Opinion ID: 3171370
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Stop, Search, and Seizure

Text: An officer pulled Spears over after another officer witnessed him commit a traffic violation. As the officer approached Spears’s truck, he observed Spears rummaging around the center console of the truck. The officer asked Spears for his identification and insurance, which he provided, and a few other questions. After speaking with Spears for approximately one minute, the officer returned to his patrol car. After approximately four and half minutes in the patrol car, the officer exited the patrol car and began speaking with Spears again. The officer testified that while he was questioning Spears, Spears appeared nervous, was not giving straight answers, was evasive in responding to questions, and was very non-compliant. When the officer asked Spears where he was coming from, Spears said he was coming from visiting a relative, which the officer believed was an untrue statement. When asked, Spears said he did not have any weapons in the truck, but he did not consent to a search of the truck. The officer then instructed Spears to step outside the truck in order to, in part, pat him down to ensure he did not have any weapons on him, but he refused. When a second officer arrived, they again asked Spears to step outside the truck. Again Spears initially refused, but he complied approximately one minute after being asked. After the pat down, the officers instructed Spears to sit in the back of the patrol car to wait for a drug-sniffing dog to arrive. He complied after protesting for approximately two minutes. When Spears first entered the back of the patrol car, approximately sixteen and a half minutes had elapsed since he was first pulled over. 4 Case: 14-11267 Document: 00513351760 Page: 5 Date Filed: 01/21/2016 No. 14-11267 At some point, officers with both the Fort Worth Police Department and the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (the “DEA”), which were both involved in the drug investigation, had begun trying get a drug-sniffing dog to the traffic stop. DEA officers in particular made multiple phone calls to different agencies, but no drug-sniffing dogs were available. An officer testified that one of the reasons they wanted to use a dog was to get probable cause to search Spears’s vehicle. While still unable to locate a dog, the officers detaining Spears were informed by other officers that they had found a large, vacuum-sealed bag of money in Loera’s sport utility vehicle after stopping Loera. Upon receiving this information, the officers collectively decided there was probable cause to search Spears’s truck, and they proceeded to do so. Almost forty minutes had elapsed from the time Spears was initially stopped until the time the search began. In their search, the officers found a semiautomatic handgun in the center console, a backpack that contained approximately $59,800 in cash, a counterfeit money detector, and a laundry bag that smelled of marijuana. Spears was arrested and transported to the DEA office. His cell phone was obtained from his person when he was processed at the DEA office. The government subsequently searched his cell phone and found a picture of marijuana and a picture of stacks of money with a vacuum sealer. An officer testified that while Spears was at the DEA office, he admitted purchasing marijuana from Loera in the past and giving Loera a cash down payment that morning for marijuana. Loera ultimately admitted the same information after his arrest when questioned at the DEA office.