Opinion ID: 2974414
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Terry stop of the truck

Text: The magistrate found that the police did not have probable cause of involvement in the burglary to stop and search Long’s vehicle, because given the time of day and the number of vehicles on the roadways, the description of the truck was not sufficiently distinct. Further, despite McGuffee’s testimony that Long committed a traffic violation before the stop, the magistrate rejected this as the reason the stop occurred. Rather, the magistrate found the car stop to be justified as a brief detention under Terry, based on the information in the dispatch call and McGuffee’s observations. See United States v. Hurst, 228 F.3d 751, 757 (6th Cir. 2000) (“The Terry doctrine applies to investigative stops of moving automobiles.”). Long claims that the 911 call was not sufficiently reliable to create a reasonable suspicion of his involvement in the burglary to stop his vehicle, and that the vehicle did not sufficiently match the description given to McGuffee by the dispatcher, further undermining the existence of reasonable suspicion. The magistrate found that the call was sufficiently reliable, because even though the caller did not give his name, he identified the street and house where he lived, the dispatcher was aware of his address, and the police actually pulled up in front of his house before he got off the phone with the 911 operator. Thus, under Illinois v. Gates, the caller counted as a known citizen as opposed to an anonymous tipster. The magistrate reasoned that under the rationale of Gates, the caller would have been subject to penalties for false police reports, and thus could be deemed reliable for the same reason as a known informant would be. We agree with the magistrate’s determination that the call was relatively reliable and relevant to the existence of reasonable suspicion to support the stop here. Although in some cases, police knowledge of an address from where an otherwise anonymous call is made might not be enough to render the call reliable, the reliability of this call is strongly supported by the fact that in addition to the dispatcher knowing the caller’s address, the police pulled up in front of the caller’s house while the 911 call was still ongoing. If the caller turned out to have been lying, the police could have confronted him immediately. Whether or not the authorities were aware of the caller’s name in this situation added little to the reliability determination under Gates. Long further contends that the 911 operator or the police should have done more to corroborate the allegations regarding the burglary and drug use by the woman in the house. This argument would be relevant if the police were attempting to obtain a warrant based on probable cause and the basis of the information were an anonymous tipster, as set forth in Gates and its progeny. In this case, however, given the lower standard required for the reasonable suspicion required to justify the stop, the fact that the informant’s identity was easily ascertainable if not known by the police, and McGuffy’s observation of a truck fitting the description of the suspect’s vehicle carrying household items, there was sufficient reasonable suspicion based on specific and articulable facts sufficient to justify the stop. See Alabama v. White, 496 U.S. 325, 330 (1990) 1 Long’s brief purports to challenge the dispatch call, which the magistrate also analyzed as a separate Fourth Amendment question in the report and recommendation. The dispatch call itself is not a search or a seizure, and does not raise a separate Fourth Amendment claim on its own — if Long had merely been the subject of an incriminating dispatch call, but was never seized or searched, there would be no cognizable Fourth Amendment issue. Even so, the call is informative for purposes of scrutinizing whether probable cause existed for McGuffee to stop Long. No. 05-5692 United States v. Long Page 5 (“[R]easonable suspicion can arise from information that is less reliable than that required to show probable cause.”). Long also challenges the stop based on what he claims was vagueness regarding the description of the truck and the items McGuffee observed in the bed. He argues that because the truck was described as black in the dispatch call, rather than its actual colors of black and gray, and because McGuffee only stated that he saw “stuff” in the back, rather than furniture and mirrors, that McGuffee did not have reasonable suspicion upon seeing the truck to effect the stop. The magistrate found that “McGuffee saw the defendant’s four-wheel drive pick up truck, which contained household items and substantially matched the description in the dispatch,” and credited McGuffee’s testimony as to his observations. Further, we have reviewed the video taken from McGuffee’s vehicle that depicts Long’s truck passing him, which was submitted to the Court as part of the record on appeal. The view of the items in back is sufficient for the viewer to make