Opinion ID: 161070
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Lawfulness Of Detention

Text: 9 When reviewing an order granting or denying a motion to suppress, we accept the district court's factual findings unless they are clearly erroneous, and we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the district court's determination. See United States v. Doyle, 129 F.3d 1372, 1375 (10th Cir. 1997). We are mindful that at a hearing on a motion to suppress, the credibility of the witnesses and the weight given to the evidence, as well as the inferences and conclusions drawn therefrom, are matters for the trial judge. United States v. Fernandez, 18 F.3d 874, 876 (10th Cir. 1994). However, the ultimate determination of reasonableness under the Fourth Amendment is a question of law which we review de novo. United States v. Hunnicutt, 135 F.3d 1345, 1348 (10th Cir. 1998). 10 A routine traffic stop is analogous to an investigative detention and is analyzed under the principles stated in Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968). See United States v. Botero-Ospina, 71 F.3d 783, 786 (10th Cir. 1995) (en banc). To determine the reasonableness of an investigative detention, we make a dual inquiry. First, we ask 'whether the officer's action was justified at its inception,' and second, 'whether it was reasonably related in scope to the circumstances which justified the interference in the first place.' Hunnicutt, 135 F.3d at 1348 (quoting Terry, 392 U.S. at 20). Mr. Caro has not challenged Trooper Avery's initial stop of the Honda for a window tint violation. We therefore proceed to Mr. Caro's contention that Trooper Avery exceeded the lawful scope of the detention. 11 As this court has often stated, an officer conducting a routine traffic stop may request a driver's license and vehicle registration, run a computer check, and issue a citation. See Hunnicutt, 135 F.3d at 1349. Normally, once the officer has completed these acts, and the driver has produced a valid license and proof that he is entitled to operate the car, [the driver] must be allowed to proceed on his way, without being subject to further delay by police for additional questioning. United States v. Gonzalez-Lerma, 14 F.3d 1479, 1483 (10th Cir. 1994); see also United States v. Mendez, 118 F.3d 1426, 1429 (10th Cir. 1997); United States v. Elliott, 107 F.3d 810, 813 (10th Cir. 1997). However, further questioning is permissible under two circumstances. First, if the officer has an objectively reasonable and articulable suspicion that illegal activity has occurred or is occurring, the officer may detain the driver for questioning unrelated to the purpose of the initial traffic stop. Second, if the traffic stop has become a consensual encounter, the officer may continue to question the driver. Hunnicutt, 135 F.3d at 1349; United States v. Anderson, 114 F.3d 1059, 1064 (10th Cir. 1997). 12 Here, Mr. Caro objects to his continued detention following Trooper Avery's admitted inspection of the VIN plate located on the dashboard of the Honda. He contends that once Trooper Avery had compared the dashboard VIN to the VIN on the car's registration, and had determined that they matched, Trooper Avery's suspicions should have been sufficiently dispelled such that further detention on the basis that the vehicle [might] be stolen was no longer valid. Aplt's Br. at 15. Mr. Caro argues that there was no basis for Trooper Avery to expect that a VIN located inside the car would give him any additional cause to think the car was stolen. He therefore asks us to suppress as unlawful all evidence obtained after Trooper Avery examined the dashboard VIN. In Mr. Caro's view, but for Trooper Avery's attempted inspection of a VIN inside the vehicle, the trooper would not have noticed any air fresheners. As a result, there would have been no reasonable suspicion of the presence of controlled substances, and Trooper Avery would have allowed Mr. Caro to proceed on his way. Id. at 14-16. 13 In contrast, the government presents three reasons why Trooper Avery's continued detention of Mr. Caro, including his request to look for a VIN on the side panel of the car door, was permissible. First, the government argues that the combination of suspicious factors (the discrepancy in the car's color, Mr. Caro's nervousness, and his inability to give the last name of the car's registrant) was a sufficient basis for reasonable suspicion, and hence continued detention, under cases such as United States v. Soto, 988 F.2d 1548 (10th Cir. 1993), and United States v. Arango, 912 F.2d 441 (10th Cir. 1990). Second, the government contends that under New York v. Class, 475 U.S. 106 (1986), Mr. Caro had no reasonable expectation of privacy in a VIN located either on the dashboard or on the door. Third, the government cites case law as well as the testimony of Trooper Avery for the proposition that the VIN plates on vehicles can be changed, and that it would take little effort to replace the VIN plate on the dashboard . . . while not taking similar care to remove, replace, or obliterate the VIN . . . at other less prominent places on the vehicle. Aple's Br. at 12-14. 14 After reviewing these arguments, we agree that the suspicious circumstances noted by the government may have justified further questioning of Mr. Caro. See Soto, 988 F.2d at 1556 (concluding that a driver's nervousness and complete failure to respond to a question about the alleged owner of the car provided grounds for reasonable suspicion and further questioning). However, it is uncontroverted that Trooper Avery specifically intended, in his initial examination of the car's interior, to locate an additional VIN. Other than that additional VIN, the government has failed to identify or suggest any information relating to the possible theft of the car that Trooper Avery could have discovered inside the passenger compartment. We must therefore address the question of whether Trooper Avery's request to search for a VIN on the inside of the car was reasonable. 