Opinion ID: 760821
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Consent to Search the House

Text: 31 While the Fourth Amendment protects citizens against unreasonable searches and seizures, a search is not unreasonable if a person with a privacy interest in the item to be searched 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. See Bustamonte, 412 U.S. at 248, 93 S.Ct. 2041; United States v. Salvo, 133 F.3d 943, 953 (6th Cir.1998); United States v. Riascos-Suarez, 73 F.3d 616, 625 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 519 U.S. 848, 117 S.Ct. 136, 136 L.Ed.2d 84 (1996). Consent is voluntary when it is unequivocal, specific and intelligently given, uncontaminated by any duress or coercion. United States v. McCaleb, 552 F.2d 717, 721 (6th Cir.1977). Voluntariness is determined by examining the totality of the circumstances. See Bustamonte, 412 U.S. at 227, 93 S.Ct. 2041; McCaleb, 552 F.2d at 720. Several factors should be examined in this determination. 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). Second, a court should consider the details of the detention, including the length and nature of detention; the use of coercive or punishing conduct by the police, see Bustamonte, 412 U.S. at 226, 93 S.Ct. at 2059; 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). 32 Despite the district court's finding that Ivy's consent was voluntarily given, Ivy argues that, under the totality of the circumstances, his consent was a product of police coercion, and was not conferred voluntarily. Given the overwhelming evidence of coercion and intimidation employed by the police in obtaining Ivy's signature on the consent form, we agree that the Government did not meet its burden of proving by clear and positive testimony that Ivy's consent was voluntarily given. 33 As a threshold consideration, the length of detention before consent is a significant factor in any voluntariness determination. See Bustamonte, 412 U.S. at 226, 93 S.Ct. 2041. Ivy testified at his suppression hearing that approximately one and a half hours passed between the officers' initial request for consent and Ivy's ultimate decision to sign the consent form. At oral argument, counsel for the United States conceded that this estimation was correct. Further, it is undisputed that the entire incident, from the police knocking at the front door until the end of Ivy's videotaped questioning, took from seven to eight hours. 34 The prolonged length of Ivy's detention is particularly significant in light of the nature of his detention. Among other things, the police officers used unlawful threats in order to secure Ivy's consent. The district court found that Sergeant Setliff made statements to the effect that if Ivy did not sign a consent form, everyone in the house, including Ivy's girlfriend, Jones, would go to jail, and that Ivy and Jones' child would be taken into government protective custody. The Government argues that Setliff's statements were lawful references to the fact that the officers could obtain a search warrant. It is true that an agent's statements to the effect that he would obtain a warrant if [the suspect] did not consent to the search does not taint [the suspect's] consent to a search. Salvo, 133 F.3d at 954. Setliff's remarks, however, went far beyond a mere reference to the fact that he could obtain a warrant. Rather, he explicitly stated that if Ivy did not sign the form, he would arrest Ivy's girlfriend and take away their small child. 35 The Government argues that Setliff's statements induced a mere subjective belief in Ivy that the police were coercing him to consent, and relies on the case of United States v. Crowder, 62 F.3d 782 (6th Cir.1995), which establishes that a subjective belief of coercion is not enough to vitiate voluntariness. The Government's reliance is misplaced. In Crowder, the defendant, who was under investigation for firing a gun over his neighbor's head, was taken into custody by police officers. Based on the defendant's statement that the gun was in the home of his girlfriend's mother, the police conducted a search of that home, and, after they found nothing, placed the defendant's girlfriend in a squad car without arresting her. The defendant then revealed the gun's actual location and consented to a search of that area. Later, the defendant asserted that his consent was invalid, as he volunteered the location of the gun only because he thought the officers were arresting his girlfriend. Id. at 787. The Sixth Circuit rejected this argument, holding that the defendant must show more than a subjective belief of coercion, but also some objectively improper action on the part of the police. Id. Specifically, the Crowder court noted that the police did not threaten to arrest the defendant's girlfriend, and indicated that such action would constitute an objectively improper police action. Contrary to the Government's claim, Crowder establishes that a police officer's statement that he will arrest an innocent relative or intimate friend of a suspect if the suspect does not submit to a search is an unacceptable means of obtaining consent. 36 In this case, Sergeant Setliff was uncertain as to Jones' level of involvement, if any, in the drugs found on the premises when he stated he would arrest her. Under the circumstances, it appears the statements made by Setliff were not merely informative, but were specifically calculated to induce fear and apply pressure. The intimidating nature of Setliff's statement is particularly striking when one considers that Setliff not only threatened to arrest Jones, but also to take Ivy and Jones' child from their custody. Even if Setliff was correct in that both parents were about to be arrested and taken to jail, there were supervision alternatives to state custody, such as having the child stay with a friend or relative. That Setliff stated, unequivocally, that the child would go into government custody if Ivy and Jones did not consent to a search indicates that Setliff was not merely trying to provide Ivy with data upon which to base his decision to consent, but rather was attempting to overcome Ivy's resolution not to consent. Setliff's threat to arrest Jones and, especially, to take her child thus constituted an objectively improper police action per Crowder, significantly intensifying the coercive tenor of the request for consent. 