Opinion ID: 154170
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Suppression of the Evidence

Text: 73 We must next determine whether the suppressed evidence was the fruit of the unlawful detention of Shareef, Brown, Pitts, Murphy and Nash after about 5:00 a.m. The Supreme Court has stated: 74 We need not hold that all evidence is fruit of the poisonous tree simply because it would not have come to light but for the illegal actions of the police. Rather, the more apt question in such a case is whether, granting establishment of the primary illegality, the evidence to which instant objection is made has been come at by exploitation of that illegality or instead by means sufficiently distinguishable to be purged of the primary taint. 75 Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 487-88 (1963) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). Of course, if not even the `but for' test can be met, then clearly the evidence is not a fruit of the prior Fourth Amendment violation. 5 Wayne LaFave, Search and Seizure: A Treatise on the Fourth Amendment 11.4(a), at 236-37. We first examine the physical evidence found in the vehicles. 76 It is unclear when the officers received consent to search the vehicles. However, because we find that the vehicles would have been impounded and searched as a result of a lawful investigation that was underway before any of the defendants was illegally seized, the exact timing is immaterial. See Miller, 84 F.3d 1244 (refusing to suppress drugs illegally seized from defendant's car because investigation already underway ultimately revealed car was stolen and drugs inevitably would have been discovered during inventory search); Eylicio-Montoya, 70 F.3d 1158 (10th Cir. 1995) (refusing to suppress drugs seized from defendant's car following unlawful arrest of defendant, as stop of defendant was lawful and drugs would inevitably have been discovered during stop); United States v. Romero, 692 F.2d 699, 704 (10th Cir. 1982) (refusing to suppress drugs seized illegally during pat-down of defendant, as police officers were about to have probable cause to arrest defendant independent of pat-down, and drugs inevitably would have been discovered during search incident to arrest). After the felony stop procedures were complete, the officers diligently pursued their investigation into the authority of the defendants to operate the vehicles. It was inevitable that the officers would request the rental agreements and discover that the defendants were not authorized to drive the vehicles. At no point did any defendant produce a valid license, registration or proof of legal entitlement to the vehicles. We have held that law enforcement officers may impound an automobile until the ownership of the vehicle can be ascertained. United States v. Long, 705 F.2d 1259, 1262 (10th Cir. 1983). Similarly, the police are not required to release a vehicle when there is no licensed driver to attend to it. See United States v. Harvey, 16 F.3d 109 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 115 S. Ct. 258 (1994). The officers would not have allowed the vehicles to leave the scene while their investigation was ongoing. Because the seizure of the vehicles was not the fruit of the unlawful detention of any of the defendants, the evidence found when those vehicles were searched was not fruit of the poisonous tree. Accordingly, we REVERSE the portion of the district court order suppressing this physical evidence. 77 The statements made by the defendants are a different matter. After the felony stop procedures, all of the defendants were in police custody. Purdue, 8 F.3d at 1465 (felony stop procedures constitute custody for purpose of Miranda warnings). Several of the defendants were questioned by officers. Yet none of the defendants appears to have been given Miranda warnings. It is unclear which of the defendants' statements were made after they were unlawfully arrested. Although Smith was lawfully arrested, it similarly does not appear that he was given Miranda warnings at any point before being transported to the station. We therefore REMAND this case to the district court for a determination of what statements, if any, are excludable as fruit of an unlawful arrest or the failure to give Miranda warnings. We note that the government represented to us at oral argument that it would not take any further interlocutory appeals should the statements be suppressed, primarily because the government does not believe the statements are substantial proof of a fact material to the proceeding. 18 U.S.C. 3731.