Opinion ID: 600741
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Admissibility of the Statements and the Cash

Text: 60 Perea's motion to suppress encompassed not only the contents of the duffel bag but also the cash eventually seized from the back seat of the cab and his postarrest statements to the agents; the latter included the statement that the bag contained narcotics and the revelation that he had hidden the cash in the cab. The admissibility of this evidence will depend largely on the lawfulness of Perea's arrest, which in turn depends on the answers to questions to be addressed on remand. Since the lawfulness of the arrest remains to be determined, we do not address here questions that may arise upon the decision of that issue. 61 We are, however, constrained to note our disagreement with the district court's reliance on Johnson v. Louisiana, 406 U.S. 356, 365, 92 S.Ct. 1620, 1626, 32 L.Ed.2d 152 (1972), for its ruling that the statements and the cash should not be suppressed even if the statements were made after an unlawful arrest because by the time the statements were uttered probable cause had emerged. Johnson was significantly different from the present case. The evidence challenged there was the identification of the defendant from a lineup; the Supreme Court found that any taint resulting from the allegedly unlawful arrest had been purged because in the interval between the arrest and the lineup the defendant had been arraigned before a magistrate who informed him of his rights, and at the time of the lineup he was represented by counsel. We need not address at this time whether authority other than Johnson may support denial of this part of the suppression motion even if the arrest was unlawful.