15 With respect to the VIN, we think that the government's arguments on appeal fail to properly heed the holding of the Supreme Court in New York v. Class. According to the government, Class merely holds that neither of the locations in a car in which a VIN plate is customarily locatedthe dashboard and the doorjambis subject to a reasonable expectation of privacy. Class, 475 U.S. at 118-19. However, this particular rule is strongly qualified if read in the context of the opinion as a whole. First, the Supreme Court's reference to two possible locations for the VIN clearly refers to the fact that the VIN is located on the left doorjamb in automobiles manufactured before 1969. Id. at 108. In contrast, in cars manufactured after 1969, the VIN is required to be located within the passenger compartment, and readable, without moving any part of the vehicle, through the vehicle glazing under daylight lighting conditionsin other words, on the dashboard. Id. at 111-12 (quoting 49 C.F.R. 571.115 (1984)); see also 49 C.F.R. 565.4(f) (2000) (mandating dashboard location for the VIN in passenger cars). 16 Moreover, the government does not even mention, much less address, that part of the Class opinion which states that our holding today does not authorize police officers to enter a vehicle to obtain a dashboard-mounted VIN when the VIN is visible from outside the automobile. If the VIN is in the plain view of someone outside the vehicle, there is no justification for governmental intrusion into the passenger compartment to see it. Class, 475 U.S. at 119. This court recently cited Class for this very proposition in United States v. Miller, 84 F.3d 1244 (10th Cir. 1996), overruled on other grounds by United States v. Holland, 116 F.3d 1353 (10th Cir. 1997). In Miller, we stated that [i]f the VIN is visible from outside the vehicle, the officer cannot enter the vehicle to read it, and that [i]f the VIN is not visible and the driver is inside, the officer must ask the driver to remove any obstruction and allow him to see the VIN. Id. at 1251 (citing Class, 475 U.S. at 115, 119). Class and Miller thus distinctly limit the permissible scope of police intrusions aimed at checking a vehicle's VIN. 17 Still, the government argues that the presence of an unobscured and apparently accurate VIN on Mr. Caro's dashboard should not have barred Trooper Avery from checking other locations for an additional VIN, because here, unlike Class, there were facts that suggested Mr. Caro's car might have been stolen. The government asserts that it is common to replace VIN plates on stolen vehicles, and (as noted above) speculates that: 18 it would take little effort to replace the VIN plate on the dashboard, the most obvious place at which the VIN is displayed, while not taking similar care to remove, replace, or obliterate the VIN on the side door panel, under the hood, or at other less prominent places on the vehicle. 19 Aple's Br. at 14. In support of this assertion, the government cites a single case from the Seventh Circuit, United States v. Evans, 27 F.3d 1219 (7th Cir. 1994), and testimony by Trooper Avery from the suppression hearing. Aple's Br. at 14. 20 But the fact that dashboard VIN plates can be altered tells us nothing. Door VIN plates can be altered. All VIN plates can be altered. Simply put, the government has given us no reason to distinguish Miller, in which this court applied Class where there was a reasonable suspicion that the vehicle in question was stolen. Indeed, in Miller, unlike the present case, the suspect's car actually had been stolen. See Miller, 84 F.3d at 1248-49. The government's mere conjectures as to the likelihood of any particular VIN having been modified are therefore insufficient to overcome Class and Miller's specific bar to the course of conduct pursued here by Trooper Avery. 21 The government's reading of Class would transform the valid dashboard VIN, which would at least suggest that Mr. Caro's car was not stolen, into a legal reason to penetrate further into the vehicle. We decline to extend Class in this manner. Instead, consonant with both Class and Miller, we affirm that where the dashboard VIN plate is readable from outside the passenger compartment, that VIN matches the VIN listed on the registration, and there are no signs the plate has been tampered with, there is insufficient cause for an officer to extend the scope of a detention by entering a vehicle's passenger compartment for the purpose of further examining any VIN. 3 22 We emphasize that we do not hold that Trooper Avery lacked reasonable suspicion that Mr. Caro's car might have been stolen, or that the valid dashboard VIN dispelled that suspicion. Trooper Avery's determination that the actual color of Mr. Caro's car was different from its registered color, in addition to Mr. Caro's inability to recall Mr. Jimenez's last name, would indeed suggest that Trooper Avery should have taken all appropriate steps to ascertain the legal status of the car. This included the verification of an initial VIN, which (under Class) Trooper Avery could have done regardless of any other suspicions. As Judge Lucero reminds us in his concurring opinion, it is possible that under United States v. Soto, even after examining the dashboard VIN and determining that it matched the registration, Trooper Avery could have continued to detain and question Mr. Caro based on his reasonable suspicion of a stolen vehicle. See Soto, 988 F.2d at 1556. 23 But without further justification than present here, the specific search for an additional VIN inside the car was barred by Class and Miller. We therefore hold that Trooper Avery's actions exceeded the permissible scope of the detention and violated Mr. Caro's Fourth Amendment rights.