Opinion ID: 492031
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Stop and Frisk of Elias Abdouch

Text: 61 Elias Abdouch was convicted on one count of conspiring to distribute heroin, in violation of 21 U.S.C. Sec. 846, and on one count of conspiring to import heroin into the United States, in violation of 21 U.S.C. Sec. 963. The government's evidence against Abdouch consisted of (1) a number of taped conversations between Abdouch and Maysoun Annabi, Sami Annabi, and Angeel Abdouch, (2) physical evidence and documents seized from him or his apartment at the time of his arrest on December 18, 1984, including two personal telephone books, a social security card, a marriage certificate, $2,400 in cash, and a passport, and (3) testimonial evidence of surveillance of Elias Abdouch in November, 1984. It was the government's theory at trial that Elias Abdouch, together with his former wife, Angeel Abdouch, and his son, Antwan Abdouch, served as couriers bringing in drugs from the Middle East. On appeal, Elias Abdouch challenges the district court's decision to admit the testimony of a DEA agent about an airport stop and frisk. 62 The evidence surrounding the challenged stop and frisk can be briefly summarized. At a hearing conducted on Abdouch's motion to suppress, it was established that on November 16, 1984, New York State police investigators, who were surveilling Elias Abdouch in connection with his alleged drug importing activities, observed him traveling with Angeel Abdouch from Yonkers toward Newark Airport. At Newark Airport, the state authorities stopped Elias Abdouch and detained him. DEA agent Richard Musso, who arrived on the scene five to ten minutes later, observed Abdouch being detained by the state authorities and became concerned that this unplanned detention might compromise and jeopardize the ongoing drug investigation. Musso testified that in an attempt to prevent a premature arrest of Abdouch and others which would have aborted further investigations, he approached Abdouch and asked him whether he was a Palestinian terrorist. Musso, who identified himself as a police officer, examined Abdouch's passport and his small handbag to ensure that no weapon was inside. Next, Musso inquired about Abdouch's luggage and Abdouch responded by pointing to an area about fifty feet away from where they were standing. The two then walked to the area where the luggage had been left, whereupon Musso conducted a patdown to search for weapons. Musso felt two bulges in Abdouch's jacket, and upon Abdouch's opening his jacket, Musso observed a stack of money, about one-half inch thick, in each inside pocket. Musso noted that the stacks of bills consisted primarily of fifty and hundred-dollar denominations. After the patdown, Musso continued his search of Abdouch's luggage, and after accompanying Abdouch to his passenger terminal, Abdouch was released and not detained further. The district court suppressed any testimony about the denominations of the bills observed by Musso. However, the district court permitted Agent Musso to testify on direct-examination at trial about his attempt to intervene in the unplanned detention of Abdouch and that upon patting down Abdouch for weapons, he had discovered two stacks of bills in his jacket pockets. 63 Abdouch does not contest that at the time he was initially stopped by the state police investigator there existed reasonable suspicion that he was engaged in criminal activity relating to the importation and distribution of narcotics, such that a limited investigative stop would have been proper under Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968). Rather, Abdouch claims that the continuation of the Terry stop by DEA agent Musso was unlawful because it was performed based on a pretext unrelated to narcotics. According to Abdouch, since Agent Musso continued the Terry stop on pretextual grounds, the stop was not justified, and any evidence derived therefrom must be suppressed. 64 In Terry, the Supreme Court stated that the validity of a brief investigatory stop was to be judged against an objective standard: would the facts available to the officer at the moment of the seizure or the search 'warrant a man of reasonable caution in the belief' that the action taken was appropriate? 392 U.S. at 21-22, 88 S.Ct. at 1880 (emphasis added). Similarly, in United States v. Cortez, 449 U.S. 411, 417-18, 101 S.Ct. 690, 694-95, 66 L.Ed.2d 621 (1981), the Court stated that a Terry investigative stop will be upheld where the detaining officers [had] a particularized and objective basis for suspecting the particular person stopped of criminal activity (emphasis added). Our court has held that the proper standard for judging the constitutionality of a search is a totally objective one. United States v. Smith, 643 F.2d 942, 944 (2d Cir.) (emphasis added), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 875, 102 S.Ct. 350, 70 L.Ed.2d 182 (1981). 