Opinion ID: 171917
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Officer Wolthuis’s Account

Text: According to one of the officers who searched Mr. Gonzalez’s apartment, Officer William Wolthuis, he and his partner, Officer Corbin Collins, went to Mr. Gonzalez’s apartment at 3:00 p.m. on August 1, 2006 to “investigat[e] a possible drug trafficker at that location.” Doc. 55 at 18. Officer Wolthuis knocked on the door, and Mr. Gonzalez answered. Both officers were dressed in plain clothes, and neither had their guns visible. Officer Wolthuis identified himself and Officer Collins, showed Mr. Gonzalez his badge, and explained to Mr. Gonzalez why he was there: they “had received information that [Mr. Gonzalez] was selling -2- drugs out of the house.” Id. at 20. Mr. Gonzalez laughed, and “invited [the] officers in,” saying “you can come in and look. I’m not a drug dealer, I don’t sell drugs, I’m a landscaper.” Id. Officer Wolthuis was speaking English, and according to Officer Wolthuis, Mr. Gonzalez spoke “perfect” English. Id. Officer Wolthuis entered the house and sat down with Mr. Gonzalez on the living room couch. He handed Mr. Gonzalez a search waiver and said, “I’ll read this to you” and then “[a]fter I finish reading it could you read it, too.” Id. at 22. He read the waiver aloud to Mr. Gonzalez. Mr. Gonzalez read over Officer Wolthuis’s shoulder as the officer was reading the search waiver to him. After reading the waiver to Mr. Gonzalez, Officer Wolthuis said to him: “Do you understand what I just read to you?” Id. at 23. Mr. Gonzalez replied that he did. The officer handed the search waiver to Mr. Gonzalez, who “appeared to read it.” Id. Mr. Gonzalez signed the waiver and wrote the date and the time. (That Mr. Gonzalez signed the statement is one part of the record that is undisputed.) Officer Wolthuis drew his gun and proceeded to “clear” the hallway, the three bedrooms, and the bathroom, in case somebody was hiding and lying in wait. Mr. Gonzalez and Officer Collins remained in the living room “chatting.” Id. at 24. Officer Wolthuis then started his search. In the master bedroom closet, he found a gun and a backpack containing a large sum of money. In the garage attached to the house, he found four small bricks of marijuana. He put the evidence in the living room. Mr. Gonzalez said it was not his money, and that it -3- came from his cousin. Officer Wolthuis told Mr. Gonzalez something along the lines of, if he wanted the money back, he was going to have to fight for it, meaning (according to Officer Wolthuis) that he would have to “go[] to court and get an attorney and fight.” Id. at 29. Officer Wolthuis asked Mr. Gonzalez to write out a statement about the money. (This is another part of the record that is undisputed.) The statement read, in full: “The money that the police found is not mine. I was keeping it and the police took it and told me they were going to give it back, and they were going to fight. My cousin Lico Ramirez is living in Arizona.” Gonzalez Aff. at ¶ 17. The statement was written in Spanish. By this point, a canine unit had arrived and began searching Mr. Gonzalez’s vehicles. Officer Wolthuis told Mr. Gonzalez that they were going to have to take the vehicles; Mr. Gonzalez “was not happy with that.” Doc. 55 at 32. But up to that point, Mr. Gonzalez’s demeanor was “[p]erfect. He joked around with officers, he spoke perfect English . . . .” Id.