Opinion ID: 216266
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The District Court's Order Denying Galaviz's Motion to Suppress

Text: The district court denied Galaviz's motion to suppress solely on the basis that Deputy Webber had specific and articulable facts, under the totality of the circumstances, to justify stopping Defendant to investigate whether he committed the robbery in accordance with the standard set out in Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 21-22, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968). United States v. Galaviz, No. 07-20009-BC, 2007 WL 2324949, at  (E.D.Mich. Aug. 14, 2007). In order to make an investigative Terry stop without a warrant, an officer must have reasonable articulable suspicion that the person apprehended is committing or has committed a criminal offense. Arizona v. Johnson, 555 U.S. 323, 129 S.Ct. 781, 784, 172 L.Ed.2d 694 (2009); Terry, 392 U.S. at 21, 88 S.Ct. 1868. When making reasonable-suspicion determinations, reviewing courts must look at the `totality of the circumstances' of each case to see whether the detaining officer has a `particularized and objective basis' for suspecting legal wrongdoing. United States v. Arvizu, 534 U.S. 266, 273, 122 S.Ct. 744, 151 L.Ed.2d 740 (2002). The district court identified several relevant factors justifying the Terry stop: (1) the short time (about ten minutes or less) between the occurrence of the armed robbery and Webber's observation of Defendant's vehicle; (2) the close geographic proximity of the location of the robbery and the site where Webber observed Defendant's car; (3) the color of the vehicle that corresponded to that announced by the police dispatcher; and (4) the minimal traffic due to the hour of the night. Those details sufficed to justify Webber's interest in further investigation. Additionally, as stated on the record, Defendant rapidly accelerated his vehicle away from a marked police car that turned to follow him, and he later disregarded the officer's directives to stop. Also, Defendant knocked, kicked, and banged on the door of a residence to which he sought entry, which showed his apparent lack of authorization to enter the residence. Galaviz, 2007 WL 2324949, at . The court did not, however, provide any discussion of the basis for upholding the warrantless search of Galaviz's car, apparently assuming that if Webber had reasonable suspicion to support an investigative seizure of Galaviz, then the search of the car and the seizure of the gun would be justified. Galaviz did not challenge the search of the car and seizure of the gun on separate grounds, apparently making the same assumption. In opposing the motion to suppress, the government argued that the seizure of the gun was not a fruit of the Terry stop or the arrest, and the plain-view doctrine provided an alternative ground on which to uphold the seizure of the gun. Galaviz argued in reply that officers were not lawfully in a position from which to view the gun, and therefore that the plain-view doctrine did not apply. The district court did not address these arguments. Although we agree that Webber had reasonable suspicion to pursue Galaviz's car and to stop it to investigate whether it was the car involved in the robbery, [5] once Webber observed Galaviz's physical features and saw that he was a Hispanic male, and thus did not match the description of the robbery suspect as a black male or black female, the reasonableness of the suspicion was undermined. Indeed, Webber testified at the suppression hearing that Galaviz looked like a Hispanic male, and that he was able to clearly identify him as such in the available light. Webber further conceded that, because the robbery suspect identified in the radio transmissions was a black male or black female, identifying Galaviz as a Hispanic male constituted conclusive information that he was not a suspect in the robbery. See United States v. Jackson, 188 Fed.Appx. 403, 410 (6th Cir.2006) (unpublished) (holding that, even if police had probable cause to stop defendant's car based on purported similarity to the suspect's vehicle, they should have immediately released him once they saw that his physical appearance differed significantly from that of the suspect). Whether reasonable suspicion was revived by subsequent events, including Galaviz's failure to heed Webber's commands to stop, Galaviz's kicking, banging, and screaming in an attempt to gain entry to the house, and Webber's lack of clarity as to whether Galaviz forced his way into the house or was permitted to enter by the residents, is a close question we need not reach because, even assuming arguendo that Webber lacked reasonable suspicion to seize Galaviz, discovery of the gun is not a fruit of the poisonous tree. See Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 487-88, 83 S.Ct. 407, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963). The gun may only be suppressed if its discovery is a fruit of the seizure of Galaviz. [T]he `fruit of the poisonous tree' doctrine... bars the admissibility of evidence which police derivatively obtain from an unconstitutional search or seizure. United States v. Williams, 615 F.3d 657, 668 (6th Cir.2010) (quoting United States v. Pearce, 531 F.3d 374, 381 (6th Cir.2008)). Not all evidence the discovery of which shares some causal connection to an unconstitutional seizure should be suppressed, however. The Supreme Court has never h[e]ld that all evidence is `fruit of the poisonous tree' simply because it would not have come to light but for the illegal actions of the police. Rather, the more apt question in such a case is whether, granting establishment of the primary illegality, the evidence to which instant objection is made has been come at by exploitation of that illegality or instead by means sufficiently distinguishable to be purged of the primary taint. Hudson v. Michigan, 547 U.S. 586, 592, 126 S.Ct. 2159, 165 L.Ed.2d 56 (2006) (quoting Wong Sun, 371 U.S. at 487-88, 83 S.Ct. 407) (internal quotation marks omitted). Here, the gun was discovered by police officers who arrived at the scene in response to Webber's call for backup. Those officers observed the gun either while Webber was still searching for Galaviz inside the house, or contemporaneous with the arrest of Galaviz in the basement. They discovered the gun because it was in plain view, and not as a result of anything Galaviz said or anything found on Galaviz's person after his detention. Although Webber's pursuit of Galaviz was a but-for cause of the officers' discovery of the gun, the gun is not a fruit of the seizure as defined by Wong Sun and progeny.