Opinion ID: 3039355
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Propriety of the Investigatory Questioning

Text: [1] The limits of the Fourth Amendment “apply to investigative stops of vehicles such as occurred here.” United States v. Sharpe, 470 U.S. 675, 682 (1985). The scope of an investigative detention “must be carefully tailored to its underlying justification.” Florida v. Royer, 460 U.S. 491, 500 (1983). During a traffic stop, a police officer may only “ask questions that are reasonably related in scope to the justification for his initiation of contact.” United States v. Murillo, 255 F.3d 1169, 1174 (9th Cir. 2001); see also United States v. ChavezValenzuela, 268 F.3d 719, 724 (9th Cir. 2001) (“An officer must initially restrict the questions he asks during a stop to those that are reasonably related to the justification for the stop.”). An officer may expand the scope of questioning beyond the initial purpose of the stop only if he “articulate[s] suspicious factors that are particularized and objective.” Murillo, 255 F.3d at 1174; see also Chavez-Valenzuela, 268 F.3d at 724 (stating that an officer may expand scope of questioning “only if he notices particularized, objective factors arousing his suspicion” (emphasis added)); United States v. Perez, 37 F.3d 510, 513 (9th Cir. 1994) (same). As the Eleventh Circuit held in another traffic stop case, United States v. Pruitt, 174 F.3d 1215 (11th Cir. 1999), it is not necessary that questions be designed to pursue a specific investigatory objective in order for them to violate the Fourth Amendment. There, the court concluded that “additional ‘fishing expedition’ questions such as ‘What do you do for a living?’ and ‘How much money did your van cost?’ are simply irrelevant, and constitute a violation of Terry.” Id. at 1221. We cited Pruitt with approval in Chavez-Valenzuela. See Chavez-Valenzuela, 268 F.3d at 724 n.4. UNITED STATES v. MENDEZ 18029 [2] In the case before us, the record demonstrates that the officers asked Mendez a number of questions that were unrelated to the purpose of the stop, including questions involving his gang affiliation and the reason for an out-of-state prison sentence a number of years earlier. Det. Jaensson began his questioning by asking Mendez where he was from. Although we doubt that this question was related to the purpose of the stop, we will assume its propriety for purposes of this appeal. Taken literally, the question would probably be permissible, as it would appear to relate to the locality at which the driver’s license or the vehicle registration would have been issued. To that extent, it would be related to the traffic stop.10 We assume the lawfulness of the question although in context it is best understood as an inquiry in colloquial terms about Mendez’s gang membership — the information it actually elicited — rather than, as might otherwise be thought, a question about the location of his domicile. Indeed, during the suppression hearing, defense counsel asked Det. Jaensson whether “the questions about where he was from ha[d] anything to do with the traffic stop,” to which Det. Jaensson responded, “No.” Subsequently, in response to Det. Jaensson’s continuing interrogation, Mendez told the officers that he had been in prison. Det. Bracke then questioned him about the reason for his prior incarceration. When Mendez answered that he had been convicted of a weapons offense, more than eight years earlier, Det. Bracke asked him whether there were any weapons in the car. It is the eliciting of this information that led Det. Bracke to ask that final question that is at the center of this appeal. 10 Cf. Berkemer v. McCarty, 468 U.S. 420, 439 (1984) (stating that an “officer may ask the detainee a moderate number of questions to determine his identity and to try to obtain information confirming or dispelling the officer’s suspicions”); Chavez-Valenzuela, 268 F.3d at 724 n.4 (observing that officer’s “inquiries about Chavez-Valenzuela’s starting point, destination and general travel plans were probably justifiable”). 18030 UNITED STATES v. MENDEZ [3] The government concedes that, in order to question Mendez about matters unrelated to the initial purpose of the stop, the detectives’ questioning had to be justified by additional particularized and objective factors arousing their suspicion. See, e.g., Perez, 37 F.3d at 513. Therefore, Det. Jaensson’s further questioning of Mendez about matters related to his gang affiliation or criminal history would constitute a Fourth Amendment violation unless the officer had lawfully “notice[d] particularized, objective factors arousing his suspicion.” Chavez-Venezuela, 268 F.3d at 724. Likewise, Det. Bracke’s question about the reason for Mendez’s prior conviction would have to have been based on “particularized, objective factors” not themselves discovered through illegal questioning — factors that are sufficient in themselves to generate reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. Id. at 726. 