Court Opinion

ID: 9774111
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 18:09:04.766105+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:02.301908
License: Public Domain

O’CONNOR, Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent.
Appellant argues that his detention was tantamount to an illegal seizure that tainted his consent to search the trunk of the car. The majority rejects this contention, reasoning that the seizure of appellant was not tantamount to an arrest requiring probable cause. I respectfully note that the majority has incorrectly distinguished between the terms “arrest" and “seizure” and rewritten the Constitutional require*519ment that an individual shall not be seized without probable cause.
This case involves two analyses: reasonable suspicion to investigate and probable cause to seize an individual. To justify an investigative detention, the officer must have a reasonable suspicion, based on specific, articulated facts that, in light of the officer’s experience and general knowledge, lead the officer to the reasonable conclusion that criminal activity is underway and that the detained person is connected with the activity. Johnson v. State, 658 S.W.2d 623, 626 (Tex.Crim.App.1983); Pickens v. State, 712 S.W.2d 560, 562 (Tex.App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1986, pet. ref'd); see Florida v. Royer, 460 U.S. 491, 498,103 S.Ct. 1319, 1324, 75 L.Ed.2d 229 (1983). To justify a warrantless seizure, the officer must have probable cause to believe the person has committed or is about to commit an offense. Beck v. Ohio, 379 U.S. 89, 91, 85 S.Ct. 223, 225, 13 L.Ed.2d 142 (1964); Delaporte v. State, 471 S.W.2d 856, 856-57 (Tex.Crim.App.1971).
Appellant argues both the initial questioning by the officers and the removal to the Customs area were a “seizure.” I will assess the legality of the initial stop separately from the legality of the continuing detention.
The investigatory stop
In point of error one, appellant contends that the officers’ original approach cannot be justified under an airport hijacker exception to the constitutional protections afforded citizens. The threshold inquiry is whether the officers had reasonable suspicion to justify the investigatory stop. See Pickens, 712 S.W.2d at 562. An officer may stop a suspicious individual briefly, to determine his or her identity, or to maintain the status quo, or to get additional information. Johnson, 658 S.W.2d at 626. An officer may not detain an individual based on a hunch. Id.
A temporary, investigative detention, which is less of an intrusion than a seizure, may be justified under circumstances that do not justify a seizure of an individual. Leighton v. State, 544 S.W.2d 394, 397 (Tex.Crim.App.1976). But, an investigative detention must be temporary and last no longer than is necessary to carry out the purpose of the stop. Lopez v. State, 663 S.W.2d 587, 589 (Tex.App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1983, pet. ref’d). The police should use the least intrusive means reasonably available to verify or dispel suspicion in a short period of time. Royer, 460 U.S. at 500, 103 S.Ct. at 1325-26; Lopez, 663 S.W.2d at 589. Reasonable suspicion of crime is not enough to justify custodial interrogation, even though the interrogation is investigative. Dunaway v. New York, 442 U.S. 200, 211, 99 S.Ct. 2248, 2256, 60 L.Ed.2d 824 (1979).
The initial stop
In this case, the officers saw appellant shaking hands and talking with the suspects from Atlanta. The officers then saw appellant leaving the terminal with them. The officers could have reasonably concluded that appellant knew the suspects. These facts justified the officers’ conduct in briefly detaining appellant to ask him about his association with the suspects. Morrow v. State, 151 S.W.2d 484, 490 (Tex.App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1988, pet. ref’d). I agree with the majority that the initial encounter between appellant and the police in the open lobby area by the exit door did not constitute an unlawful detention.
The investigative detention = arrest
Where I part company with the majority is in defining when the initial encounter stopped and the inquiry became an investigative detention, and when that became an arrest. The majority holds that removal of appellant to a locked area and repeated questioning of him did not constitute an arrest, but was merely an investigative detention.
