Opinion ID: 4173630
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Stop of Orozco’s Commercial Truck

Text: At some point in spring 2013, Trooper Adam Zehr stopped a commercial trucker, who indicated that he had information relating to a trucking company that could possibly be transporting drugs. Zehr put this tipster in contact with Detective Sergeant Chris Brewer, of the Nevada Division of Investigations. Shortly thereafter, on April 26, Brewer received a call from the tipster regarding a specific commercial truck that “may possibly have controlled UNITED STATES V. OROZCO 9 substances.” The tipster told Brewer that this truck was red, with a white box trailer and Michigan license plates. The next day, April 27, 2013, the tipster again contacted Brewer to provide an approximate time when the tractortrailer would be traveling through White Pine County, Nevada, where Brewer was stationed. After receiving this information, Sergeant Brewer “immediately” contacted Trooper Zehr to “advise[] him of the vehicle and its location,” and told him “that he would have to develop his own probable cause to get the vehicle stopped” because “there could possibly be drugs in the vehicle,” but “[t]here was nothing solid.” Trooper Boynton testified that, at the time of the stop, he knew “through some hearsay that there was a tip about some possible transportation of narcotics.” Moreover, Trooper Zehr testified that at least one of the reasons that he made the stop was because he had been advised that Orozco’s vehicle was “possibly engaging in criminal activity and could possibly have drugs in the vehicle.” After Zehr’s conversation with Brewer, Zehr and Trooper Boynton “knew to be on the lookout for” Orozco’s truck. They drove out to Mile Post 37 in White Pine County to wait for it. When the truck arrived, Zehr had to pull out behind a different commercial truck and drive past it in order to pull over Orozco’s truck. Indeed, Troopers Zehr and Boynton acknowledged that, even before they saw the truck, they planned to stop it. Thus, Zehr gave the following testimony: Q: Do you recall what your conversations were with Trooper Boynton about locating and stopping this truck? A: Yes. 10 UNITED STATES V. OROZCO Q: And what were those? A: If the truck is located, we’ll both stop it, or one of us will stop it, or one of us will be close for backup for a more high risk traffic stop. Around 4:30 PM, as expected, they saw a red truck with Michigan license plates drive past Mile Post 37. Zehr, taking the lead, pulled the truck over. Boynton also pulled his car behind the truck and assisted Zehr in questioning Orozco. Although the troopers chose to target Orozco’s truck because of the information in the tip, Zehr and Boynton went through the motions of performing a NAS Level III paperwork inspection. Notwithstanding numerous violations of the commercial vehicle regulations discovered in the course of the paperwork inspection, they did not issue a citation. Instead, while the inspection was ongoing, Zehr instructed Trooper Kelly Barney (“Barney”), another police officer who was stationed nearby with a drug-sniffing dog, to call the El Paso Intelligence Center (“EPIC”) (an inter-agency facility that provides intelligence support to law enforcement) regarding Orozco’s truck. Barney called EPIC, and learned that Orozco had made several recent border crossings. Zehr and Barney also discussed the possibility of performing a canine sniff of the tractor-trailer, using the drug-sniffing dog. Although they did not issue a citation, they did ask for, and obtain, consent to search the tractor-trailer. Barney then arrived with the dog, who made a positive alert as to the presence of drugs, which was confirmed when the troopers found a duffel bag containing twenty-six pounds of methamphetamine and six pounds of heroin in the sleeper compartment. UNITED STATES V. OROZCO 11 III. The Motion to Suppress and The District Court’s Ruling Prior to trial, Orozco moved to suppress the drug evidence on the ground that the NAS level III inspection was an impermissible pretext “motivated by a desire to search for evidence of drug trafficking, rather than to conduct a commercial vehicle inspection.” United States v. Orozco, No. 3:13-cr-48, 2015 WL 370091, at  (D. Nev. Jan. 28, 2015). The district court acknowledged that information from an informant that Orozco was possibly carrying narcotic drugs “was part of the reason Trooper Zehr stopped Orozco’s vehicle for an administrative inspection.” Id. Nevertheless, because Zehr testified that he also initiated the stop “to conduct a safety inspection,” the district judge framed the question presented as “whether such dual purposes render an otherwise valid administrative stop illegal.” Id. She did so without undertaking an analysis of the objective evidence to determine that Zehr’s testimony was credible. Thus, she went on to hold that “an officer having dual motives does not make a warrantless search pretextual, so long as it is conducted pursuant to a lawful administrative scheme with a constitutionally permissible motivation.” Id. at . Because NAS Level III safety inspections are part of a facially valid administrative scheme, the district judge held that the stop of Orozco’s truck was lawful. On this appeal from a judgment convicting him of two counts of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance for which he was sentenced to 192 months in prison, Orozco argues that the district court erred by denying his motion to suppress on the ground that the “NAS Level III inspection” was a pretext to investigate criminal activity. We agree with the district court that a dual motive for a 12 UNITED STATES V. OROZCO suspicionless stop does not necessarily render it impermissible. Nevertheless, we reverse the denial of Orozco’s motion to suppress and vacate his judgment of conviction, because the objective evidence clearly demonstrates that, but for the officers’ belief that Orozco might be carrying drugs, the stop never would have happened.