Opinion ID: 1688159
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the validity of the stop

Text: The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution preserves the right of the people to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures. Generally, a search or seizure is allowed only if the police have probable cause to believe the person has committed or is committing a crime. Beck v. Ohio, 379 U.S. 89, 91, 85 S.Ct. 223, 225, 13 L.Ed.2d 142 (1964). The Fourth Amendment allows, however, a so-called Terry stop, which is a minimally intrusive form of seizure or semi-arrest that is lawful if the police officer has a reasonable suspicion supported by articulable facts that those stopped are engaged in criminal activity. Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968). [1] Police are allowed to conduct Terry stops of moving vehicles upon a reasonable suspicion that the occupants are involved in criminal activity. United States v. Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. 873, 882, 95 S.Ct. 2574, 2580, 45 L.Ed.2d 607 (1975). [2] The permissible scope of a Terry automobile stop includes a search of the passenger compartment of an automobile, limited to those areas in which a weapon may be placed or hidden.... Michigan v. Long, 463 U.S. 1032, 1049, 103 S.Ct. 3469, 3480, 77 L.Ed.2d 1201 (1983). When a law enforcement officer effectuates a Terry stop, he need not have personally observed facts amounting to reasonable suspicion provided he acted on information provided by another officer who is shown to have had reasonable suspicion to make the stop. United States v. Hensley, 469 U.S. 221, 105 S.Ct. 675, 83 L.Ed.2d 604 (1985). In Hensley , the Supreme Court created a three-part test that requires the following: (1) that the communication objectively supported the action taken by the officer; (2) that the communication was issued on the basis of a reasonable suspicion that the occupant of the vehicle had been involved in a crime; and (3) that the stop that in fact occurred was no more intrusive than would have been permitted the officer that originally communicated the information. Id. at 232, 233, 105 S.Ct. at 682, 682. In State v. Franklin, 841 S.W.2d 639 (Mo. banc 1992), this Court had occasion to apply the Hensley test in a factually similar case. [3] In Franklin , a Kansas City police officer received a radio dispatch stating that an armed party was occupying a black 1984 Pontiac Fiero in the area of 4200 East 60th Terrace. The officer saw the black Fiero being driven westbound on 61st Street and pulled the car over. The officer ordered the driver out of the vehicle, handcuffed him, patted him down, and, finding no weapon, felt under the seats of the vehicle and checked the console for a weapon. Still unable to unearth a weapon, the officer asked the driver for his driver's license. When the driver was unable to produce the license, the officer placed the driver under custodial arrest and searched him. The search produced a marijuana cigarette, or joint, and the officer eventually found two more joints and over $37,000 in cash in a brown paper sack upon a more complete search of the car. In Franklin , this Court found it necessary to apply only the second prong of the Hensley analysis because there was no evidence that the dispatch was issued on the basis of a reasonable suspicion. In addressing the second Hensley requirement, it becomes clear that the state failed to meet its burden. At a suppression hearing the state bears both the burden of producing evidence and the risk of nonpersuasion to show by a preponderance of the evidence that the motion to suppress should be overruled. § 542.296.6, RSMo 1986; State v. Milliorn, 794 S.W.2d 181, 184 (Mo. banc 1990). The record contains no evidence of a dispatch issued on the basis of reasonable suspicion, and the detaining officer did not personally observe, independent of the dispatch, any behavior that would justify the stop. The dispatcher was not called to testify at the suppression hearing. The record is silent as to the source of the information that lead to the police dispatch. Without that information the court cannot determine whether the dispatch was based upon reasonable suspicion. Id. at 644. We find Franklin controlling. Because we cannot simply imbue Himmel's communication with reliability, we must look beyond the communication itself to justify the stop. To determine if reasonable suspicion existed, we must apply one of three standards: If a dispatch is based upon information provided by another police officer, the court looks to whether the collective information known to all officers involved in the stop amounted to reasonable suspicion. If the dispatch is based upon information obtained from an identified informant, courts examine whether the informant was known to the police to be reliable. If the information was obtained from an anonymous informant, the question is whether the police corroborated the details of the tip before making the stop. [Citations omitted.] Franklin , at 644, n. 6. The State produced no evidence of the origin of the tip other than appellant's post-arrest statements. Nonetheless, the State argues that because of appellant's post-arrest statements regarding his belief that his ex-girlfriend had