Opinion ID: 299374
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: arrest of long

Text: 55 Prior to trial, a hearing was conducted on Long's motion to suppress evidence alleging that his arrest was unlawful and that therefore the items seized in the search of Long's vehicle incident to that arrest should be suppressed. The trial court overruled the motion to suppress. 56 Long was arrested at about 10:10 a. m. on May 28, 1970. He was arrested by Sgt. Nicholas Tumminello who testified that at about 1:30 a. m. on the day of arrest, he personally spoke to a confidential informant after determining that a detective Partin, who assisted in the investigation and surveillance, had business with him before; he was very reliable; that he did not know in what other cases the informant had been used; that the informant told him Ralph Long, Willie Neal and Charles Richmond were involved in the Jefferson Bank robbery and Long was supposed to be the driver in the Jefferson Bank robbery; and that Long was supposed to pick up a suitcase containing some money at his mother's house after nine o'clock on that morning. 57 Sgt. Tumminello testified that after the meeting with the informant, he obtained some pictures of Long and the other suspects and conducted a surveillance of Long's mother's home, the back part of which was very close to the back part of Tocco Bros. Sea Food Co. At about 2:30 a. m., Tumminello saw Long in an auto at the rear of Long's mother's home and visited briefly with him. He also saw defendant Richmond come to the scene there about 3:30 and talk to Long. At about 7:30 a. m., Long left home and went to work making deliveries. At about 9:30 a. m., he returned to his mother's home, went into the house and came out three or four minutes later with an object in his hand which he placed in the truck and then departed. Tumminello continued to keep him under surveillance (with other officers) and then stopped him and made the arrest. A search of the truck he was driving disclosed a plastic container in which there was $681.00 inside a box containing fresh lettuce in the front interior of the truck. 58 In Brinegar v. United States, 338 U.S. 160, 69 S.Ct. 1302, 93 L.Ed. 1879 (1949), the Supreme Court discussed some of the general rules relating to probable cause which were quoted by this Court in United States v. Mitchell, 425 F.2d 1353, 1356-1357 (8th Cir. 1970), as follows: 59 `In dealing with probable cause, however, as the very name implies, we deal with probabilities. These are not technical; they are the factual and practical considerations of everyday life on which reasonable and prudent men, not legal technicians, act. The standard of proof is accordingly correlative to what must be proved. 60 `The substance of all the definitions of probable cause is a reasonable ground for belief of guilt.   Since Marshall's time, at any rate, it has come to mean more than bare suspicion: Probable cause exists where the facts and circumstances within their [the 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. Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132, 162, 45 S.Ct. 280, 288, 69 L.Ed. 543, 39 A.L.R. 790. 61 `   Because many situations which confront officers in the course of executing their duties are more or less ambiguous, room must be allowed for some mistakes on their part. But the mistakes must be those of reasonable men, acting on facts leading sensibly to their conclusions of probability. The rule of probable cause is a practical, non-technical conception affording the best compromise that has been found for accommodating these often opposing interests. Requiring more would unduly hamper law enforcement. To allow less would be to leave law-abiding citizens at the mercy of the officers' whim or caprice.' 338 U.S. at 175-176, 69 S.Ct. at 1311-1312 (footnotes omitted). 62 In Mitchell, this Court compared the facts therein to those of Draper v. United States, 358 U.S. 307, 79 S.Ct. 329, 3 L.Ed.2d 327 (1959), in which the Supreme Court held that probable cause for an arrest existed when information received from an informant, who had previously provided reliable information, was verified in every way prior to the arrest except as to the contents of the bag the suspect was carrying. United States v. Mitchell, supra, 425 F.2d at 1357 n. 3. A similar comparison is possible here. 63 The information that was verified here prior to arrest was as follows: (1) pictures were used to identify Long; (2) his mother's house was found to be in the vicinity and placed under surveillance; (3) Long was observed in the rear of her home at about 2:30 a. m.; (4) at 3:30 a. m. Long was observed in the company of Richmond who had been identified by the informant as one of the other bank robbers; (5) Long left his mother's home at 7:30 a. m. and started on his deliveries; (6) at 9:30 a. m. Long returned to her home, picked up a container and departed. 64 We are persuaded from this comparison of the information provided, and the verification thereof, that the officers verified every material allegation of the informant which could have been verified within a short time and prior to arrest. The appearance of Richmond on the scene at about 3:30 a. m. and Long's return home to pick up a container of money at approximately the predicted time and during his deliveries are of particular significance. We are not impressed by the argument that a plastic bag rather than a suitcase was picked up by Long. 65 As stated by Justice (then Circuit Judge) Blackmun in Mitchell, supra, at 1361, 66 so long as Draper remains on the books, so long as the Supreme Court majority chooses not to overrule it but to uphold it on its facts, and so long as it continues to be cited by the Supreme Court, see Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 21 n. 18, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968), it must stand for us as good law for pre-arrest facts which parallel the Draper facts. United States v. Lugo-Baez, 412 F.2d 435, 439 (8 Cir. 1969), cert. denied, 397 U.S. 966, 90 S.Ct. 1000, 25 L.Ed.2d 257; United States v. Malo, 417 F.2d 1242, 1244-1245 (2 Cir. 1969). 67 This observation is as valid now as it was then. See also United States v. Wahlquist, 438 F.2d 219, 222-223 (8th Cir. 1971).