Opinion ID: 1866213
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: contact at the airport

Text: On the morning of March 29, 1989, in the Kansas City International Airport, Agent Carl Hicks of the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency was routinely observing arrival of flights from Los Angeles, California, and noticed a man and a woman, later identified as Tracy Wood and Staten, whom he described as suspicious inasmuch as the couple fit the drug courier profile. When Hicks approached the pair and asked them for identification, Wood and Staten said they had none. However, Staten later produced some identification and also displayed their plane tickets. Hicks noted that Wood and Staten had paid cash for their plane tickets and that they were flying to Omaha on Braniff Airline flight 1490, which was scheduled to arrive in Omaha at 8:30 that morning. Since no drug detection dog was available at Kansas City and because the couple's luggage was already on board the Omaha flight scheduled for departure in the next few minutes, Hicks terminated the interview with Wood and Staten, who boarded Braniff flight 1490 to Omaha. Hicks telephoned Sgt. James Cisar of the Omaha Police Division and related Hicks' observations at the Kansas City International Airport. Cisar immediately called Sgt. William Agnew of the Omaha Police Division's narcotics unit. Agnew assembled a team of FBI agents and Omaha police officers, who went to Omaha's Eppley Airfield to meet Braniff flight 1490. Agnew also contacted Steve Sanchelli, an Omaha police officer who handles Bush, a dog used for drug detection by the Omaha Police Division, and asked Sanchelli to bring Bush to the airport. On arrival at the airport, the officers and the FBI agents went to gate 21, where flight 1490 was to arrive, and set up surveillance. When flight 1490 arrived at 8:30 a.m., the officers observed Wood and Staten disembark from the plane and walk to the baggage claim area. Staten made a phone call, after which she and Wood retrieved three pieces of luggage and began to walk toward the airport's main terminal area. Agnew approached Wood and Staten, identified himself as a police officer conducting a narcotics investigation, and asked them to produce their plane tickets. Staten said she had discarded her ticket on the plane. When Agnew asked for some identification, Staten showed Agnew a copy of a birth certificate and her Social Security card. Agnew told Wood and Staten that a drug detection dog was en route to the airport and asked whether they would consent to having the dog sniff their luggage for the possible presence of controlled substances. Staten agreed to let the dog sniff her luggage, which included a brown two suiter suitcase bearing a Braniff identification tag: Shawn Staten, 15546 Friar Street, Van Nuys, California. Wood and Staten accompanied the officers to the airport security area, where Agnew asked Staten about the reason for her presence in Omaha. Staten responded that she was visiting her brother, Harry Harris. Agnew knew that Harry Harris, an alias for Dan Staten, was in custody. Harris was a member of a Los Angeles gang and was involved in narcotics activity in Omaha. Also, Agnew had personally arrested Staten's sister, Mowesha Staten, in an Omaha motel for possession of a controlled substance. Approximately 15 minutes after Staten had arrived in Omaha, Officer Sanchelli arrived at the airport with Bush, the drug detection dog. Bush had been specially trained in locating cocaine, heroin, and other controlled substances and was used to alert officers to the presence of a controlled substance within luggage. The alert consists of Bush's sniffing luggage and then biting or scratching luggage which contains a controlled substance. Before Staten encountered the officers at the Eppley Airport, Bush had positively verified controlled substances in 50 controlled alerts and had located a controlled substance in luggage on 18 separate occasions. Staten's luggage was placed in the airport hallway for Bush's off-leash sniffing. As the dog was sniffing Staten's luggage, Bush alerted violently by biting and scratching at Staten's two suiter suitcase, an indication that the luggage contained a controlled substance such as cocaine. After Bush alerted on Staten's suitcase, Agnew requested permission to search Staten's person and luggage. Staten told Agnew that he could search her luggage but not search her. When Agnew said that a female officer would conduct the search in the privacy of a room, Staten still refused to permit a search of her person. According to Agnew: At that point I informed [Staten] that she was under arrest for suspicion of possession of a controlled substance and she would be taken to central police headquarters and we were going to apply for a search warrant for her luggage and her person. No one questions that Staten was arrested for possession of a controlled substance at the airport. The officers then transported Staten to police headquarters. At police headquarters, Staten was taken to an interview room where, shortly after 10 a.m., Officer James Haiar presented her with a Miranda rights advisory form. Although Staten refused to make a statement, a few minutes later she indicated to officers that she would be willing to make a statement. Meanwhile, Agnew had prepared an application for a search warrant. In his affidavit for the search warrant, Agnew recounted the details preceding and during his encounter with Staten at the airport. Based on Agnew's affidavit, the county court for Douglas County issued a search warrant at 1:25 p.m. Shortly thereafter, in the presence of a female police officer, the warrant, which authorized a search of Staten's person and her luggage, was served on Staten. After Staten read the warrant, which she understood, she removed a plastic bag, containing 6 ounces of cocaine, from her bra. The police presented a second advisory form regarding the Miranda admonition. Staten indicated that she understood her rights, and then discussed her possession of the substance found in her possession. Staten told the police that she was transporting the substance, crack cocaine, from Los Angeles to Omaha for distribution and sale. A later laboratory test confirmed that the substance in Staten's possession was cocaine.