Court Opinion

ID: 9662908
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 23:21:54.986289+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:43.767642
License: Public Domain

ANNE GARDNER, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. The totality of the circumstances, including Officer Carra-by’s training and experience, the locality, the date, the time of evening, the information conveyed to him by dispatch, and his independent observations established reasonable suspicion for Appellant’s detention for further investigation. It was dark at 8:00 p.m. on New Year’s Eve when Joe and Joanna Holden ordered food from the McDonald’s restaurant drive-through. The third time Appellant parked close to them, Joe felt intimidated and uncomfortable. At Joanna’s insistence, Joe called 911. He identified himself to the 911 operator, described the vehicle, and recited its license number. Joe did not remember exactly what else he told dispatch but “basically there was some suspicious behavior with the vehicle. And, you know, kind [sic] what they had done.” Meanwhile, Appellant drove to the adjacent Wal-Mart parking lot, where Joanna obseived Appellant “pulling into parking spots and staying there for about the same amount of time that he was observing us, and then pulling out and moving into different parking spots, and kind of closer to the door.” Joe lost track of the vehicle, and then police cars arrived “from everywhere.” Before Joe and Joanna left the scene, a police officer spoke to them, and they gave him their contact information. On cross-examination, Joe conceded that he did not see Appellant commit a crime or make threatening gestures toward Joe and Joanna but described his behavior as “intimidating.”
Officer Carraby was a certified peace officer with training and about one year of experience as a Lewisville police officer at the time of the incident. He testified that he was familiar with the area where the McDonald’s and Wal-Mart were located because it was his regular area of patrol. It was common, Officer Carraby said, for him to receive dispatches about suspicious vehicles or persons. He received the dispatch concerning a suspicious vehicle “circling” the Wal-Mart parking lot. The dispatcher gave him the vehicle’s description and license number and identified Joe Holden as the citizen who had reported the vehicle. Officer Carraby and another officer in a different patrol car responded to the dispatch and drove to the Wal-Mart parking lot. Officer Carraby located and personally observed Appellant’s vehicle still driving around and parking in the Wal-Mart lot.
Officer Carraby testified that dispatch “advised that the complainant caller, Joe Holden, stated that the vehicle was circling the parking lot, and he believed it to be suspicious.” Officer Carraby further testified that, based upon his training and experience and what he had been taught at the academy and in field training, it is “not normal” for vehicles to drive around parking lots at night. He identified the vehicle based on the license plate, make, and model of the car provided by the Holdens; *814observed the vehicle being driven around the parking lot; and detained the vehicle based upon the information dispatch gave him and his belief that “there was possible criminal activity afoot.”
The trial court denied Appellant’s motion to suppress. After trial, the tidal court made findings of fact and conclusions of law regarding Appellant’s detention, concluding that Officer Carraby “clearly had reasonable suspicion to detain the Defendant to investigate his suspicious behavior and possible involvement in criminal activity” and that the case was “almost on point” with Bobo v. State, 843 S.W.2d 572, 575 (Tex.Crim.App.1992).
The majority opinion disagrees with the trial court’s reliance upon Bobo, reasoning that the officer in that case received information that a citizen informant had observed “criminal behavior.” The majority distinguishes Bobo from the case before us on the ground that the vehicle here was deemed suspicious merely because it was circling a parking lot, which is not criminal behavior. Maj. Op. at p. 811. I disagree that this is a valid distinction.
It is well-settled that reasonable suspicion exists when, based on the totality of the circumstances, the officer has specific, articulable facts that when combined with rational inferences that may be drawn from those facts, would lead him to reasonably conclude that a particular person is, has been, or soon will be engaged in criminal activity. Curtis v. State, 238 S.W.3d 376, 380-81 (Tex.Crim.App.2007) (citing Woods v. State, 956 S.W.2d 33, 38 (Tex.Crim.App.1997)). When a detention is based upon conduct by the suspect, that conduct need not itself be unlawful or in some sense inconsistent with innocence. Woods, 956 S.W.2d at 38 (paraphrasing U.S. v. Sokolow, 490 U.S. 1, 7, 109 S.Ct. 1581, 1585, 104 L.Ed.2d 1 (1989)).
“[Ijnnocent behavior will frequently provide the basis for a showing of probable cause.” Id. at 38. Where innocent behavior is the basis for a determination of reasonable suspicion, the relevant inquiry “is not whether particular conduct is innocent or criminal, but the degree of suspicion that attaches to particular types of noncriminal acts.” Id. at 38. The reasonableness of the suspicion must be determined by the “totality of the circumstances.” Sokolow, 490 U.S. at 8, 109 S.Ct. at 1585-86; see Vafaiyan v. State, 279 S.W.3d 374, 379-80 (Tex.App.-Fort Worth 2008, pet. ref'd) (holding purchases of small amounts of cold medicine containing Sudafed formed sufficient basis for reasonable suspicion in light of totality of circumstances).
