Opinion ID: 767340
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The January 1996 Suppression Hearing

Text: 8 On October 3, 1995, Bayless moved to suppress the drugs seized from her car and her post-arrest statements on the ground that the police did not have reasonable suspicion to stop her car. In early January, 1996, Judge Baer held a suppression hearing, at which the government introduced the testimony of one of the arresting officers, Officer Carroll, and the court viewed the videotaped statement Bayless gave after her arrest. 9 At the hearing, Officer Carroll testified that on the morning of April 21, he and his partner, Sergeant Bentley, both members of the Street Crime Unit, were in plain clothes, patrolling Washington Heights in an unmarked police car. At about 5 a.m., the officers entered 176th Street, and observed a 1995 Chevrolet with Michigan license plates moving slowly along the street. The officers saw the car pull over to the north side of the street, near the intersection with St. Nicholas Avenue, and double park. At that time, Officer Carroll could not tell who was driving the car, but could tell that there was no passenger. As soon as the car stopped, four men came from between parked cars on the south side of the street. Walking in single file, they crossed the street and approached the Chevrolet. Just before the men reached the car, the driver leaned over to the passenger side of the car, and the trunk opened a few inches. The first of the four men opened the trunk all the way, the second man put a large duffel bag into the trunk, the third man put a second large duffel bag into the trunk, and the last man closed the trunk. There was no conversation or other interaction between the four men and the driver, and the entire transaction was concluded in seconds. 10 After the trunk was shut, the driver immediately drove away, stopping at a red light at the intersection. The officers followed the car, stopping opposite the four men, who were standing on the sidewalk on the north side of 176th Street. Officer Carroll testified that at least two of the men noticed him and his partner and spoke briefly to each other (he could not hear what they said) and that the four men then moved rapidly in different directions. Officer Carroll watched one of the men, who walked to the corner and then began to run north on St. Nicholas Avenue. 11 The officers followed the Chevrolet and, after about two blocks, placed a red flashing light on their dashboard and pulled the car over. After stopping the car, Officer Carroll ordered Bayless to turn the motor off, which she did, and asked her for her license, registration, and insurance. Bayless told Carroll that it was a rented car, and he asked for the rental agreement and her license, which she gave him. When he asked her to whom the car was rented, she said she did not know. The rental agreement was not in Bayless's name, and it did not authorize any other drivers. Officer Carroll asked Bayless who the men who had put bags in her trunk were, and she denied that anyone had put bags in her trunk. He then asked Bayless to get out of the car and, handcuffing her, arrested her for unauthorized operation of a motor vehicle. After the arrest, Sergeant Bentley unlocked the trunk, opened the duffel bags, and found the drugs. The officers then took Bayless to the 33rd Precinct. 12 Upon questioning by the court, Officer Carroll gave several reasons why he and his partner were suspicious of Bayless. First, Officer Carroll claimed that the area around 176th Street, and the Washington Heights/Inwood neighborhood in general, was known as a hub . . . for the drug trade. Second, the orchestrated manner in which the four men loaded the trunk suggested to Carroll a rehearsed transaction, and he found it abnormal and suspicious that the four men had no conversation or interaction with the driver of the car. Third, the men dispersed upon spotting the officers, and one of them began to run. Fourth, the car had out-of-state license plates. Finally, Officer Carroll noted that he and his partner pulled Bayless over when they did because they wanted to prevent her from reaching the highway, which led to the George Washington Bridge and thence out of New York state. 13 At the hearing, the court also viewed Bayless's videotaped statement, which described the events surrounding her arrest in a somewhat different fashion. According to Bayless, she left Detroit on the afternoon of April 20 with five duffel bags full of cash (she estimated the total to be about $1 million), planning to purchase drugs in New York and to bring them back to Detroit. She was a passenger in the Chevrolet, which was driven by an associate, Terry, and they were accompanied by three other men driving a van (Robert, Chubb, and another man whose name she could not remember). When they reached 176th Street, where they were met as planned by the people selling them the drugs, Terry double-parked and got out of the car and went to move the van. The other men took the money out of the trunk of the Chevrolet and went into an apartment building to exchange the cash for drugs. Bayless waited