Opinion ID: 600741
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Search of the Bag, and Questions as to Probable Cause

Text: 48 Assuming that Perea retained a protectable privacy interest in the duffel bag, the court should nonetheless deny his motion to suppress if it concludes that an exception to the warrant requirement made the search lawful. If, for example, there was probable cause for the search of the bag, the search was lawful under the automobile exception. See California v. Acevedo, --- U.S. at ----, 111 S.Ct. at 1991 (police may search [a container found in a car] without a warrant if their search is supported by probable cause). We note that if there was probable cause for the search of the bag, the arrest of Perea was also lawful because the same probable cause to believe that a container holds drugs will allow the police to arrest the person transporting the container. Id. at ----, 111 S.Ct. at 1989. 49 Applicability of other exceptions to the warrant requirement, such as the exceptions for a search incident to arrest and for an inventory search, would depend in part on the lawfulness of Perea's arrest. See, e.g., Smith v. Ohio, 494 U.S. 541, 543, 110 S.Ct. 1288, 1290, 108 L.Ed.2d 464 (1990) (per curiam) (incident to arrest); Illinois v. Lafayette, 462 U.S. 640, 648, 103 S.Ct. 2605, 2610, 77 L.Ed.2d 65 (1983) (inventory search); United States v. Jenkins, 876 F.2d 1085, 1089 (2d Cir.1989) (same). A warrantless arrest is unlawful absent probable cause. See, e.g., Dunaway v. New York, 442 U.S. 200, 208 & n. 9, 99 S.Ct. 2248, 2254 & n. 9, 60 L.Ed.2d 824 (1979). Thus, if the court concludes that the agents did not have probable cause to search the bag, in order to determine whether the search of the bag was lawful on one of these two grounds the court will be required to decide whether the agents had probable cause to arrest Perea without reference to the contents of the bag. See Smith v. Ohio, 494 U.S. at 543, 110 S.Ct. at 1290 (it is  'axiomatic that an incident search may not precede an arrest and serve as part of its justification' ) (quoting Sibron v. New York, 392 U.S. 40, 63, 88 S.Ct. 1889, 1902, 20 L.Ed.2d 917 (1968)); see generally Smith v. Ohio, 494 U.S. at 543, 110 S.Ct. at 1290 (an attempt to justify  'the arrest by the search and at the same time ... the search by the arrest,' just 'will not do' ) (quoting Johnson v. United States, 333 U.S. 10, 16-17, 68 S.Ct. 367, 370, 92 L.Ed. 436 (1948)). 50 We should note that even assuming that the agents had probable cause to arrest Perea without having probable cause to search the bag, we have considerable doubt as to whether the search could be justified as one that was incident to a lawful arrest. The justification for that exception is the need to ensure that the person arrested not have access to a weapon or to destructible evidence. See New York v. Belton, 453 U.S. 454, 457, 101 S.Ct. 2860, 2862, 69 L.Ed.2d 768 (1981); Chimel v. California, 395 U.S. 752, 763, 89 S.Ct. 2034, 2040, 23 L.Ed.2d 685 (1969). Thus, upon arrest, the officers may search the arrestee's person and the area 'within his immediate control.'  Id. Where the item to be searched is not within reasonable reach of the person arrested, the rationale for application of this exception is absent. See, e.g., United States v. Lasanta, 978 F.2d 1300, 1305 (2d Cir.1992) (incident-to-arrest exception not applicable to search of vehicle when arrest occurred on doorstep of home). Thus, in New York v. Belton, though the Supreme Court held that when a policeman has made a lawful custodial arrest of the occupant of an automobile, he may, as a contemporaneous incident of that arrest, search the passenger compartment of that automobile, 453 U.S. at 460, 101 S.Ct. at 2864 (footnote omitted), it went on to state, [o]ur holding encompasses only the interior of the passenger compartment of an automobile and does not encompass the trunk, id. at 461 n. 4, 101 S.Ct. at 2864 n. 4. Accordingly, several lower courts have held that the incident-to-arrest exception does not permit the search of items in the trunk of a vehicle in which an arrestee was traveling. See, e.g., United States v. Wright, 932 F.2d 868, 878 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 112 S.Ct. 428, 116 L.Ed.2d 448 (1991); United States v. Thompson, 906 F.2d 1292, 1298 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 989, 111 S.Ct. 530, 112 L.Ed.2d 540 (1990); United States v. Hernandez, 901 F.2d 1217, 1220 (5th Cir.1990). Further, arresting agents are not allowed to simulate circumstances warranting application of the incident-to-arrest exception merely by bringing the item they wish to search into the area near the person arrested, or vice versa. See, e.g., United States v. Hill, 730 F.2d 1163, 1167 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 884, 105 S.Ct. 255, 83 L.Ed.2d 192 (1984); United States v. Wright, 577 F.2d 378, 381 (6th Cir.1978); United States v. Rothman, 492 F.2d 1260, 1266 (9th Cir.1973). 