Additionally, contrary to the majority opinion’s characterization of Bobo’s holding, the court of criminal appeals never said in that case that the two suspicious persons milling around the townhouses were engaged in criminal activity. The most that the opinion in Bobo says is that they were observed “in an area where they should not be.” Bobo, 843 S.W.2d at 575. Moreover, the court in Bobo did not hold that reasonable suspicion for temporary detention was created by the report of that conduct. Instead, the court of criminal appeals looked to all of the surrounding circumstances and held that the officer’s fifteen years of law enforcement experience, seeing the individuals leaving the area who matched the descriptions of the suspicious persons, as well as the report of the citizen identifying them as suspicious persons around several homes, and the observation of appellant — who matched the description in the report, provided the officer with a reasonable, articulable basis to conclude that further investigation was necessary. Id.; Kendrick v. State, 93 S.W.3d 230, 237 (Tex.App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 2002, pet. ref'd) (relevant inquiry not *815whether conduct is criminal or civil but the degree of suspicion that attaches to particular types of noncriminal acts); Sargent v. State, 56 S.W.3d 720, 724 (Tex.App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 2001, pet. ref'd) (multiple calls from pay phone, innocent standing alone, justified detention where coupled with visits to trailer known for heroin sales and failure to identify); Jackson v. State, No. 05-99-00361-CR, 2001 WL 8867, at *3 (Tex.App.-Dallas 2001, no pet.) (gesture as if to hide something in defendant’s pants, although seemingly innocent, sufficient to justify detention coupled with initial attempt to leave scene and experience of officer, citing Bobo, 843 S.W.2d at 575).
A citizen’s suspicious person report can be enough to support an officer’s reasonable suspicion for a detention, provided the facts are adequately corroborated by the officer.1 Brother v. State, 166 S.W.3d 255, 258-59 (Tex.Crim.App.2005). Information from a citizen who has actually witnessed a criminal event is considered inherently reliable and will support a temporary detention if sufficiently corroborated. Hime v. State, 998 S.W.2d 893, 895 (Tex.App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 1999, pet. ref'd). The informant’s willingness to be held accountable further enhances his reliability. Id; Reesing v. State, 140 S.W.3d 732, 736 (Tex.App.-Austin 2004, pet. ref'd). But citizen-informant tips of behavior that is merely suspicious and consistent with criminal activity may also be used to establish reasonable suspicion for a temporary detention. Bobo, 843 S.W.2d at 575 (report by citizen sufficient that identified suspicious persons around several homes where they should not be, leaving in an automobile, and officer’s fifteen years’ experience); State v. Fudge, 42 S.W.3d 226, 230 (Tex.App.-Austin 2001, pet. ref'd) (upholding stop based on face-to-face report pointing out driver of vehicle and stating that he “could not stay on the road”); see also Soto v. State, No. 09-07-00336-CR, 2008 WL 4936844, at *2 (Tex.App.-Beaumont Nov. 12, 2008, no pet.) (mem. op., not designated for publication) (911 call reporting unidentified vehicle parked in driveway, although caller did not know what driver was doing, what he intended, or what he had done, reasonably supported investigative stop); Santa Cruz v. State, No. 04-01-00762-CR, 2002 WL 31465799, at *1-2 (Tex.App.-San Antonio Nov. 6, 2002, no pet.) (not designated for publication) (holding officer had reasonable suspicion to stop defendant based on call about a “suspicious vehicle” matching defendant’s vehicle and statement from unknown woman who appeared frightened, that “the car he was looking for was behind him”).
The majority cites State v. Griffey, 241 S.W.3d 700, 704 (Tex.App.-Austin 2007, pet. ref'd), as holding that an officer lacked reasonable suspicion based upon a restaurant manager’s report that a woman was passed out behind the wheel in the drive-through line, “which does not constitute criminal behavior.” Maj. Op. at p. 811 (quoting from Griffey, 241 S.W.3d at 705). However, that the conduct described in the report was not criminal was not the basis for the court’s holding that the officer lacked reasonable suspicion. Instead, the Austin court of appeals con-*816eluded that the report, standing alone, was insufficient to establish reasonable suspicion because there was no corroboration of it and, instead, the responding officer found the woman awake, directly contradicting the information in the report.2 Griffey, 241 S.W.3d at 704. Unlike the report in Griffey, the information provided by the dispatcher here was consistent with, corroborated, and confirmed by what Officer Carraby observed upon his arrival at the scene — Appellant was still driving around the Wal-Mart parking lot and the license plate, make, and model of the vehicle matched the description given by Joe Holden.
I agree with the trial court that Bubo is on point, and that case supports the trial court’s reasonable suspicion determination in this case. Joe Holden’s 911 call about Appellant’s “suspicious” behavior in driving or circling around the parking lot is like the “suspicious persons” call in Bobo about the individuals milling around the townhouses.3 See Bobo, 843 S.W.2d at 573. As in Bobo, Officer Carraby was able to identify Appellant’s vehicle based on the information provided by the citizen-informant. See id. In addition, upon his arrival at the scene, Officer Carraby independently observed the exact behavior by Appellant that had been reported by Holden, circling the Wal-Mart parking lot, which in Officer Carraby’s experience was not normal. And this behavior was occurring around 8:00 p.m., after dark on New Year’s Eve, a night when it is unlikely that the stores remained open for business but not unlikely that a driver might have consumed an excessive amount of alcohol. The only salient difference between the detention in Bobo and the one in this case is that the detaining officer in Bobo had fifteen years’ experience — a factor cited by the court of criminal appeals — and Officer Carraby had just one year of experience. See id. at 575. I cannot see how the difference in the officers’ experience compels a different outcome, particularly in light of the fact that this Wal-Mart parking lot was part of Officer Carraby’s regular patrol, and the officer in each case testified that his law-enforcement experience played a role in forming his suspicion that crime was afoot.
Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the trial court’s ruling, I would hold that, examining the totality of the circumstances, Officer Carraby had specific articulable facts, which taken together with the rational inferences that could be drawn from those facts, provided reasonable suspicion that Appellant was, had been, or soon would be, engaged in criminal activity, to-wit: driving while under the influence of alcohol. I would hold that the trial court did not err by concluding that Officer Carraby had reasonable suspicion to justify Appellant’s detention and by overruling the motion to suppress, and would proceed to consider Appellant’s *817remaining points. Because the majority holds otherwise, I dissent.