in the car for about ten minutes, until the men returned. The men put two duffel bags containing drugs in the trunk of the car, and handed her the keys. Bayless then drove by herself down 176th Street, and saw Robert and Chubb walking in the same direction that she was driving. Bayless stopped for a red light at the corner of St. Nicholas Avenue, proceeded for a short distance until she saw the flashing red light in the police car and pulled over. She waited until the police officers got out of the car; they asked her for her license and registration, which she gave them. When they asked her what was in the trunk, she responded that she did not know. The officers asked for her keys and opened the trunk, and arrested her. 14 C. Judge Baer's Decision of January 22, 1996 15 After hearing Officer Carroll's testimony and viewing Bayless's videotaped statement at the hearing, Judge Baer on January 22 issued a ruling suppressing the cocaine and heroin seized from Bayless's car, along with her post-arrest statements. See United States v. Bayless, 913 F. Supp. 232, 243 (S.D.N.Y. 1996). Judge Baer began by noting that Officer Carroll's testimony and Bayless's videotaped statement differ[ed] dramatically, and that, given its inculpatory nature, he found Bayless's statement more credible. Id. at 234. He pointed out that if Bayless was telling the truth, Officer Carroll apparently missed or overlooked the fact that the car had come to a halt, never saw the man exit the [car], and missed the million dollars being taken out of the trunk, making his version incredible. Id. at 239-40. Judge Baer also asked rhetorically where the officer in charge, Sergeant Bentley, was during the suppression hearing: [w]hile presumably available to corroborate [Officer Carroll's] gossamer, the judge commented, he was never called to testify. Id. at 239. 16 Judge Baer highlighted two major disparities between Officer Carroll's testimony and Bayless's statement: first, Carroll testified that one of the men ran from the scene, while Bayless stated that they all walked away; and, second, Carroll testified that the men had no conversation or other interaction with Bayless, while Bayless said that they gave her the car keys after loading the bags into the trunk. See id. at 237, 239, 241-42. Judge Baer made it clear that he credited Bayless's version on both counts. See id. at 242. He found that the remaining facts articulated by Carroll - the high-crime neighborhood, the early morning hour, the out-of-state license plates, the duffel bags, and the double parking - did not, without more, give rise to reasonable suspicion, and he therefore suppressed the seized drugs and Bayless's post-arrest statements. See id. at 242-43. 17 Judge Baer's holding rested on the conclusion that Bayless's account was more credible than Officer Carroll's, and that the men loading the bags into her trunk had not run away upon seeing the officers. In dicta, however, he went on to say that even had one or more of the men run away, it [would be] hard to characterize this as evasive conduct. Id. at 242. In the passage of his opinion that subsequently drew the most fire from critics, he added: 18 Police officers, even those travelling in unmarked vehicles, are easily recognized, particularly, in this area of Manhattan. In fact, the same United States Attorney's Office which brought this prosecution enjoyed more success in their prosecution of a corrupt police officer of an anti-crime unit operating in this very neighborhood. Even before this prosecution and the public hearing and final report of the Mollen Commission, residents in this neighborhood tended to regard police officers as corrupt, abusive and violent. After the attendant publicity surrounding the above events, had the men not run when the cops began to stare at them, it would have been unusual. 19 Id. (footnotes omitted). 20 D. The Publicity Following Judge Baer's January 22, 1996 Ruling 21 Judge Baer's ruling immediately drew heavy criticism in the press and from local political figures, including New York's Mayor and Police Commissioner, as well as Governor George Pataki. See Chester L. Mirsky, The Exclusionary Rule Was Appropriately Used, Nat'l L.J., Feb. 26, 1996, at A21. The decision itself, and the language in the opinion, referring as it did to widespread police corruption, was perceived by many as an affront to the police and to victims of drug-related crime. An editorial in the New York Times called Judge Baer's decision judicial malpractice, and accused him of undermin[ing] respect for the legal system, encourag[ing] citizens to flee the police and deter[ring] honest cops in drug-infested neighborhoods from doing their job. Judge Baer's Tortured Reasoning, N.Y. Times, Jan. 31, 1996, at A16. 