Opinion ID: 708240
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Was the Evidence Discovered in the Dodge the Fruit of Ms.

Text: 28 Eylicio-Montoya's Unlawful Arrest? 29 Evidence discovered by the police after a Fourth Amendment violation is not automatically subject to suppression under the exclusionary rule. See Brown v. Illinois, 422 U.S. 590, 603-04, 95 S.Ct. 2254, 2261-62, 45 L.Ed.2d 416 (1975); King, 990 F.2d at 1563-65; United States v. Carson, 793 F.2d 1141, 1147-48 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 914, 107 S.Ct. 315, 93 L.Ed.2d 289 (1986). If a Fourth Amendment violation has occurred, the court must determine  'whether granting establishment of the primary illegality, 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, 371 U.S. at 488, 83 S.Ct. at 417 (quoting Maguire, Evidence of Guilt 221 (1959)). Because the question is fact-intensive, the district court's findings must be upheld unless they are clearly erroneous. King, 990 F.2d at 1563. 30 Courts have identified several circumstances in which evidence obtained following a Fourth Amendment violation is not subject to suppression. See United States v. Griffin, 48 F.3d 1147, 1150 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 115 S.Ct. 2630, 132 L.Ed.2d 870 (1995). First, the connection between the violation and the discovery of the evidence may  'become so attenuated as to dissipate the taint.'  United States v. Romero, 692 F.2d 699, 704 (10th Cir.1982) (quoting Nardone v. United States, 308 U.S. 338, 341, 60 S.Ct. 266, 268, 84 L.Ed. 307 (1939)). Second, illegally seized evidence may be admitted if it was also lawfully obtained through an independent source. Id. (citing Silverthorne Lumber Co. v. United States, 251 U.S. 385, 392, 40 S.Ct. 182, 183, 64 L.Ed. 319 (1920)); see also Murray v. United States, 487 U.S. 533, 536-44, 108 S.Ct. 2529, 2532-37, 101 L.Ed.2d 472 (1988) (discussing independent source rule). Third, when ... the evidence in question would inevitably have been discovered without reference to the police error or misconduct, ... the evidence is admissible. Nix v. Williams, 467 U.S. 431, 448, 104 S.Ct. 2501, 2511, 81 L.Ed.2d 377 (1984). These limitations on the scope of the exclusionary rule insure that the police and the prosecution are not put in a worse position than they would have been in if the Fourth Amendment violation had not occurred. Id. at 443-48, 104 S.Ct. at 2508-11. 31 The third of these limitations is generally referred to as the inevitable discovery rule. See LaFave, supra, Sec. 11.4(a) at 378-88. Under this rule, the government has the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that the evidence in question would have been discovered in the absence of the Fourth Amendment violation. Nix, 467 U.S. at 444 n. 5, 104 S.Ct. at 2509; United States v. Maestas, 2 F.3d 1485, 1491 (10th Cir.1993); LaFave, supra, Sec. 11.4(a), at 384. 32 We have applied the inevitable discovery rule to allow the admission of evidence in circumstances similar to those in the instant case. In Romero, the court concluded that police officers had the reasonable suspicion necessary to support the initial stop of a van, but did not have probable cause to arrest its occupants until an officer smelled marijuana when he opened a door of the van to search for weapons. There was some evidence that, prior to hearing the first officer announce that he smelled marijuana in the van, another officer reached into the pocket of one of the defendants and discovered a packet of marijuana. That defendant argued that the search of his pocket exceeded the permissible limits of a Terry pat-down search for weapons. The Romero court found this challenge to the scope of the search irrelevant. It reasoned that the marijuana packet would have been inevitably discovered after the first officer lawfully detected the marijuana while conducting the weapons search of the van. The discovery of the marijuana in the van provided probable cause to arrest [the defendants], and upon arrest the officers unquestionably would have searched Romero and discovered the marijuana in his pocket. Romero, 692 F.2d at 704. We have applied the inevitable discovery rule in cases subsequent to Romero. See, e.g., United States v. Horn, 970 F.2d 728, 732 (10th Cir.1992). 