Court Opinion

ID: 9488540
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 12:48:12.538699+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:52:56.842112
License: Public Domain

WILLIAMS, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
Because I believe that the temporary detention of Torres’s duffel bag was fully supported by a reasonable, articulable suspicion of criminal activity, I must respectfully dissent.
The determination of whether a reasonable, articulable suspicion exists to support a limited detention of an individual’s luggage employs a common sense approach. See United States v. Lender, 985 F.2d 151, 154 (4th Cir.1993). The court must consider “the totality of the circumstances — the whole picture,” weighing the evidence “not in terms of library analysis by scholars, but as understood by those versed in the field of law enforcement.” United States v. Cortez, 449 U.S. 411, 417-18, 101 S.Ct. 690, 694-95, 66 L.Ed.2d 621 (1981). That the facts supporting the reasonable, articulable suspicion, taken singly, do not support an inference of criminal activity is of little or no consequence; the relevant question is whether what the law enforcement officers observed, taken as a whole and including any reasonable inferences therefrom, gives rise to a reasonable, articulable suspicion of criminal activity. See United States v. Colyer, 878 F.2d 469, 480 (D.C.Cir.1989).
Here, the decision to detain Torres’s luggage was supported by eight factors: (1) Torres had departed from New York City, a “source city” for narcotics, see United States v. McFarley, 991 F.2d 1188, 1192 (4th Cir.) (finding arrival from known “source city” to be a factor supporting reasonable, articulable suspicion for detention of luggage), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 114 S.Ct. 393, 126 L.Ed.2d 342 (1993); (2) she was travelling all the way from New York City to Burlington, North Carolina, without knowing anyone in Burlington other than an individual nicknamed “Bookie”; (3) she was instructed to call a non-local phone number when she arrived in Burlington that proved to be listed to a hotel in Raleigh, North Carolina, a city through which she had already passed; (4) Torres became defensive and claimed that she had been asleep during the entire trip from New York City to Burlington when the investigators asked for permission to search the duffel bag, see id. (finding nervousness when speaking to law enforcement officers to be a factor supporting reasonable, articulable suspicion); (5) she stated that she was staying in Burlington only “a couple of days”; (6) she did not know “Bookie’s” surname or address; (7) she paid cash for her tickets; and (8) she was in possession of two tickets issued in different names. Taken together, these facts clearly established the “minimal level of objective justification” required to support the investigative detention of Torres’s bag. See INS v. Delgado, 466 U.S. 210, 217, 104 S.Ct. 1758, 1763, 80 L.Ed.2d 247 (1984). Accordingly, I must dissent.*

 In addition, I would conclude that Torres’s bag was not detained for an unreasonably long period of time. See United States v. Alpert, 816 F.2d 958, 961-63 (4th Cir.1987).