. There is no issue here as lo anonymity of the tipster as in State v. Jennings, 958 S.W.2d 930, 933-34 (Tex.App.-Amarillo 1997, no pet.), cited by the majority. Nor is there any question whether the facts were adequately corroborated. The caller relayed to the dispatcher the suspicious vehicle's movements in the parking lot, provided the make, model, and license number of the vehicle, and made himself accountable by providing his identity and contact information and remaining at the scene until the officers arrived. See Brother, 166 S.W.3d at 259; Pipkin v. State, 114 S.W.3d 649, 654 (Tex.App.-Fort Worth 2003, no pet.).

. The court in Griffey cited Cornejo v. State, 917 S.W.2d 480 (Tex.App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 1996, pet. ref'd) as an example of the most reliable form of citizen-informant tip, information given by victims of a drive-by shooting that gang members had fired at them. Griffey, 241 S.W.3d at 704-05. But the information in Cornejo was not given as a citizen-informant tip; rather, it was given as statements by the victims after the police arrived on the scene; and the issue was not reasonable suspicion to detain the alleged driver-shooter but probable cause for a war-rantless arrest. Cornejo, 917 S.W.2d at 483. Neither Griffey nor Cornejo stands for the proposition that citizen-informant tips will only support reasonable suspicion for detention if the conduct they report is criminal activity.

. There is no evidence in the record that the Wal-Mart and adjacent Sam’s Club were open for business at 8:00 p.m. on that New Year's eve.