33 In United States v. Bentley, 29 F.3d 1073 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 115 S.Ct. 604, 130 L.Ed.2d 515 (1994), the Sixth Circuit reached a similar conclusion. After receiving information from an informant about firearms violations, law enforcement officials stopped a car, approached with weapons drawn, and immediately placed the occupants under arrest. After making the arrests, an officer noticed a partially open garbage bag containing firearm boxes on the floor of the car. The government conceded on appeal that the officers lacked probable cause to make the arrests when they first approached the car. However, the government contended that the stop was supported by reasonable suspicion and that the search of the car resulted from the observation of the firearm boxes during a lawful stop rather than from an unlawful arrest. The Sixth Circuit agreed, concluding that the defendants' motion to suppress the evidence discovered in the car had been properly denied. 34 In this case, the government contends that, just as in Romero and Bentley, the marijuana in the burlap bags in the Dodge would inevitably have been discovered by customs agents even if Ms. Eylicio-Montoya had not been arrested immediately after the stop. 2 The government characterizes the search of the Dodge as the fruit of a lawful Terry stop rather than the fruit of an unlawful arrest. 35 The government's argument is supported by the record. We have previously held that, assuming that the district court did not disbelieve the uncontradicted testimony of Agent Vogrinec, the evidence obtained by customs agents established reasonable suspicion to stop the Dodge and the pickup. See Eylicio-Montoya, 18 F.3d at 849. Further development of the record has provided no basis for questioning Agent Vogrinec's testimony on this issue. In particular, although Ms. Eylicio-Montoya argued on remand that she was arrested before Agent Vogrinec saw the burlap bags, she did not challenge the district court's findings regarding the evidence obtained by customs agents prior to the stop (e.g. Agent Vogrinec's receiving information from the informant, the confirmation of some of the informant's predictions, and the fact that she had been involved in a drug investigation in 1990). Moreover, the district court did not modify these initial findings regarding the evidence obtained prior to the stop. Compare Rec. vol. I, doc 58 with Rec. vol. II at 29-31. These initial findings, combined with the fact that the court did not modify these findings on remand, establish that the agents' initial stop of the Dodge and the pickup was supported by reasonable suspicion. Cf. United States v. Melendez-Garcia, 28 F.3d 1046, 1049-51 (10th Cir.1994) (Information provided by informant, informant's correct prediction of suspects' activities, and suspicious nature of those activities--including driving cars in tandem--established reasonable suspicion.); United States v. Rutherford, 824 F.2d 831, 833 (10th Cir.1987) (Information from anonymous informant and confirming observations by law enforcement officers established reasonable suspicion.). 36 Because the agents had reasonable suspicion to make the initial stop, the act of walking toward the vehicles (although not the act of immediately placing the occupants under arrest) was also lawful. Moreover, Agent Vogrinec's testimony that he saw the burlap bags as he approached the vehicles is unrebutted, and there is no indication that the burlap bags would have been any less visible to customs agents if the vehicles' occupants had not been placed under arrest immediately. 37 Accordingly, we conclude that the government has established by a preponderance of the evidence that if Ms. Eylicio-Montoya had not been prematurely arrested, customs agents would have observed the burlap bags during the course of a lawful Terry stop. Just as in Romero and Bentley, the discovery of the challenged evidence was an inevitable consequence of a proper Terry stop rather than the fruit of an unlawful arrest. The subsequent search of the Dodge did not result from the exploitation of information obtained through an illegal arrest but rather from an observation that the agents would have made had there been no Fourth Amendment violation. Cf. United States v. Garza, 10 F.3d 1241, 1246 (6th Cir.1993) (evidence obtained during lawful Terry stop established probable cause for arrest and search); United States v. Nargi, 732 F.2d 1102, 1105-07 (2d Cir.1984) (same). Therefore, the district court's conclusion that the evidence discovered in the Dodge constituted the fruit of an unlawful arrest is clearly erroneous.