed them to protect the safety of the hotel manager who accompanied Weinrich and Hartwell to the room as well as gave them a needed opportunity to confer with the manager to determine the identity of those who entered the room. 73
74 We also reject the claim that the search pursuant to the warrant was illegal. Having lawfully entered the room, agents' plain view observation of Santiago's name tag was perfectly legal; including that in the affidavit, therefore, was entirely proper. Moreover, we reject the claim that the securing of the hotel room while a warrant was obtained itself violated the fourth amendment even if nothing observed during the interim was used to obtain the warrant. Weinrich relies on United States v. Allard, 634 F.2d 1182 (9th Cir.1980), for the proposition that, following an illegal entry, agents cannot secure premises while obtaining a warrant. Fruits of the warrant must be suppressed even if the warrant had an independent source. Id. at 1187. Whatever the current status of the Allard rule, see Segura v. United States, --- U.S. ----, 104 S.Ct. 3380, 82 L.Ed.2d 599 (1983) (securing a dwelling, on the basis of probable cause, to prevent the destruction or removal of evidence while a search warrant is being sought is not unreasonable seizure) (per Burger, J. and O'Connor, J.), it does not apply here. We have held that the initial warrantless entry into room 224 was legal. We think agents properly limited the scope of warrantless searches to the rationale excepting the search from the warrant requirement, United States v. Metz, 608 F.2d 147, 155 (5th Cir.1979), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 821, 101 S.Ct. 80, 66 L.Ed.2d 24 (1980), by securing rather than searching. Therefore, we reject Weinrich's claim that the evidence discovered pursuant to the full search should have been suppressed. 75