1. Det. Jaensson’s interrogation regarding Mendez’s gang activities [4] We begin our analysis of Det. Jaensson’s questioning, then, by determining what information he could properly consider in forming a reasonable suspicion. We assume, as explained earlier, that the officers were made aware lawfully of Mendez’s past or present gang membership. Thus, in order to assess the constitutionality of Det. Jaensson’s continuing interrogation, we first consider whether gang membership, standing alone, justifies a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity.11 We conclude that it does not, for two reasons. 11 We note that, in addition to Mendez’s gang membership, the officers were aware of two other facts: (1) when asked for “his identification or license,” Mendez presented a California identification card and not a driver’s license, and (2) the car he was driving had an expired temporary registration tag. Neither of those facts is, however, relevant to our totality of the circumstances analysis with respect to the additional questioning. The production of the identification card constituted an appropriate response to the officers’ specific request. Although the fact that the registration had expired may be pertinent to a registration offense, a recently expired registration does not give rise to reasonable suspicion of involvement in crimiUNITED STATES v. MENDEZ 18031 [5] First, the Supreme Court has made it clear that reasonable suspicion must be based upon “a particularized and objective basis for suspecting the particular person stopped of criminal activity.” United States v. Cortez, 449 U.S. 411, 41718 (1981) (emphasis added); see also United States v. Montero-Camargo, 208 F.3d 1122, 1129 (9th Cir. 2000) (en banc) (stating that “[t]he requirement of particularized suspicion encompasses . . . suspicion that the particular person being stopped has committed or is about to commit a crime”); United States v. Rodriguez-Sanchez, 23 F.3d 1488, 1492 (9th Cir. 1994) (“Reasonable suspicion requires that the specific facts and inferences create suspicion that the particular person detained is engaged in criminal activity.” (emphasis added) (internal quotation marks omitted)), overruled in part on other grounds by Montero-Camargo, 208 F.3d at 1134 n.22. Reasonable suspicion may not be “based on broad profiles which cast suspicion on entire categories of people without any individualized suspicion of the particular person to be stopped.” Id. at 1492; see also United States v. Rodriguez, 976 F.2d 592, 596 (9th Cir. 1992) (holding that factors relied upon by border patrol agents to justify vehicle stop “describe too many individuals to create a reasonable suspicion that this particular defendant was engaged in criminal activity” (emphasis added)). [6] Mendez’s former or present gang affiliation may arouse in the mind of the average layperson, as well as of the trained police officer, a generalized or unspecific suspicion that he is nal activity, whether considered alone or in combination with gang affiliation. The only Ninth Circuit case the dissent relies on to the contrary involves a boat, not a car, where the driver was unable to name the owner of the boat and had no registration at all. United States v. Thompson, 282 F.3d 673, 678 (9th Cir. 2002). Nor does United States v. Fernandez, 18 F.3d 874 (10th Cir. 1994), hold that an expired registration creates reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. That case points to the fact that the driver had proof of a valid registration to support its conclusion that no reasonable suspicion existed. 18032 UNITED STATES v. MENDEZ associated with criminal types and perhaps has engaged in criminal activity himself. But the fact that an individual is or was a gang member does not by itself generate the sort of particularized and legally relevant suspicion that the Fourth Amendment requires. As one district court has observed, “One’s status as a gang member, . . . even a gang member with a known arrest or conviction record, does not, without more, create the reasonable and articulable suspicion necessary to justify an investigative detention. . . . Terry and its progeny require some degree of particularized suspicion beyond gang membership alone.” United States v. Daniel, 804 F. Supp. 1330, 1335 n.10 (D. Nev. 1992). Of course, Detectives