provided the tip, the Court should apply the standard of a known and reliable informant. This standard cannot apply in this case because, as we determine in part IV.B. of this opinion, appellant's statements were obtained as a result of the stop that would otherwise be held illegal. It is a well-worn principle of law that the successes of a search cannot be used to justify its legality. United States v. Di Re, 332 U.S. 581, 595, 68 S.Ct. 222, 228, 92 L.Ed. 210 (1948); [4] State v. Wing, 455 S.W.2d 457, 460 (Mo.1970). By the same token, a statement obtained as the result of an illegal stop cannot be used to justify the legality of the stop. Judge Holstein's dissent suggests that the information received from Officer Himmel should be afforded the same reliability as should be afforded a tip from an identified informant. Since such information would be sufficient if it was shown to be from a source known to the police to be reliable (and certainly Officer Himmel should qualify as such), this stop should be viewed as proper. The fallacy in this reasoning is fundamental. It ignores the State's burden of proof to go forward with the evidence to prove the basis of the original officer's reasonable suspicion that the occupants of the vehicle were involved in criminal activity. § 542.296.6, RSMo1986. When such information originates with law enforcement personnel and the State relies on that information to justify the stop, the State must prove the facts giving rise to the original suspicion. The requirements of reasonable suspicion and probable cause would be rendered meaningless if police could simply filter a hunch through a radio dispatch or cellular phone and have it come out reliable on the other end. Therefore, the stop will be held illegal unless the collective information known by the officers involved in the stop, Robinson and McDonald, amounted to reasonable suspicion. Franklin, 841 S.W.2d at 644, n. 6. This can be accomplished, however, from the collective information known by the officers involved in the stop given the totality of the circumstances, and reasonable suspicion can be established if Officers Robinson and McDonald independently observed sufficient corroborating information from the prior police communication. Alabama v. White, 496 U.S. 325, 110 S.Ct. 2412, 110 L.Ed.2d 301 (1990). In White , the Montgomery police department received an anonymous tip that Vanessa White would be leaving a specific apartment building at a particular time in a brown Plymouth station wagon with the right taillight lens broken, that she would travel directly to a motel located about four miles from the apartment building, and that she would be carrying about an ounce of cocaine inside a brown attache case. The police drove to the apartment building and verified that a woman left within the time frame presumably given in the tip, drove off in a brown Plymouth station wagon with the right taillight lens broken, and drove the most direct route to the motel named in the tip. Although the woman did not have a brown attache case and the Court noted that the case was a close call, the Court held that the police had sufficiently corroborated the information from the tip and, therefore, had reasonable suspicion to stop her vehicle. The Court was not impressed by the information that the car was in front of the apartment building as [a]nyone could have `predicted' that fact because it was a condition presumably existing at the time of the call. What was important was the caller's ability to predict respondent's future behavior because it demonstrated inside informationa special familiarity with respondent's affairs. Id. at 332, 110 S.Ct. at 2417. In White , the detailed information given and the officer's corroboration of the events allowed the officer to come to the frame of mind that the tip was more than a prank; the tipster had inside information that predicted future behavior. This alone increases the likelihood that the vehicle would be carrying what the tipster said it would such that a Terry stop is justified. It is essential, however, that the tip include detailed information that demonstrates a special familiarity with the affairs of the object of the tip. The information in both this case and the Franklin case failed to demonstrate a special familiarity with the object's affairs. In both cases, the information merely accurately described a vehicle that might be located in a particular area. In neither case did the information identify who would be in the vehicle, allow for corroboration of a travel route, or give an exact location for the vehicle. The corroboration of a police communication that predicted that a car might, at some undetermined time, be somewhere around appellant's place of residence does not give rise to a reasonable suspicion under the standard set in White. The stop was, therefore, illegal. It is appropriate to point out that although throughout this opinion we refer to the stop as being illegal, this case really involves the prosecution's failure to prove the legality of the stop as opposed to an affirmative showing of an illegal stop. However, this is how it should be because a Terry stop is an extraordinary occurrence which is only justified when the State carries the burden of proving that justification.