51 Since in the present case the duffel bag was in the trunk of the cab, we see no basis on which it could properly be deemed to have been within Perea's reasonable reach at the time of the stop. And the agents could not make the incident-to-arrest exception applicable simply by placing Perea and the bag near each other after they arrested Perea and opened the trunk. 52 The rationale underlying the exception for inventory searches is different. When a person is arrested in a place other than his home, the arresting officers may impound the personal effects that are with him at the time to ensure the safety of those effects or to remove nuisances from the area. Cabbler v. Superintendent, Virginia State Penitentiary, 528 F.2d 1142, 1146 (4th Cir.1975), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 817, 97 S.Ct. 60, 50 L.Ed.2d 77 (1976); see also United States v. Grill, 484 F.2d 990, 990-91 (5th Cir.1973) (officers allowed to take arrested individual's luggage from airplane in order to protect it), cert. denied, 416 U.S. 989, 94 S.Ct. 2396, 40 L.Ed.2d 767 (1974); 2 LaFave, Search and Seizure § 5.5(b), at 537 (2d ed. 1987) (appropriate for arresting officers to take custody of property that the arrested individual may otherwise be unable to retrieve). After such an arrest and seizure, an inventory search of the property seized is justified by the government's interests in averting any danger the property might pose, in protecting the property from unauthorized interference, and in protecting itself against claims of theft or negligent treatment of the property. See Colorado v. Bertine, 479 U.S. 367, 373, 107 S.Ct. 738, 742, 93 L.Ed.2d 739 (1987). Thus, if there has been a lawful arrest and an immediately ensuing search is not justifiable as incident to the arrest, a motion to suppress the proceeds of the immediate search may nonetheless be denied if the contents would inevitably have been discovered in a permissible inventory search. See United States v. Jenkins, 876 F.2d at 1088-89; United States v. Gorski, 852 F.2d 692, 696-97 (2d Cir.1988). 53 If there was probable cause to arrest Perea without reference to the contents of the bag but not probable cause to search the bag, the agents would have been justified in taking the bag to their headquarters rather than leaving it in Flowers's cab. Accordingly, the contents of the bag may be admissible if the court finds that they would inevitably have been discovered as part of a valid inventory search of the bag subsequent to Perea's lawful arrest. 54 The district court did not make findings as to any of the factual matters needed to resolve the lawfulness of Perea's arrest or of the search of the duffel bag. These questions remain for determination on remand. 55 In passing, we note our agreement with the district court's ruling that the initial stop of the livery cab was not an arrest but rather was a Terry stop (Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968)) that was lawful because the agents, given their surveillance observations, had a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. The fact that agents have used their cars to block a vehicle does not necessarily mean that, instead of a Terry stop, there was a de facto arrest. See, e.g., United States v. Vasquez, 638 F.2d 507, 522 (2d Cir.1980) (no arrest where one car blocked rear of car stopped behind civilian vehicle at red light), cert. denied, 450 U.S. 970, 101 S.Ct. 1490, 67 L.Ed.2d 620 (1981); United States v. Lechuga, 925 F.2d 1035, 1041 (7th Cir.1991) (same where two cars blocked stopped vehicle); United States v. Jackson, 918 F.2d 236, 238 (1st Cir.1990) (same); see also 3 LaFave, Search and Seizure § 9.2(d), at 364 (2d ed. 1987) (an otherwise valid stop is not inevitably