Jaensson and Bracke were part of the gang enforcement unit,12 and officers may “draw on their own experience and specialized training to make inferences from and deductions about the cumulative information available to them that might well elude an untrained person.” United States v. Arvizu, 534 U.S. 266, 273 (2002) (internal quotation marks omitted). However, “[p]ermissible deductions or rational inferences must be grounded in objective facts and be capable of rational explanation.” United States v. Michael R., 90 F.3d 340, 346 (9th Cir. 1996). No matter how much “experience and specialized training” the detectives had in gangrelated matters, the mere fact of Mendez’s admission regarding gang affiliation does not permit “a rational inference” that he was involved in criminal activity at or about the time of the stop. [7] Second, an officer’s questioning “must be justified by some objective manifestation that the person stopped is, or is about to be, engaged in criminal activity.” Cortez, 449 U.S. 12 Det. Jaensson testified at the suppression hearing that during his eight years working for the Phoenix Police Department’s gang enforcement unit, he had “run across numerous individuals from various gangs and several of them from the Latin Kings,” and also “had training in identifying gang tattoos and gang members.” UNITED STATES v. MENDEZ 18033 at 417 (emphasis added); see also Brown v. Texas, 443 U.S. 47, 51 (1979) (officers must have “reasonable suspicion, based on objective facts, that the individual is involved in criminal activity”) (emphasis added). Although Mendez’s gang affiliation might arouse suspicion that he was involved in criminal activity at some point in the past and might lead a reasonable officer to suspect that he may become involved in such activity at some point in the future, it does not support a reasonable inference “that criminal activity may be afoot” at the time of the stop or that Mendez might commit any particular offense now or in the future. Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 30 (1968) (emphasis added). As we have observed in another context, Membership in an organization does not reasonably lead to any inference as to the conduct of a member on a given occasion. In other words, the tendency of members of a gang to carry weapons does not lead reasonably to any inference as to whether a gang member was armed on a given occasion. Spivey v. Rocha, 194 F.3d 971, 978 (9th Cir. 1999) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted) (emphasis added).13 Likewise, Mendez’s affiliation with the Latin Kings does not by itself “reasonably lead to any inference as to [his] conduct” 13 Spivey did not involve a Fourth Amendment claim; rather, it concerned whether the trial court properly excluded evidence that two prosecution witnesses were gang members. Id. at 977-78. We held that the exclusion was not error because the fact of gang membership “was not probative to the question of whether [the witnesses] were armed.” Id. at 978. The dissent, in criticizing our reliance on Spivey, appears to argue that the requirement that there be reasonable inferences to support a deprivation of liberty applies only at trial and has no place in the Terry stop analysis. Terry itself, however, explains that reasonableness is the “central inquiry” under the Fourth Amendment and requires that an officer act only on the basis of “specific reasonable inferences which he is entitled to draw.” Terry, 392 U.S. at 19, 27. 18034 UNITED STATES v. MENDEZ on the night of the stop. Id. As the district court in Daniel observed, An individual’s membership in a gang may cause a police officer to have an “inchoate and unparticularized suspicion” that the individual’s every waking moment is given to criminal behavior. Terry, 392 U.S. at 27, 88 S.Ct. at 1883. However, it would be a perversion of the Fourth Amendment to hold that such a suspicion justifies the interruption of that individual’s privacy and liberty during any and all of those waking moments. Daniel, 804 F. Supp. at 1335 n.10. [8] Indeed, the fact of Mendez’s gang affiliation generates no more than a generalized “hunch” that he may have committed crimes in the past or that he may be prone to criminal behavior in general, but such hunches fall short of the particularized suspicion that the Fourth Amendment requires. See Chavez-Valenzuela, 268 F.3d at 724 (“[A]n inchoate and unparticularized suspicion or hunch cannot withstand scrutiny under the Fourth Amendment.” (internal quotation marks omitted)). The fact that Mendez told the officers that he had come to Arizona “trying to get away from the gang life,” only further demonstrates the extent to