Court Opinion

ID: 9494689
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 15:44:09.000125+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:52:17.704233
License: Public Domain

ILANA DIAMOND ROVNER, Circuit Judge,
with whom DIANE P. WOOD and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges, join, dissenting.
Like Judge Cudahy, I believe that the Fourth Amendment limits the scope as well as the duration of a traffic stop, so that it was improper for Officer Chiola to ask Childs whether he had any drugs on his person unless the officer had a reasonable, articulable basis for believing that he might. To that extent, I join Judge Cu-dahy’s concurrence.
Unlike my colleague, however, I do not believe that Officer Chiola had the requisite reasonable suspicion that would have enabled him to ask Childs about narcotics. Only three circumstances suggested to Chiola that Childs might be up to something illegal: (1) marijuana had been discovered in Childs’ possession three days earlier, when Chiola arrested him; (2) Childs appeared nervous to Chiola; and (3) during the prior encounter, Childs had not seemed nervous to Chiola. These facts certainly supported a hunch that Childs might again have marijuana in his possession, and as it turned out, Chiola’s intuition was dead-on accurate. But even an inspired hunch will not justify an investigatory detention — or here, expanding the scope of a traffic stop beyond its original purpose. See United States v. Feliciano, 45 F.3d 1070, 1072 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 516 U.S. 853, 116 S.Ct. 153, 133 L.Ed.2d 97 (1995). Rather, the articulable facts must support an objectively reasonable suspicion that the individual whom the officer wishes to question has just committed, is committing, or is about to commit a crime. See Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 21-22, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1879-80, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968).
Although an individual’s prior criminal acts and nervous demeanor are certainly factors that may contribute to reasonable suspicion, they do not alone establish such suspicion. A history of committing a particular type of crime no doubt suggests a willingness and ability to commit that act and perhaps — for investigatory if not evi-dentiary purposes (see Fed.R.Evid. 404(b)) — a predisposition to do so again. Feliciano, 45 F.3d at 1074. But without additional facts suggesting that a crime actually has been, or is about to be committed, a criminal record alone cannot justify detaining an individual for questioning. United States v. Jerez, 108 F.3d 684, 693 (7th Cir.1997).
If the law were otherwise, any person with any sort of criminal record — or even worse, a person with arrests but no convictions — could be subjected to a Terry-type investigative stop by a law enforcement officer at any time without the need for any other justification at all. Any such rule would clearly run counter to the requirement of a reasonable suspicion, and of the need that such *962stops be justified in light of a balancing of the competing interests at stake....
United States v. Sandoval, 29 F.3d 537, 543 (10th Cir.1994) (emphasis in original). A nervous demeanor arguably is more telling than one’s criminal history of what he is up to at present. Cf. Illinois v. Wardlow, 528 U.S. 119, 124, 120 S.Ct. 673, 676, 145 L.Ed.2d 570 (2000). But because many law-abiding persons are anxious and fidgety when stopped by the police, see United States v. Salzano, 158 F.3d 1107, 1113 (10th Cir.1998), apparent nervousness likewise does not, by itself, give rise to a reasonable suspicion that a crime may be in progress. E.g., United States v. Brown, 188 F.3d 860, 865 (7th Cir.1999); see also United States v. Chavez-Valenzuela, 268 F.3d 719, 725-26 (9th Cir.2001). Together, these circumstances — a previous crime and a present nervousness — can color the interpretation of the other facts confronting an officer; but without more they do not reasonably suggest that someone is involved in criminal activity. Compare United States v. McRae, 81 F.3d 1528, 1535-36 (10th Cir.1996) (defendant’s criminal record and unusually intense demeanor while watching officer, coupled with answers to questions concerning the return of his rental car that were vague and inconsistent with rental agreement itself, supported reasonable suspicion), with United States v. Sprinkle, 106 F.3d 613, 617-18 (4th Cir.1997) (defendant’s criminal history and evasive behavior — raising his hand to hide his face as if to conceal identity from passing police officers and immediately driving away — did not give rise to reasonable suspicion, even when coupled with presence in neighborhood known for narcotics trafficking and officers’ observation of him huddled with another individual toward center console of car with their hands close together), and United States v. Davis, 94 F.3d 1465, 1469-70 (10th Cir.1996) (defendant’s criminal history and evasive attitude — walking away from police, dropping eye contact, and keeping hands in pockets — did not, even when coupled with presence in high-crime neighborhood, give rise to reasonable suspicion).
Like Officer Chiola, Judge Cudahy finds it noteworthy that in contrast to Childs’ calm demeanor on the occasion of his prior arrest, he was visibly nervous when confronted by Chiola for the second time. Some of the cases addressing nervousness note that unless an officer knows how an individual normally acts when confronted by the police, his anxiety on a given occasion is not particularly probative because, as already noted, it would not be unusual for a law-abiding citizen to display anxiety when stopped and questioned by a law enforcement official. See Chavez-Valenzuela, 268 F.3d at 725, quoting Salzano, 158 F.3d at 1113; United States v. Bloom, 975 F.2d 1447, 1458 (10th Cir.1992), overruled in part on other grounds by United States v. Little, 18 F.3d 1499 (10th Cir.1994) (en banc). Thus the significance of Childs’ change in demeanor: having been cool as a cucumber during his first encounter with Chiola, the thinking goes, Childs would not have been nervous on the subsequent encounter unless he had something to hide.
But I think it is overstating the relevance of Childs’ newfound apprehension to say that it was enough to make the difference between a mere hunch and a reasonable suspicion that Childs might have drugs on his person. Chiola’s previous encounter with Childs had, after all, culminated in an arrest. It does not strike me at all unusual or suspicious that an individual arrested by a policeman only three days earlier would be demonstrably uncomfortable when again stopped and questioned by that officer. The arrest alone— irrespective of the reason for it or what *963transpired during that arrest — arguably would account for one’s nervousness when confronted on a later occasion by the same officer.
Other than the prior discovery of marijuana in Childs’ possession and the dissipation of his sangfroid, Chiola was confronted with no other circumstance that pointed to criminal activity. No furtive gestures had been observed; he had not been seen transacting business with a known drug dealer; his appearance did not suggest recent drug use. See Sprinkle, 106 F.3d at 617; Davis, 94 F.3d at 1470. Such facts, coupled with his previous arrest and his nervous demeanor, might have supplied an objective basis on which to believe that he was carrying drugs once again. As it was, Officer Chiola had nothing more than a hunch that Childs might be hiding drugs; and that was not enough to permit him to expand the scope of the traffic stop by asking Childs whether he had any drugs in his possession.
To say that these very limited circumstances permitted Officer Chiola to expand the scope of the traffic stop and to question him about narcotics activity would, I fear, accord lesser Fourth Amendment protection to those with criminal records. See Sandoval, 29 F.3d at 643. Many people who have been arrested and/or who have spent time in jail will naturally be skittish when stopped and questioned by the police on subsequent occasions, even if they are doing nothing wrong. The Fourth Amendment demands that an investigatory detention be supported by facts that objectively point to current criminal activity. A recent arrest and a nervous demeanor fall well short of that showing.
I respectfully dissent.