An officer seizes a person when the officer, by the show of official authority, in some way restrains that person’s liberty. Morrow, 757 S.W.2d at 490; Tex.Code Crim. P.Ann. art. 15.22 (Vernon 1977 & Supp. 1991). Whenever an officer restrains the freedom of a person to walk away, he has seized that person. United States v. Brig*520oni-Ponce, 422 U.S. 873, 878, 95 S.Ct. 2574, 2578, 45 L.Ed.2d 607 (1975). The test to determine if a seizure has occurred is whether, from the detainee’s point of view, there has been such a display of official authority that a reasonable person would have believed he was not free to leave. Morrow, 757 S.W.2d at 490; see United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544, 554-55, 100 S.Ct. 1870, 1877, 64 L.Ed.2d 497 (1980). The standard is objective and is not based on the particular individual’s perception at the time of the event. A seizure without probable cause violates the fourth amendment prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures. U.S. Const. amend. IV.
Here, I discuss three cases that have examined whether an investigative stop in an airport becomes an illegal seizure when the police ask a defendant to walk to a nearby detention office for additional interrogation: United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544,100 S.Ct. 1870, 64 L.Ed.2d 497 (1980); Florida v. Royer, 460 U.S. 491, 103 S.Ct. 1319, 75 L.Ed.2d 229 (1983); and United States v. Berry, 670 F.2d 583 (5th Cir.1982).
In Mendenhall, the officers who stopped the defendant wore no uniforms and displayed no weapons. They requested, but did not demand, to see the defendant’s identification; they returned the identification; and they asked the defendant to accompany them to the DEA office. The Court articulated certain factors that might indicate a seizure, including the following: the threatening presence of several officers, the display of a weapon by an officer, some physical touching of the person of the citizen, or the use of language or tone of voice indicating that compliance with the officer’s request might be compelled. In a five to four opinion, the Court held the stop was merely an investigative detention; it was not an arrest.
In Royer, the officers stopped the defendant at the airport and asked him to identify himself. When the defendant gave a name that was different from that on his ticket, the officers asked him to explain the discrepancy. The defendant told the officers that another person made the reservations for him. Without returning his ticket, the officers told the defendant that they were narcotics investigators and that they suspected him of transporting narcotics. The officers asked the defendant to accompany them to a room adjacent to the concourse. In the room, the officers continued questioning the defendant. The officers then opened one of his suitcases, found marihuana, and arrested him. Fifteen minutes elapsed from the officers’ initial stop until the announcement of arrest. Royer, 103 S.Ct. at 1325-26. The Supreme Court held the stop was an arrest. Id. at 1327. The Court said that if the officers had returned the defendant’s ticket and informed him he was free to go, the consensual nature of the investigation might have continued. In the absence of these factors, the defendant’s consent to the investigative stop was negated. Royer, 460 U.S. at 503-504, 103 S.Ct. at 1327-28.
The Royer Court went to great lengths to explain that its opinion was consistent with Mendenhall. Royer, 103 S.Ct. at 1327 n. 9. The facts the Court utilized to distinguish between the two cases were that in Royer, the officers did not return the ticket to the defendant (in Mendenhall, the officers gave the ticket back to the defendant); that the officers did not tell the defendant he was free to leave (in Mendenhall, they told the defendant she could leave); and that in Royer, the officers had the defendant’s luggage when they began the interrogation (in Menden-hall, the officers did not have her luggage).
In Berry, the airport officers saw the defendant leaving a plane and thought he looked familiar. The officer stopped the defendant, asked to see his identification, questioned him about a discrepancy, and then asked him to accompany the officer to the DEA office nearby. Berry, 670 F.2d at 588-89. The court noted that the intrusion on the individual was “[tantamount to an arrest.” The court said that requiring an individual to accompany police to an office showed that questioning would be for a prolonged period and would cut the individ*521ual off from the outside world, subjecting the detainee to increased police pressure. Id. at 602. The Fifth Circuit concluded that such a detention is only constitutional if accompanied by probable cause. Id.
Here are two graphs of the parallel progress of an officer’s reasonable suspicion and the officer’s permissible intrusion. The progress of the suspicion must precede the progress of the intrusion.