which his statement as to his gang affiliation failed to provide any objective indicium of ongoing criminal activity on or about the night in question. We therefore hold that Mendez’s gang membership was not, standing alone, a particularized, objective factor that warranted expanding the scope of questioning beyond the initial purpose of the traffic stop. See id. at 726. [9] Because Mendez’s gang affiliation was not sufficient to support a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity, Det. Jaensson’s continuing interrogation, including his questions regarding Mendez’s tattoos, gang activities, or criminal history, exceeded the scope of a permissible Terry-traffic-stop UNITED STATES v. MENDEZ 18035 interrogation. Accordingly, the information obtained as a result of that questioning may not serve as a lawful basis for the questioning subsequently engaged in by Det. Bracke. 2. Det. Bracke’s questioning of Mendez regarding the reason for his prior prison sentence The government contends that Det. Bracke was permitted to expand the scope of questioning beyond that ordinarily permitted in connection with a traffic stop on the basis of a combination of two “particularized, objective” factors: (1) Mendez’s gang affiliation with the Latin Kings, and (2) Mendez’s statement that he had served time in prison.14 In order to assess this claim, we must determine whether the officers obtained the information regarding these two factors lawfully and, if so, whether the information obtained gives rise to reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. We have already explained that, questionable or not, we will assume that the information regarding the Latin Kings was lawfully obtained, but that gang membership standing alone is insufficient to give rise to reasonable suspicion of particularized criminal conduct. We have also explained that the information that Mendez had served a prison sentence was obtained unlawfully, during the course of Det. Jaensson’s unwarranted interrogation. The result is, therefore, that in this case the combination of the two factors cannot provide a sufficient lawful basis for Det. Bracke’s questioning of Mendez regarding the nature of his prison sentence. Nor, or course, for the differing reasons we have explained, can either factor standing alone. We need not rely, however, for our conclusion that Det. Bracke’s questioning was unlawful solely on our determina14 The government does not seriously contend that Det. Bracke’s questioning was “reasonably related to the justification for the stop.” ChavezValenzuela, 268 F.3d at 724. 18036 UNITED STATES v. MENDEZ tion that the information regarding Mendez’s prison sentence was obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Alternatively, we reject the government’s contention that the fact of Mendez’s former prison sentence and his past or present gang membership, taken together (even if such information were obtained lawfully) created a reasonable suspicion that justified Det. Bracke’s questioning.15 In considering whether the two factors together could serve to justify Det. Bracke’s expanded questioning of Mendez, “[w]e must consider these factors first separately, and then cumulatively.”16 Perez, 37 F.3d at 514. 15 The circumstances of the stop provided no additional support for a reasonable suspicion of criminal wrongdoing at the time of Det. Bracke’s questioning. When Det. Bracke questioned Mendez about the reason for his prison term, he had already determined that he had a valid driver’s license and that his vehicle registration had expired only eight days earlier. Indeed, Det. Bracke testified that he returned to the curb with the intention of telling Mendez that his registration had expired. At oral argument, the government acknowledged that when Det. Bracke questioned Mendez, he was investigating possible current criminal activity solely on the basis of the two newly discovered facts that Mendez had acknowledged during the course of Det. Jaensson’s interrogation — his gang membership and his earlier prison term. 16 Our assessment of each question based on information available at the time it was asked is not contrary to the Supreme Court’s mandate that we look at the totality of the circumstances. United States v. Arvizu, 534 U.S. 266, 274-76 (2002). Arvizu involved a single decision by the police to stop a vehicle. Id. at 277-78. All of the information used by the Court in the totality inquiry was available at the time of the stop. Id. at 277. This case, in contrast, involves a number of challenged police actions occurring sequentially. In such a situation, the totality of the circumstances inquiry logically applies only