Opinion ID: 372990
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The 4th Amendment issue.

Text: 10 The district court denied appellants' motion to suppress on the ground they had neither possessory interest in the premises, as required by Jones v. U. S., 362 U.S. 257, 264, 80 S.Ct. 725, 4 L.Ed.2d 697, 704 (1960), nor any privacy interest in the premises, as required by Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128, 143, 99 S.Ct. 421, 430, 58 L.Ed.2d 387, 401 (1978). Appellants point out that the Supreme Court in Rakas pretermitted decision of whether the automatic standing rule of Jones survived Simmons v. U. S., 390 U.S. 377, 394, 88 S.Ct. 967, 19 L.Ed.2d 1247 (1968). Rakas, 439 U.S. at 135 n.4, 99 S.Ct. at 426 n.4, 58 L.Ed.2d at 396 n.4. They assert that Jones still has vitality and that they have the same standing to challenge the validity of the search that Morgan, the owner of the dock, would have had. We do not need to decide how much, if any, of Jones survives Simmons and the rationale of Rakas. Assuming that the appellants could assert the same Fourth Amendment rights as owner Morgan, these rights were not violated. 11 Appellant's theory is that because Morgan's Dock was private property and the officers were trespassers, nothing they observed gave probable cause either to arrest or to search. While there was a no trespassing sign on the entrance road leading to the premises, an officer who had resided in the area for 23 years testified that the reputation in the community was to the effect that the public was welcome to use the dock area and that the public did use it. The district court found that despite the sign the public had long had free access to the dock, and that conclusion is not plainly erroneous. Other than the presence of the sign, there was no evidence that the dock was private to owner Morgan and those specifically authorized to use it. This was not a dock for private use for either fishing, or embarkation and debarkation of boats, or docking and storage. It was a place not only where boats docked and were unloaded but also a place of business activity where necessarily persons and vehicles had to come and go. The parking lot was in the open. Sorting of seafood landed at the dock was carried on both in the open and in a shed. The officers were not trespassers. They invaded the expected privacy of no one when they drove into the parking lot at the dock. This occurred at 11 p. m. on a bitter winter night. The car of the owner had been seen minutes before, leaving the area at high speed. The dock had recently been the scene of massive off-loading of marijuana. The officers had received an anonymous tip that marijuana was to be unloaded that night a mile away at another dock. These circumstances are taken together with what the officers saw immediately as they drove into the parking area. They saw at once, in the light of their headlights, in the otherwise unlighted dock area, backed up to the dock, a ten wheel truck similar to the truck seen earlier at the motel at the same time as a pickup truck belonging to a suspected marijuana smuggler, and they saw several persons present but observed no handling of seafood taking place. All of these circumstances gave the officers, at a minimum, reasonable suspicion that criminal activity was afoot. 2 12 They set about immediately to investigate. But even before they spoke the covey flushed. The two men at the front of the truck fled. The officers moved around the truck and then saw marijuana in open view and picked up the overwhelming scent of marijuana pervading the area. None of this investigatory activity invaded anyone's expectation of privacy, including that of owner Morgan. 13 The argument is made that a customs officer cannot search unless there is at least a high degree of probability that a border crossing has occurred, and that no such probability existed here. Thus, it is contended, CPO Ostrowski's participation made the seizure invalid. If the argument ever has merit it has none here where Ostrowski participated in an investigatory stop and in doing so observed numerous large bales of marijuana in plain view. 14