rendered unreasonable merely because the suspect's car was boxed in by police cars in order to prevent it from being moved). But see United States v. Marin, 669 F.2d 73, 81 (2d Cir.1982) (participation of four or five official cars in stop of defendant's vehicle, along with other factors, led to conclusion that stop constituted an arrest); United States v. Ceballos, 654 F.2d 177, 180, 184 (2d Cir.1981) (same where at least three official cars participated). Nor does the fact that the officers approached a stopped car with guns drawn in order to protect themselves and bystanders on the street necessarily transmute a Terry stop into an arrest. See United States v. Alexander, 907 F.2d 269, 272 (2d Cir.1990) (law enforcement agent, faced with the possibility of danger, has a right to take reasonable steps to protect himself and an obligation to ensure the safety of innocent bystanders, regardless of whether probable cause to arrest exists), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 111 S.Ct. 983, 112 L.Ed.2d 1067 (1991). 56 Nonetheless, an encounter that began as a permissible Terry stop may have ripened into an arrest, which must be supported by probable cause, if, for example, the officers unreasonably used means of detention that were more intrusive than necessary. See, e.g., Florida v. Royer, 460 U.S. 491, 500, 103 S.Ct. 1319, 1325, 75 L.Ed.2d 229 (1983) (plurality opinion); Dunaway v. New York, 442 U.S. at 212-14, 99 S.Ct. at 2256-57; Posr v. Doherty, 944 F.2d 91, 98 (2d Cir.1991); United States v. Alexander, 907 F.2d at 272-73. In assessing whether the degree of restraint was  'too intrusive to be classified as an investigative detention,'  Posr v. Doherty, 944 F.2d at 98 (quoting United States v. Hastamorir, 881 F.2d 1551, 1556 (11th Cir.1989)), we have considered in general the amount of force used by police, the need for such force, and the extent to which the individual's freedom of movement was restrained, see, e.g., United States v. Marin, 669 F.2d at 81, and in particular such factors as the number of agents involved, see, e.g., id.; whether the target of the stop was suspected of being armed, see, e.g., United States v. Alexander, 907 F.2d at 272; the duration of the stop, see, e.g., United States v. Hooper, 935 F.2d 484, 495 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 112 S.Ct. 663, 116 L.Ed.2d 754 (1991); and the physical treatment of the suspect, see, e.g., United States v. Marin, 669 F.2d at 81 (suspects pulled from car), including whether or not handcuffs were used, see, e.g., United States v. Jackson, 652 F.2d 244, 250 (2d Cir.) (fact that suspect was not handcuffed supported ruling that treatment was not an arrest), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 1057, 102 S.Ct. 605, 70 L.Ed.2d 594 (1981); cf. United States v. Esieke, 940 F.2d 29, 36 (2d Cir.) (whether detained and guarded traveler suspected of alimentary canal smuggling could be handcuffed without probable cause presented extremely close case), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 112 S.Ct. 610, 116 L.Ed.2d 632 (1991). See also United States v. Miller, 974 F.2d 953, 957 (8th Cir.1992) (use of handcuffs did not transform Terry stop into arrest where agents were outnumbered by suspects); United States v. Hastamorir, 881 F.2d at 1557 (same). 57 Here, Perea testified that he was dragged from the cab, though Aryai denied this; the other agent who testified stated that she could not remember whether or not Perea had been pulled out. Perea also testified that he was immediately frisked, handcuffed, and thrown to the ground. Aryai testified, in contrast, that the sequence of events was Perea's voluntary exit from the cab, his abandonment of the bag, the agents' search of the bag, the arrest and frisking of Perea, and the application of the handcuffs. The factual issues, which may affect the court's determination of whether the search was lawful, remain unresolved. 58 In sum, on remand, if the court does not find that Perea abandoned the bag or consented to its search, it should conclude that he retained a protectable privacy interest in the bag. If he retained that privacy interest, the court should grant the motion to suppress the contents of the bag unless it concludes that the search was permissible by reason of an exception to the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement. 59