to circumstances known at the time of each respective police action. This is clear because whether an officer acted on the basis of a reasonable suspicion cannot be determined using information he discovers subsequently. Moreover, Arvizu’s requirement that we consider all the information available at the time of the action was in relation to information that was acquired legally. Id. Arvizu in no way suggests that unlawfully obtained evidence may be used to establish reasonable suspicion. UNITED STATES v. MENDEZ 18037 We have already concluded above that gang membership alone is not sufficient. See supra Part A.1. Similarly, we have previously held in other cases that “a prior criminal history cannot alone establish reasonable suspicion.” Burrell v. McIlroy, 423 F.3d 1121, 1124 n.3 (9th Cir. 2005); see also United States v. Santos, 403 F.3d 1120, 1132 (10th Cir. 2005) (“[A] prior criminal history is by itself insufficient to create reasonable suspicion.”); Padilla v. Miller, 143 F. Supp. 2d 453, 470 (M.D. Pa. 1999) (holding that the facts that a motorist “had a criminal record and was travelling on an interstate highway . . . are not sufficient to create an objective basis for extending the scope of the traffic stop to a Terry investigative detention”). [10] While knowledge of prior criminal activity combined with certain other factors may in some circumstances foster a reasonable suspicion of current criminal activity, and while such knowledge may sometimes be taken into account when an officer considers whether there is a basis for reasonable suspicion, the fact of a prior prison term alone does not suffice. As another circuit has correctly observed, If the law were otherwise, any person with any sort of criminal record— or even worse, a person with arrests but no convictions — could be subjected to a Terry-type investigative stop by a law enforcement officer at any time without the need for any other justification at all. Any such rule would clearly run counter to the requirement of a reasonable suspicion .... United States v. Sandoval, 29 F.3d 537, 543 (10th Cir. 1994). In short, to rely on Mendez’s prior prison term as the sole basis for suspecting him of present criminal activity would be to rely on the very sort of “inchoate and unparticularized suspicion or ‘hunch’ ” that the Fourth Amendment forbids.17 17 Some individuals with prior convictions may be on probation or parole and thus subject to special searches or restraints without reasonable 18038 UNITED STATES v. MENDEZ Terry, 392 U.S. at 27. Accordingly, in the absence of other factors, Mendez’s prior prison term is not a sufficiently “particularized, objective” factor “to justify the extended detention and inquiry into other criminal activity.” Chavez-Valenzuela, 268 F.3d at 724, 726. The Factors Considered Cumulatively18 Having concluded that neither factor, considered individually, would be sufficient to justify Det. Bracke’s questioning (even if the information regarding both had been lawfully obtained), we must now decide whether “taken together they [would] amount to reasonable suspicion.” United States v. Sokolow, 490 U.S. 1, 9 (1989). Although “in some circumstances the sum may amount to more than its parts[,] [t]he facts presented in this case . . . whether viewed alone or in combination, amount to little.” United States v. Jones, 269 F.3d 919, 929 (8th Cir. 2001). In United States v. Perez, we held that six factors — the defendant’s nervous appearance, avoidance of eye contact, and profuse perspiration, combined with the fact that he was not the vehicle’s registered owner, was heading to a known “drug hub,” and had well-manicured hands despite claiming to be a mechanic — “[t]aken together, . . . amount to reasonable suspicion” sufficient to justify the officer’s broadening his line of questioning. 37 F.3d at 514 (quoting Sokolow, 490 U.S. at 9). Similarly in United States v. Baron, 94 F.3d 1312, 1319 (9th Cir. 1996), we held that six factors, “[w]hen considered cumulatively . . . justified additional questioning” regarding drug activity during a traffic stop. The six factors suspicion. Such persons’ Fourth Amendment rights may be limited. See Samson v. California, 126 S. Ct. 2193 (2006). The same is not true for persons who have served their time and fully paid their debt to society. 