Opinion ID: 204528
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Brush

Text: The agents theorize that the brush under Olivares-Pacheco's truck was collected while driving off-road, possibly to avoid detection or to cross the border. The physical appearance of a vehicle may add to an agent's reasonable suspicion. We have held, for example, that fresh mud and scratches on a car's tires and exterior may heighten suspicion. [13] In that case, however, the truck was stopped less than fifteen miles from an unmanned border crossing, greatly increasing the likelihood that the mud and scratches were taken on while crossing the border. The instant facts, however, conjure up far less suspicion. Stopped more than 200 miles from the border, Olivares-Pacheco's truck could have picked up the brush in myriad unsuspicious ways. The government concedes that West Odessa is full of brush and that the brush could have been picked up, for example, in a parking lot. The truck could have been off road because the passengers were working; the truck could have pulled off of I-20 to change drivers or take a break; it could have traveled on a service road; it could have picked up brush dropped from another vehicle. Indeed, West Texas is full of brush, and any northerly or southerly wind could have blown brush onto the East-West Interstate. We must also wonder rhetorically about a piece of brush becoming affixed to the bottom of a vehicle and not becoming dislodged during a 200-mile trek from the border. Not only are innocent explanations available, but they are probable. Given that Olivares-Pacheco was stopped on the Interstate so far from the border and that brush could have been picked up in numerous legitimate ways, the fact that the truck was dragging a bit of brush in that part of West Texas generates minimal if any suspicion.