22 In February, the government filed a motion for reconsideration of the order granting the suppression motion. The decision, however, continued to attract attention and quickly became the focus of a nationwide controversy and a flashpoint for the 1996 Presidential campaign, as Democrats and Republicans competed to enhance their reputations as proponents of law and order by denouncing Judge Baer. In early March, more than two hundred members of Congress, led by Republican Representatives Bill McCollum, Fred Upton, and Michael Forbes, sent a letter to President Clinton calling Judge Baer's ruling a shocking and egregious example of judicial activism. Jon O. Newman, The Judge Baer Controversy, 80 Judicature 156, 156 (1997). The letter claimed Judge Baer had sid[ed] with drug traffickers and against hard-working police officers and the frightened residents of violence-ridden communities, and that he had demonstrated a level of ideological blindness that render[ed] him unfit for the proper discharge of his judicial duties. Id. The writers asked President Clinton to join them in calling for Judge Baer's resignation. See id. at 157. 23 When asked about the letter at a White House press conference, President Clinton's spokesperson Mike McCurry said that the President would defer deciding whether to call for Judge Baer's resignation until the Judge ruled on the government's motion for reconsideration, adding that, while the President would evaluate Judge Baer's record on the full breadth of his cases, the White House was interested in seeing how he rules in response to the motion. Id. The press interpreted McCurry's comment as a veiled warning. For example, the New York Times reported that [t]he White House put [Judge Baer] on public notice today that if he did not reverse a widely criticized decision throwing out drug evidence, the President might ask for his resignation. Alison Mitchell, Clinton Pushing Judge to Relent, N.Y. Times, Mar. 22, 1996, at A1. Subsequently, in a written response to Rep. McCollum, the White House disavowed any intent to ask for Judge Baer's resignation, saying that the issues should be resolved in the courts. See Newman, The Judge Baer Controversy, supra, at 160. Then-Senate Majority Leader and Presidential candidate Bob Dole joined the fracas by saying that if Judge Baer did not resign, he should be impeached. See id. E. The Hearing of March 15, 1996 24 In February, and well before the furor had died down, Judge Baer presumably began to consider the government's motion asking him to revisit his ruling. On March 5, he granted the government's motion to reopen the hearing for the presentation of additional evidence -- specifically testimony by Sergeant Bentley that would corroborate Officer Carroll's earlier testimony. 25 At the hearing on March 15, Sergeant Bentley testified to the events surrounding the arrest. He confirmed Officer Carroll's account that the loading of the trunk appeared orchestrated and that there was no communication between the men and the driver of the car. He also confirmed Officer Carroll's statement that he had seen one of the men who had loaded the trunk run away. In fact, Sergeant Bentley claimed to have seen two of the men run away: one, he said, ran east on 176th Street and then north on St. Nicholas Avenue, while the other ran west on 176th Street. 26 Carol Bayless again testified about the events surrounding her arrest. Her account now included some details not present in her videotaped statement; for example, on cross-examination, Bayless for the first time said that she had a cellular phone with her in the car, with which she could have contacted the men who had made the trip with her, who also had a cell phone. Bayless continued to claim that she had seen the men walk toward the corner after they loaded the bags into her car, and denied seeing them run. She conceded, however, that she would not have been able to see what they did after turning the corner. On cross-examination, Bayless insisted that she was alone in the car for ten minutes without the keys while her companions were getting the drugs, and that she did not open the trunk, but that the men had opened it with a key. She also claimed that while her confession was being videotaped, the police coached her on what to say, and stopped and started the videotape when her answers did not satisfy them. F. Judge Baer's Decision of April 1, 1996 27 On April 1, Judge Baer vacated his earlier order suppressing the seized drugs and Bayless's post-arrest statements. See United States v. Bayless, 921 F. Supp. 211, 212 (S.D.N.Y. 1996). He emphasized that he had not changed his evaluation of the evidence presented by the government at the earlier hearing, which he still found to be legally insufficient. See id. at 213. The testimony presented at the second hearing, however, had changed his mind as to the relative credibility of the police officers and Carol Bayless. See id. at 216. 28 Judge Baer found that Sergeant Bentley's testimony at the rehearing strongly corroborated Officer Carroll's account: both said that they had first observed Bayless driving east on 176th Street and briefly double-parking while the drugs were loaded into her car; both said that there was no conversation or exchange of keys between the men and Bayless; and both said that at least one of the men ran from the scene. See id. at 215-16 & nn.6-9. Judge Baer also found that the affirmations now submitted by the government supported the assertion that the area around 176th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue, in part because of its proximity to the George Washington Bridge, was a hub for drug transactions. (In his earlier opinion, he had noted that the government had not provided any evidence to back up this claim. See id. at 215 & nn.3-4.) 