Opinion ID: 615987
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Consent

Text: Finally, we consider whether Beauchamp voluntarily consented to a search of his person, and if voluntarily given, whether that consent dissipated the taint of the prior Fourth Amendment violation. Because the district court did not consider whether Beauchamp's consent to conduct the search was tainted, we will consider de novo whether the illegal stop tainted consent. United States v. Shaw, 464 F.3d 615, 627 (6th Cir.2006).
While the Fourth Amendment protects citizens against unreasonable searches and seizures, a search of a person is not unreasonable if that person gives free and voluntary consent. See Schneckloth v. Bustamonte, 412 U.S. 218, 219, 93 S.Ct. 2041, 36 L.Ed.2d 854 (1973); United States v. Kelly, 913 F.2d 261, 265 (6th Cir.1990). The government bears the burden of proving, through clear and positive testimony that the consent to search was given voluntarily. United States v. Salvo, 133 F.3d 943, 953 (6th Cir.1998). Consent is voluntary when it is unequivocal, specific and intelligently given, uncontaminated by any duress or coercion. United States v. Moon, 513 F.3d 527, 537 (6th Cir.2008) (internal citations omitted). Voluntariness is determined by examining the totality of the circumstances. See Bustamonte, 412 U.S. at 227, 93 S.Ct. 2041; United States v. McCaleb, 552 F.2d 717, 720 (6th Cir. 1977). Several factors should be examined in the consent calculus. First, a court should examine the characteristics of the accused, including the age, intelligence, and education of the individual; whether the individual understands the right to refuse to consent; and whether the individual understands his or her constitutional rights. See United States v. Jones, 846 F.2d 358, 360 (6th Cir.1988). While the police do not have to inform an individual of his right to refuse, the absence of such a warning is considered in the totality of the circumstances analysis. See Bustamonte, 412 U.S. at 227, 93 S.Ct. 2041. Second, a court should consider the details of the detention, including the length and nature of detention, id. at 226, 93 S.Ct. 2041; the use of coercive or punishing conduct by the police, id. at 226, 93 S.Ct. 2041; and indications of more subtle forms of coercion that might flaw [an individual's] judgment, United States v. Watson, 423 U.S. 411, 424, 96 S.Ct. 820, 46 L.Ed.2d 598 (1976). We carefully examine cases in which the government claims that the defendant consented. See United States v. Worley, 193 F.3d 380, 386 (6th Cir.1999). Police coercion vitiated any consent Beauchamp may have given in this case, and thus consent could not have been made freely or voluntarily. Without being told that he could refuse, Beauchamp said yes to Officer Fain's request to search after another uniformed officer had arrived on the scene. More importantly, Beauchamp gave his response immediately after Officer Fain had placed his hands on Beauchamp's body to conduct the frisk. A scared, defenseless man is not in a position to say no to a police officer whose hands are still on or just removed from his body while another officer is standing just a few feet away. See Bustamonte, 412 U.S. at 229, 93 S.Ct. 2041 (noting that account must be taken of ... the possibly vulnerable subjective state of the person who consents in considering the totality of the circumstances); Worley, 193 F.3d at 386 (holding that consent to search was not freely given to two officers but was merely a response conveying an expression of futility in resistance to authority or acquiescing in the officers' request); United States v. Young, 318 Fed.Appx. 407, 410 (6th Cir.2009) (unpublished opinion) (noting that a scared and upset defendant may, dependent on the facts, show duress that factors into the consent calculus). In each and every situation that morning, police conduct had overborne Beauchamp's will. He was repeatedly prevented from exercising his right to walk away, and, in effect, to say no. Because [a] suspect's knowledge of a prior illegal search can also give rise to a sense of futility, the police conduct in this case easily could have exerted tremendous pressure on Beauchamp to acquiesce. United States v. Haynes, 301 F.3d 669, 683 (6th Cir.2002). The district court failed to consider the implicitly coercive nature of these events, and instead focused on the absence of flashing lights or drawn weapons. We find that the district court erred in finding that the prosecution met its burden of showing that Beauchamp's consent was free, valid, and voluntary because a consideration of the series of encounters that morning and the details of Officer Fain's interaction with Beauchamp indicate that Beauchamp merely acquiesced to the authority of the officer. See Bumper v. North Carolina, 391 U.S. 543, 548-49, 88 S.Ct. 1788, 20 L.Ed.2d 797 (1968) (holding that the prosecution's burden cannot be discharged by showing no more than acquiescence to a claim of lawful authority); Jones, 846 F.2d at 361 (holding that consent was involuntary in part due to psychological impact of coercive sequence of events). Thus, the search was unreasonable pursuant to the Fourth Amendment.