out that the truck contained household items, and certainly provides no indication to us that the magistrate’s factual findings were clearly erroneous. Long’s nit-picking of differences between the description in the call and McGuffee’s statement does not undermine the existence of McGuffee’s reasonable suspicion that the truck he observed was the one referenced in the 911 call and the dispatch, particularly given his prediction of the direction it would be traveling and the time it would arrive at the highway entrance ramp. Our analysis in Hurst is quite informative on this point, as it shares several factual similarities with this case: A car roughly matching the appearance of Hurst’s in color and style was reportedly seen outside the Smith residence at the time the burglary occurred. Minutes later, an off-duty officer observed a vehicle matching the reported description traveling southbound away from the vicinity of the Smith residence at high speed, and noted the front grill was missing. When Deputy Iles, in the subject vehicle’s reported direction of travel, received this distinctive description and then observed a vehicle matching the description at a location consistent with the time needed to travel to that point from the Smith residence, (i.e., less than a half-hour after the burglary was reported), he had knowledge of specific and articulable facts, which, taken together with reasonable inferences, certainly gave rise to reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. The presence of three persons in the car, rather than two, is a discrepancy that might reasonably be explained in any number of ways and does not defeat the assessment that Deputy Iles had reasonable grounds to investigate further. The investigative stop of Hurst’s vehicle was not premised on a mere hunch, but on specific and articulable facts. Considering the totality of the circumstances, the investigative stop was clearly justified. 228 F.3d at 757. In this case, reasonable suspicion was supported by the relative reliability of the tip, McGuffee’s observations of the truck matching that given in the tip, the presence of household goods in the truck’s bed, and the arrival of the truck in the predicted time frame traveling in the predicted direction. The combination here of these several “specific articulable facts” rendered adequate reasonable suspicion for this stop. See Gates, 462 U.S. at 244-45 (finding it relevant to the probable cause determination “that [corroboration] through other sources of information reduced the chances of a reckless or prevaricating tale”). B. Removal of Long from the vehicle and handcuffing Long contends that when McGuffee ordered him from the vehicle and handcuffed him, he exceeded the bounds of a Terry stop and had in fact arrested Long at that point, and that this arrest was not supported by probable cause. The magistrate found the removal and handcuffing No. 05-5692 United States v. Long Page 6 appropriate both because probable cause to make the arrest existed at that point, and, presumably as an alternative holding, because the handcuffing was part of the legitimate Terry stop of the vehicle. We affirm the decision that Long’s removal from the vehicle and handcuffing did not violate the Fourth Amendment because there was adequate probable cause for an arrest at this point, and2 find it unnecessary to reach whether the handcuffing was an appropriate part of a Terry stop here. The basis of the magistrate’s finding of probable cause sufficient to support Long’s arrest was the fact that upon approaching the car, McGuffee asked Long if he was coming from Kenilworth, the street where the burglary occurred, and Long said that he was. When he was standing next to the stopped pickup truck, McGuffee was also able to confirm that the items in the back of the truck were mirrors and pictures. These facts, combined with the matching description of the truck that justified his earlier reasonable suspicion, adequately established probable cause to arrest Long at this point. Long attacks the conclusion regarding probable cause on appeal by arguing that in a state court hearing in 2001, McGuffee only remembered the discussion about where the defendant was coming from after reviewing tapes of his conversation with the dispatcher and other relevant evidence. Long claims that because “Officer McGuffee can only testify as to what was recorded and transcribed and not necessarily from his first hand knowledge or remembrances,” we should question his credibility on this point. This argument merely involves a credibility determination, and provides no basis to disturb the magistrate’s finding that the conversation occurred, particularly in light of our deferential review of factual findings made below. Given McGuffee’s observation that the items in the back matched those that were taken from the house, Long’s confirmation that he was coming from the scene of the burglary, and the matching description of the truck, there was sufficient probable cause for McGuffee to arrest Long at this point.