Opinion ID: 182275
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: BACKGROUND Drugs and Ammunition

Text: In 2003, federal, state, and local authorities began conducting a coordinated investigation of the drug trade around the Warren Gardens housing complex in the Roxbury section of Boston. [1] Franklin's reputation as a mid-level supplier of crack cocaine to street dealers led law enforcement to peg him as a primary target. Looking to nab the cautious Franklin on concrete charges, law enforcement set up two controlled buys of crack cocaine. The first controlled buy occurred on July 10, 2003. On Copeland Street in Roxbury, an undercover Boston police officer approached a street dealer from whom he had previously purchased crack cocaine. Queried about the availability of crack cocaine, the dealer shook hands with the officer, told him to sit on a nearby set of stairs, and then walked over to a dark-colored minivan. The dealer spoke with two individuals in the van, one of whom was later identified as Franklin. Apparently fearful of surveillancerightly so, given that the Copeland Street interactions were being recorded on video Franklin told the dealer to move to a more discreet location before consummating the deal. The officer and the dealer crossed Warren Street and ended up on Rockland Street in the Warren Gardens complex, where (a detective would later testify) it is nearly impossible to conduct surveillance. The van arrived at Rockland Street moments later. The dealer approached the van, and Franklin passed a plastic bag to the van's other occupant, who then handed the bag to the dealer through the van's open window. The dealer removed a rock-like material from the bag, cut off a chunk, and handed it to the officer. In return, the officer gave $150 to the dealer, who then got into the van's back seat. As the van pulled away, the officer saw the dealer pass the money to Franklin. The chunk of rock-like material was later determined to contain a net weight of 1.3 grams of crack cocaine. The second controlled buy took place on March 12, 2004. This time, law enforcement employed a confidential informant (CI) to arrange a more substantial purchase from Franklinthe goal was an ounce, or roughly 28 grams of crack cocaine. With an officer present, the CI twice tried to reach Franklin by phone before he called her back. The CI and Franklin arranged a deal to take place at the Presidential Acres apartment complex in Randolph, Massachusetts, where Franklin's mother lived. Specifically, the CI asked for a full onereferring to an ouncewhich Franklin said he'd sell her for a Greferring to $1000. Officers searched the CI and her vehicle and found no drugs or money; they then provided her with $1000 in government money and placed a radio transmitter in her vehicle, on the driver's side visor. The CI traveled to the appointed location in Randolph and parked by the pool. Officers were posted at various places around the apartment complex, monitoring audio from the CI's vehicle and recording video of Franklin. The officers' surveillance revealed that Franklin exited his mother's apartment, got into a brown vehicle, and drove to meet the CI by the pool. Franklin got out of his vehicle and into the CI's. The two of them conversed for a couple of minutes, and then Franklin got back into his vehicle and left. The CI also drove away, followed by a DEA agent. About a mile away from the apartment complex, the CI and the agent pulled over, and the CI handed over to the agent bags containing a rock-like substance. The rock-like substance was later determined to contain a net weight of 26.5 grams of crack cocaine. On April 14, 2004, the government was ready to move in on Franklin: a grand jury returned an indictment charging him with three counts of cocaine possession with intent to distribute, and the court issued a warrant for his arrest. That very night, Detective Robert Fratalia set up a post at 159 Pine Grove Drive in Brockton, Massachusetts, where Franklin was living with then-girlfriend Fania Hemingway and her two children. Fratalia surveilled both the apartment complex's courtyard and a blue Ford Taurus sedan that was registered to Franklin's mother and that he had previously seen Franklin drive. Detective (and deputized federal agent) George MacLaughlin [2] and Agent Michael Cashman were also posted separately nearby. At around 11:30 p.m., an individual fitting Franklin's descriptiona black man, around 30 years old, six feet tall or so, and probably 270 or 280 poundsemerged from the courtyard and got into the front seat of a white sedan, which then drove away. The car returned about half an hour later, and the individual headed into the courtyard and out of Fratalia's sight. About an hour after that, the same individual emerged again, this time carrying a shopping bag, which he placed in the trunk of the blue Ford Taurus sedan. He got into the Taurus's driver seat, started the car, and began to pull away but stopped almost immediately; then he waited a couple of minutes, got out of the car, locked it, and returned to the courtyard. By around 5:30 a.m. on April 15, 2004, a SWAT team had arrived to arrest Franklin, who (law enforcement had reasonably concluded) was the individual Fratalia had observed. The team surrounded the apartment complex. Officer Brian Cahoon, a member of the SWAT team, used a cell phone to call into Franklin's apartment. Hemingway answered the phone and then passed it to Franklin. Cahoon told Franklin that the apartment was surrounded, so Franklin prepared to surrender: he got dressed, gathered his phone, his keys, and some loose cash, and then came out carrying a plastic bag full of ammunition. He was directed to leave his belongings on the ground and to crawl on all fours toward nearby officers; he was then placed in plastic cuffs and taken into custody. Franklin was brought to MacLaughlin and Cashman, who introduced themselves and advised him of his Miranda rights. Franklin said he understood. By all accounts, the agents told Franklin that he had been observed placing a plastic bag in the trunk of the blue Ford Taurus. Here, however, the record diverges a bit. According to Cashman, the agents asked Franklin if he would consent to a search of the car. Franklin skirted the issue by responding that the car was his mother's. Cashman then asked him what was in the plastic bag; Franklin said it was a little weed. Cashman followed up by asking why he had placed a little weed in the car; Franklin said he had heard that his people were getting arrested, and he wanted to protect his girlfriend by removing any contraband from the apartment. Having secured this information, Cashman repeated his initial request that Franklin consent to a search of the car. Franklin replied, Yeah, do what you got to do. Cashman testified specifically that the agents did not tell Franklin that they would get a warrant to search the car if he did not consent. According to MacLaughlin, the conversation went more or less as Cashman testified. Under MacLaughlin's version of events, however, Franklin only explained why he had placed the marijuana in the trunk of the Taurusto protect his girlfriendafter telling the agents to do what you got to do. According to Franklin, however, the agents first asked him what he had been doing in the car at night. Franklin told them that he was just going out to my car to smoke some weed. They asked what was in the bag that he had placed in the trunk. He replied, some sneakers. Then the agents asked whether they could search the car, to which Franklin replied, no. After conferring with one another, the agents asked Franklin whether the car was his mother's. He replied that the car was his but was registered to his mother. Stymied, MacLaughlin said, Well, you know we could tow the car until we get a search warrant. Only at this point did Franklin offer the response that the officers took as consent: Well, do what you got to do then. On the basis of Franklin's apparent consent, MacLaughlin retrieved the keys to the Taurus from Hemingway. The agents searched the car, finding a bag in the trunk. The bag contained a shoe box, the shoe box contained a smaller bag, and that bag contained 66 grams of crack cocaine and 91 grams of marijuana.