Opinion ID: 2011074
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Graves' Appeal.

Text: The legal issues presented by Graves' appeal are different from those that apply to Mayes. By the time Graves was searched and a pistol was recovered from his person, [14] Sergeant Ferguson had found a pistol on Mayes. Under these circumstances, the officers had the right to order the remaining occupants out of the car and, at least, to frisk them. See, e.g., Lewis v. United States, 399 A.2d 559 (D.C.1979). As we explained in Lewis, Terry recognizes and common sense dictates that the legality of such a limited intrusion into a citizen's personal privacy extends to a criminal's companions at the time of arrest. It is inconceivable that a peace officer effecting a lawful arrest ... must expose himself to a shot in the back from defendant's associate because he cannot, on the spot, make the nice distinction between whether the other is a companion in crime or a social acquaintance. Id. at 561-62 (quoting United States v. Berryhill, 445 F.2d 1189, 1193 (9th Cir.1971); see also Jones v. United States, 544 A.2d 1250, 1251 (D.C.1988). Graves contends, howeverand this is his sole contention [15] that the seizure of Mayes was unlawful, and that [t]he search and subsequent arrest of Appellant Graves pursuant to that arrest was therefore equally tainted; the pistol found as a result of that search should have been suppressed as evidence. Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 83 S.Ct. 407, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963). Basically, Graves asks us to hold that because the police violated Mayes' rights, and because that violation provided them with the basis for seizing Graves, the illegality of the seizure of Mayes requires the exclusion of the tainted evidence against Graves. The Supreme Court has repeatedly held, however, that a court may not exclude evidence under the Fourth Amendment unless it finds that an unlawful search or seizure violated the defendant's own constitutional rights. United States v. Payner, 447 U.S. 727, 731, 100 S.Ct. 2439, 2444, 65 L.Ed.2d 468 (1980) (citations omitted). [T]he defendant's Fourth Amendment rights are violated only when the challenged conduct invaded his legitimate expectation of privacy rather than that of a third party. Id. (emphasis in original). [16] In Payner, law enforcement officers intentionally conducted a flagrantly illegal seizure and search of a briefcase belonging to Wolstencroft. They obtained evidence which incriminated Payner. Justice Powell, writing for the Court, was not favorably impressed by what he called the unconstitutional and possibly criminal behavior of those who planned and executed this briefcase caper. Id. at 733, 100 S.Ct. at 2445. Nevertheless, the Court held that the United States Court of Appeals was without authority to order the exclusion of the evidence seized from Wolstencroft, either under the Fourth Amendment or pursuant to the appellate court's supervisory power, for that seizure violated Wolstencroft's privacy, not Payner's. Similarly, because the seizure and frisk of Mayes did not implicate Graves' own expectation of privacy, Graves is precluded, under Payner, from challenging it. Accordingly, we must affirm Graves' conviction. [17]