18 In light of this section, it is unclear why the dissent argues that we fail to consider the factors cumulatively. UNITED STATES v. MENDEZ 18039 identified in Baron were: (1) the vehicle did not belong to the defendant, (2) the defendant could not name the registered owner, (3) the defendant provided inconsistent stories regarding his travel from California to Phoenix, (4) the “inside of the vehicle looked too clean and contained no personal belongings,” (5) there was an “overpowering cherry smell coming from inside the car,” and (6) the defendant appeared nervous. Id.; see also Murillo, 255 F.3d at 1174 (holding that five factors — extreme nervousness, lack of eye contact only when asked about drug activity, inability to explain travel plans, elevated heart rate, and evidence of long road trip in a rental car — were sufficient to justify broadening the scope of questioning). [11] Unlike in Perez, Baron, and Murillo, in which the government cited five or six suspicious factors, all of which involved the defendant’s conduct during the stop, and all of which raised suspicions of a particular form of present criminal activity, drug trafficking, here the government cites only two factors, neither of which involved suspicious conduct on Mendez’s part immediately prior to or during the course of the traffic stop and neither of which suggests current involvement in any particular type of crime.19 When taken together, the two facts that Mendez is a “former gang member” and a “convicted felon” indicate nothing more than that Mendez had a troubled past. They simply do not provide a particularized, objective basis upon which to infer that Mendez “is, or is about to be, engaged in criminal activity.” Cortez, 449 U.S. at 417. 19 As explained above, see supra, note 16, in this case the circumstances justifying the stop are not probative of criminal activity and, thus, the government does not rely on such factors. Moreover, during the stop, Mendez was forthcoming in his answers to the officers’ questions, lawful and unlawful, and exhibited no signs of nervousness until after he was asked the final question, whether he had any weapons in the car. That question, we hold, was unlawful because it was the product of, as well as a part of, an unlawful interrogation exceeding the scope of the Terry stop. Thus, the government properly does not rely on Mendez’s conduct during the course of the stop to justify the expanded interrogation. 18040 UNITED STATES v. MENDEZ Many individuals with prior convictions are presently, or were at one time, gang members and vice versa — that is hardly an unusual combination. To hold that the fact that an individual was previously convicted of a crime, and was or is a gang member, is sufficient cause to interrogate him about general criminal activity whenever he may be subjected to a Terry stop would infringe upon the fundamental constitutional rights of many currently law-abiding citizens. Although persons who have committed crimes may be afforded lesser Fourth Amendment rights while on probation or parole, once that process is completed and their debt to society has been fully paid, they are entitled to the same protection against unreasonable searches and seizures as all other individuals.20 [12] We therefore conclude that, considering the two factors together, they do not constitute sufficiently “particularized” and “objective” indicia that give rise to reasonable suspicion that Mendez was engaged in criminal activity at or about the time of the stop. See Chavez-Valenzuela, 268 F.3d at 726. Accordingly, even if the fact that Mendez previously served a prison sentence were to be considered (notwithstanding our conclusion that the officers obtained that information as the result of an unlawful interrogation), Det. Bracke’s additional questioning about matters unrelated to the purpose of the traffic stop exceeded the scope of a permissible Terry-type 20 Our holding is entirely consistent with our decision in Michael R., 90 F.3d 340, in which we upheld an investigatory stop of a vehicle. In that case, we found that the fact that young men in the car “had haircuts that were characteristic of gang members has evidentiary significance under the totality of the circumstances analysis.” Id. at 346. We have held that gang membership may be a factor when other circumstances that are themselves inherently suspicious exist. In Michael R., officers based their investigatory stop on five other factors in addition to the gang-style haircuts. Id. There, we determined that the “clincher” was the fact that, prior to being pulled over, the young men had engaged in a “street game of cat and mouse” that caused the plainclothes officer who was driving an unmarked car to fear that he was in physical danger. Id. at 346-47. By contrast, here, Mendez does not question the stop and, concededly, engaged in no suspicious or threatening behavior. UNITED STATES v. MENDEZ 18041 inquiry and violated the Fourth Amendment. The fruits of that unlawful questioning must be suppressed.