37 Even more disturbing than Sergeant Setliff's foreboding statements are the actions the police took with regard to Jones and her child while awaiting either consent or a warrant to search Ivy's house. The police handcuffed Jones, by her legs, to the kitchen table. At points during the hour and a half while police attempted to induce either Jones or Ivy to sign a consent, the police took Jones' child from her. Jones was finally allowed to keep her child after Ivy signed the consent form. Courts have found that antagonistic actions by the police against a suspect's family taint the voluntariness of any subsequent consent. See, e.g., United States v. Hurston, 12 F.Supp.2d 630, 637 (E.D.Mich.1998) (suspect's consent to search home was not given voluntarily, in light of hectic police entry, in which police rounded up suspect's children and fiancee); United States v. Eggers, 21 F.Supp.2d 261, 270-71 (S.D.N.Y.1998) (police statement that suspect's children would be locked out of house until search was executed constituted duress and coercion, annulling resultant consent). This Court now finds that such hostile police action against a suspect's family is a factor which significantly undermines the voluntariness of any subsequent consent given by the suspect. 38 After an hour and a half of this situation--of police threats to arrest Jones and take the child, of Jones being shackled to a table, of the child being taken from his mother's arms, of repeated police solicitations for consent--Ivy finally acquiesced and signed the consent to search form. Perhaps this was a form of coerced chivalry on Ivy's behalf. Perhaps his will was overcome by the time, the threats, the police handling his child, and the sight of his girlfriend chained to a table. One thing is certain: Ivy's consent was not voluntarily imparted; his will was indeed overcome. Given the totality of the circumstances, it is plain that the government did not meet its burden of proving by clear and positive testimony that Ivy gave his consent freely and voluntarily, untainted by any duress or coercion. This Court is left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed. United States v. U.S. Gypsum, 333 U.S. 364, 395, 68 S.Ct. 525, 92 L.Ed. 746 (1948). We therefore find that the district court committed clear error when it held that Ivy's consent was voluntarily given and allowed into evidence the fruits of this unlawful search. 39 Although there is always a temptation in cases of this nature ... to let the end justify the means, United States v. Mesa, 62 F.3d 159, 163 (6th Cir.1995), we must suppress the evidence collected from this unlawful search for several critical reasons. First, this Court must remain vigilant in its role as a guardian of the Constitution and its protections. We are bound to defend the liberties of even the most despised members of society, for it is in their cases that our freedoms are most at risk. Justice Jackson summed it up well: 40 Fourth Amendment freedoms ... are not mere second-class rights but belong in the catalog of indispensable freedoms. Among deprivations of rights, none is so effective in cowing a population, crushing the spirit of the individual and putting terror in every heart. Uncontrolled search and seizure is one of the first and most effective weapons in the arsenal of every arbitrary government ... Only occasional and more flagrant abuses come to the attention of the courts, and then only those where the search and seizure yields incriminating evidence and the defendant is at least sufficiently compromised to be indicted. If the officers raid a home, an office, or stop and search an automobile but find nothing incriminating, this invasion of the personal liberty of the innocent too often finds no practical redress. There may be, and I am convinced that there are, many unlawful searches of homes and automobiles of innocent people which turn up nothing incriminating, in which no arrest is made, about which courts do nothing, and about which we never hear. Courts can protect the innocent against such invasions only indirectly and through the medium of excluding evidence obtained against those who frequently are guilty. 41 Brinegar v. United States, 338 U.S. 160, 180-81, 69 S.Ct. 1302, 93 L.Ed. 1879 (1949) (Jackson, J., dissenting). The guarantees of the Fourth Amendment do not expire merely because an individual is suspected of a crime; indeed, it is in such a situation that the protections against illegal police search and seizure become most meaningful. The occasional benefits that compliance with the Fourth Amendment confers upon the guilty must be recognized as a necessary consequence of guaranteeing constitutional protections for all members of our community. 42 Second, the exclusion of the evidence obtained in the present unlawful search will serve to deter future violations of the Fourth Amendment. Thus, we will compel respect for the constitutional guaranty in the only effectively available way--by removing the incentive to disregard it. Elkins v. United States, 364 U.S. 206, 217, 80 S.Ct. 1437, 4 L.Ed.2d 1669 (1960). 43 For the foregoing reasons, the District Court's decision not to suppress the evidence obtained in this unlawful search is REVERSED.VI. CONCLUSION 44 The District Court's conclusion that Ivy consented to the officers' entrance into his house is AFFIRMED; while the District Court's conclusion that Ivy's consent for the police to search his house was voluntarily imparted is REVERSED. This case is REMANDED to the district court for proceedings consistent with this ruling.