65 Applying an objective standard, courts have frequently discounted the subjective intent or motivations of searching officers. Scott v. United States, 436 U.S. 128, 138, 98 S.Ct. 1717, 1723, 56 L.Ed.2d 168 (1978) (the fact that the officer does not have the state of mind which as hypothecated by the reasons which provide the legal justification for the officer's action does not invalidate the action as long as the circumstances, viewed objectively, justify that action); Maryland v. Macon, 472 U.S. 463, 470-71, 105 S.Ct. 2778, 2783, 86 L.Ed.2d 370 (1985) (whether violation of fourth amendment has occurred turns on objective assessment of officer's actions, not on officer's actual state of mind at the time the challenged action was taken). In Smith, we upheld a domestic airport security search for which there existed an independent and adequate objective basis and disregarded the district court's subjective inquiry into the motives of the airline security personnel who performed the search. 643 F.2d at 944-45. 66 An objective standard should similarly be applied in analyzing this case. It is not disputed that the initial stop of Abdouch by a state investigator was justified in light of the objective existence of reasonable suspicion that he was involved in drug-related activities. Agent Musso continued the detention, however, by offering a pretext that Abdouch was involved in terrorism. In our view, a valid basis for a detention and search which exists in the first place, is not rendered invalid by the fact that police resort to a pretext for one purpose or another to continue that detention and search. While in most instances, it would seem appropriate for the police to be forthright and honest in expressing the basis upon which they are relying in conducting an investigatory stop and search, the justification given by the police is not essential in determining whether the apprehension is constitutionally justified. The pivotal factor in determining whether a search violates the fourth amendment is whether there exists at the outset a valid basis for that search. In this instance, it is not disputed that such a valid basis existed. Therefore, we hold that subsequent intervention by another law enforcement officer, relying upon a pretextual basis to carry out a search, does not alter the validity of the initial detention or the sequence of events following in its wake. 67 Support for our holding can be found in a similar case decided recently by the Third Circuit. In United States v. Hawkins, 811 F.2d 210 (3d Cir.1987), Philadelphia police officers were conducting surveillance of a house for possible narcotics activity. The officers then observed some people leave the house and enter a car which they followed. The officers stopped the car, frisked the passengers and found narcotics on the defendant. The court held, that although there was no evidence to support the officers' testimony that they stopped the car in order to conduct an investigation of alleged traffic violations, nevertheless, because there was a reasonable objective basis to suspect the defendant of criminal activity, the stop was justified. The court stated the fact that a pretext was given does not render invalid an otherwise constitutional search. Id. at 215 (footnote omitted). 68 Abdouch's claim that because Agent Musso's patdown was not conducted immediately it could not have been conducted based on a concern for the agent's safety is without merit. Agent Musso testified that the patdown was designed to protect him from the possibility of weapons, but that he did not conduct it sooner because he was initially concerned with the fact that Abdouch had been detained. It is well within reason for an agent to assume that a suspected narcotics courier whose job it is to transport large sums of money and valuable narcotics might carry a weapon. We have stated in the past that firearms are as much 'tools of the [narcotics] trade' as are most commonly recognized articles of narcotics paraphernalia. United States v. Oates, 560 F.2d 45, 62 (2d Cir.1977) (quoting United States v. Wiener, 534 F.2d 15, 18 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 820, 97 S.Ct. 66, 50 L.Ed.2d 80 (1976)). That Agent Musso may have had some concern for the integrity of his investigation does not mean that he could not have had at the same time a legitimate concern for his safety. Certainly, the fourth amendment does not prescribe a timetable for exactly when during the course of a Terry stop an officer must perform a patdown to protect against the possibility of possession of weapons. 69 Abdouch also argues that a search or frisk of an individual must be accompanied by an intent to arrest whether or not probable cause exists for making the arrest at the outset. He claims that to permit stops and searches which are not accompanied by an intent to arrest, such as the one conducted in the instant case, violates public policy in that it gives law enforcement officials unlimited powers of harassment. However, a defendant has no right to be arrested at any particular time, even if there is probable cause to do so. Hoffa v. United States, 385 U.S. 293, 310, 87 S.Ct. 408, 417, 17 L.Ed.2d 374 (1966); United States v. Waltzer, 682 F.2d 370, 373 (2d Cir.1982), cert. denied, 463 U.S. 1210, 103 S.Ct. 3543, 77 L.Ed.2d 1392 (1983). There is no reason to exempt a suspect from an otherwise legitimate investigative stop merely because the officer making the stop did not intend to arrest. Further, while a Terry stop must take place in appropriate circumstances and in an appropriate manner, Terry, 392 U.S. at 22, 88 S.Ct. at 1880, this case does not present an instance of harassment, repetitive stops, or untrammeled intrusions which very well may not meet that standard.