Even if Beauchamp had voluntarily consented, however, the evidence must be suppressed because it is tainted by the illegality of the initial stop. The Supreme Court has held that if consent to search is obtained after an illegal seizure, the consent is tainted by the illegality and does not justify the search. Royer, 460 U.S. at 507-08, 103 S.Ct. 1319. We have repeatedly followed this precedent, holding that evidence obtained pursuant to the consent to search must be suppressed if the consent was given after an illegal seizure. United States v. Lopez-Arias, 344 F.3d 623, 629 (6th Cir.2003); see also United States v. Richardson, 949 F.2d 851, 858-59 (6th Cir.1991) (holding that an illegal arrest tainted a subsequent consent to search); United States v. Bradley, 922 F.2d 1290, 1296 (6th Cir.1991) (holding that [d]efendant's consent to search was tainted by an illegal arrest under State law); United States v. Buchanan, 904 F.2d 349, 355-56 (6th Cir.1990) (holding that consent to search was tainted because prior warrantless entry into defendant's home was not justified). Thus, for the seized evidence to be admissible, not only must the consent be valid, i.e., voluntary... but the causal chain between the illegal seizure and the consent must be broken to avoid the consequences of the exclusionary rule. Lopez-Arias, 344 F.3d at 629. As the taint of the unconstitutional seizure [can] be purged when the suspect's subsequent consent is the `product of an intervening act of free will,' Richardson, 949 F.2d at 858 (quoting United States v. Grant, 920 F.2d 376, 388 (6th Cir.1990)), the question before us is whether ... the evidence to which instant objection is made has been come at by exploitation of that illegality or instead by means sufficiently distinguishable to be purged of the primary taint, Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 488, 83 S.Ct. 407, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). In order to determine if the consent is sufficiently attenuated from the illegal seizure, we may consider a number of factors, including: the length of time between the illegal seizure and the consent; the presence of intervening circumstances; the purpose and flagrancy of the official misconduct; and whether the officers read the suspect his Miranda rights before he consented. Kaupp v. Texas, 538 U.S. 626, 632-33, 123 S.Ct. 1843, 155 L.Ed.2d 814 (2003); Lopez-Arias, 344 F.3d at 630. No single factor in this analysis is dispositive of attenuation. Brown v. Illinois, 422 U.S. 590, 603, 95 S.Ct. 2254, 45 L.Ed.2d 416 (1975). The government bears the burden of persuasion. Kaupp, 538 U.S. at 633, 123 S.Ct. 1843. None of the relevant factors, either individually or in the aggregate, dissipates the taint. First, just a few minutes passed between the illegal seizure and the consent. Officer Fain asked Beauchamp a few questions, conducted a brief frisk, and then without reading him his Miranda rights or informing him of his right to refuse, asked him for consent to search. The absence of any intervening time between the seizure and the consent strongly suggests that the taint of the illegality did not dissipate. See Brown, 422 U.S. at 604, 95 S.Ct. 2254 (finding that a separation of two hours without an intervening set of circumstances did not dissipate the taint); Lopez-Arias, 344 F.3d at 630 (finding that a lapse of 30 minutes did not dissipate the taint); Richardson, 949 F.2d at 859 (finding that a lapse of 20 minutes did not dissipate the taint); Buchanan, 904 F.2d at 356 (finding that a lapse of one hour did not dissipate the taint). Second, there were no intervening circumstances. Brown, 422 U.S. at 604, 95 S.Ct. 2254 (finding that the absence of an intervening event indicated that the taint was not dissipated). Intervening circumstances that effectively attenuate the consent from the illegal seizure are those that sever the causal connection between the illegal arrest and the discovery of the evidence. United States v. Shaw, 464 F.3d 615, 628-29 (6th Cir.2006) (quoting United States v. Reed, 349 F.3d 457, 464 (7th Cir.2003)). In particular, we have held that if a suspect's response to an illegal stop is a new and distinct crime, such as flight or use of force, any evidence recovered incident to the arrest for the subsequent crime is not tainted by the unlawfulness of the initial detention. See United States v. Castillo, 238 F.3d 424 (Table), 2000 WL 1800481, at -6 (6th Cir. Nov. 28, 2000) (unpublished opinion) (holding that a suspect's high-speed flight from an unlawful detention purged taint that may have resulted from his detention, and rendered the drug evidence found incident to his arrest for flight admissible); United States v. Jefferson, 182 F.3d 919 (Table), 1999 WL 519298, at  (6th Cir. July 15, 1999) (unpublished opinion) (holding that defendant's flight and use of force against officers constituted intervening circumstances that purged taint). Unlike in Castillo and Jefferson, however, the police discovered the evidence in this casethe $1300 in cash and the plastic baggie before Beauchamp's brief struggle began. Thus, Beauchamp's struggle cannot serve as an intervening circumstance because it does not come between the illegal seizure and the discovery of the evidence; there is no break in the chain. See Shaw, 464 F.3d at 629 (holding that post-arrest discovery of incriminating evidence is not an intervening circumstance that breaks the causal chain); United States v. Baldwin, 114 Fed. Appx. 675, 682 (6th Cir.2004) (unpublished opinion) (holding that evidence discovered before defendant attempted to resist and flee was tainted by illegal seizure and must be suppressed). Third, the purpose and flagrancy of the officer's conduct do not tend to dissipate the taint. This is an important factor because it is tied directly to the rationale underlying the exclusionary rule, deterrence of police misconduct. Reed, 349 F.3d at 464-65. While the officers' conduct in this case may not qualify as flagrant, the purpose of the stop seems to be investigatory, undertaken as an expedition for evidence in the hope that something might turn up. Brown, 422 U.S. at 605, 95 S.Ct. 2254. Officer Fain did not stop until he found something to pin on Beauchamp. He did not engage Beauchamp in a consensual encounter. He did not have reasonable suspicion to stop and detain him. Even if the stop had been legal, the district court found that he did not have probable cause to make an arrest until after he pulled back Beauchamp's underwear on a public street and looked inside. As we have previously explained, [t]his type of police misconductstopping a suspect without probable cause for investigatory purposesis precisely the type of conduct that Brown and its progeny seeks to deter. Baldwin, 114 Fed.Appx. at 685. Accordingly, as none of the factors suggest that Beauchamp's consent is due to an intervening act of free will, the evidence was obtained by exploiting the initial illegality and the taint of the illegal seizure is not dissipated. We find that the government has failed to carry its burden of proving that the consent was sufficiently attenuated from the original seizure to render the seized evidence admissible, and that Beauchamp's motion to suppress should have been granted.