29 Judge Baer concluded, moreover, that, for several reasons, Carol Bayless's testimony at the second hearing made her story less credible. See id. at 216 & n.11. For example, Bayless testified that she had a cellular phone with her in the car but that she did not use it to contact the men, even though she had supposedly seen the police car pass her while she was waiting for the men to bring the drugs down to the car - an account that Judge Baer called unbelievable. See id. at 216 n.11. In addition, she stated that while she was being videotaped, the officers questioning her repeatedly stopped and started the videotape if she did not answer to their satisfaction, a claim that was not credible in light of the testimony of a video technician who examined the tape and said that it had not been stopped once the interview began. See id. 30 Taking into account the newly presented evidence, and crediting Sergeant Bentley and Officer Carroll's account over that of Bayless, Judge Baer determined that the government had now met its burden of articulating facts sufficient to give the police reasonable suspicion to stop Bayless's car. See id. at 217. He closed by apologizing for the controversial dicta in his earlier opinion: [U]nfortunately the hyperbole (dicta) in my initial decision not only obscured the true focus of my analysis, but regretfully may have demeaned the law-abiding men and women who make Washington Heights their home and the vast majority of the dedicated men and women in blue who patrol the streets of our great City. 31 Id. G. Bayless's Recusal Motions 32 On April 12, counsel for Bayless made an oral motion that Judge Baer recuse himself from further proceedings in the case, arguing that because of the high profile or the type of publicity that this case has received, and . . . meddlers from the outside public concerning this matter, there seems to be . . . an appearance of impropriety in the way the decision was done. He pointed out that the calls for Judge Baer's resignation or impeachment created the appearance that the judge may have been influenced by outside forces in his April 1 decision to deny the motion to suppress. 33 Judge Baer denied the motion for recusal from the bench, saying: 34 [T]he time to have [moved for recusal] would have been between the date of the rehearing and the decision, or earlier. Regardless of the fact that you failed to raise the issue, I considered it carefully while the matter was pending. Indeed, several friends whom I respect and admire made just such unsolicited suggestions . . . . 35 I concluded that the proper and intellectually honest approach was to continue, feeling that recusal would have certainly been easier for the court. Even where outside influence was never a part of my thinking, which is indeed the fact here, in my view not recusing myself was the far more appropriate path for a federal judge to follow for three different reasons: 36 First, to be swayed by outside influence would run counter to the central theme of judicial independence. You or your client, may not understand - and you are not alone - this position of United States District Court judge comes with life tenure. And no one, not even the President of the United States, can take it away unless, as one great Southern District judge - I think Tom Murphy - said, They find your hand in the cookie jar. 37 . . . 38 So, you may rest assured that while I was surprised at the fire storm that developed . . . to me the fallout constituted little more than political posturing - some of what I saw I cannot say I am proud of - but political posturing in an election year, nevertheless. And it was in that fashion that I regard it and continue to regard most of the rhetoric I read . . . in the paper. 39 The second thought was that . . . it would simply be passing the buck to another jurist. That did not seem appropriate or fair. 40 And, lastly, it seemed to me that it would be a significant waste of judicial time to have someone else have to go through any part of what I had done already. 41 On April 22, Bayless filed a written motion seeking Judge Baer's recusal, again arguing that the publicity accorded the case and the pressure put on the judge compromised the impartiality of his decision and created the appearance of impropriety. On May 16, Judge Baer issued a written opinion denying the motion as both untimely and without merit, but requesting that the case be transferred to another district judge. See United States v. Bayless, 926 F. Supp. 405, 406-07 (S.D.N.Y. 1996). 42 Bayless's case was transferred to Judge Robert P. Patterson, Jr., of the Southern District. On June 21, Bayless pleaded guilty before Judge Patterson to the counts in the indictment, subject to a stipulation that she be allowed to appeal the outcome of her suppression motion, and on October 1, 1998, she was sentenced to fifty-four months in prison.