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In the case now before this Court, appellant said he believed he was under arrest and could not leave the Customs area. He saw a member of the group who attempted to leave the airport brought back by the officers for more questioning. Officer Ber-nias testified that the Customs area of the airport is closed to the public and is accessible only by card key. Approximately 25 minutes elapsed from the initial stop until the announcement of arrest. He was not told he was free to leave. Appellant also testified the officers did not tell him he could contact an attorney or give him Miranda warnings during the time he was in the Customs area. See Perchitti v. State, 659 S.W.2d 75, 77 (Tex.App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 1983, no pet.). The giving of Miranda warnings is one factor that a court may consider in assessing the voluntariness of consent to search. See, e.g., United States v. Watson, 423 U.S. 411, 425, 96 S.Ct. 820, 828, 46 L.Ed.2d 598 (1976). Appellant's car keys were taken by the officer who questioned him.
The State does not contend that the officers had probable cause to detain appellant. Rather, the State argues that the officers had reasonable suspicion to remove appellant to the Customs area and question him because of his association with the suspects.1 The majority denigrates fundamental rights guaranteed under the fourth amendment when it agrees with the State’s position.
First, the majority concedes that “once appellant was in the customs area, it would have been reasonable for him to believe he was being detained and was not free to leave.” As discussed above in this dissent, such a detention rises to the level of a “seizure” of the individual.
Incredibly, the majority then concludes that the warrantless seizure of appellant needed only to be supported by reasonable suspicion. The reasons given by the majority for this conclusion are the following:
1. The detention was temporary.
2. The detention was warranted because of the public interest in the suppression of illegal transactions in drugs.
3. Appellant was not taken to a small room. He was in a large room, approximately 10 times the size of a courtroom.
*5224. His “checked luggage” was not retrieved by police and brought to the room during his questioning.
5. The police did not hold onto his identification during the questioning.
I fail to find any of these facts relevant or persuasive. The removal of appellant to a non-access, locked area for a period of approximately 25 minutes of intense one-on-one questioning by a police officer was neither “temporary” nor “warranted.” A large, locked room is no less formidable than a small, locked room. Appellant had no luggage, as he was not a passenger on the plane. Finally, the record does not address whether the police retained appellant’s identification, though the testimony does indicate that the officer kept appellant’s car keys once they were produced.
The fourth amendment does not speak of “arrests,” but of “seizures” of persons. A warrantless seizure of an individual must be based on probable cause, not reasonable suspicion. Dunaway, 442 U.S. at 213-14, 99 S.Ct. at 2257-58. See Hayes v. Florida, 470 U.S. 811, 814, 105 S.Ct. 1643, 1646, 84 L.Ed.2d 705 (1985). The majority imposes a distinction based on semantics that has no Constitutional precedent or basis.
The test for probable cause for a seizure without a warrant, as stated by the Supreme Court of the United States in Beck, 379 U.S. at 91, 85 S.Ct. at 225, is:
Whether at that moment the facts and circumstances within the officer’s knowledge and of which [he] had reasonably trustworthy information were sufficient to warrant a prudent man in believing that the [arrested person] had committed or was committing an offense.
Britton v. State, 578 S.W.2d 685, 689 (Tex.Crim.App.1979).
Once appellant disclaimed any association with the suspects and did not exhibit any other indicia of criminal activity, the officers should have realized that they had no probable cause to detain him. Instead, the officers asked appellant to move to a secluded area of the airport terminal to continue the interrogation. A reasonable person would have assumed he was under arrest at the time he was moved from the lobby to the Customs area of the airport. I believe the seizure of appellant was not supported by probable cause and was, therefore, illegal.
I would sustain points of error two and three.
The search of the car
In point of error four, appellant argues that the search was illegal under both the United States and Texas Constitutions. The State contends that appellant gave a valid consent to Officer Bernias to search his car and, thus, removed the taint of any illegal detention.
When the State attempts to prove that a person, under an illegal detention, consented to a search, the State must prove, by clear and convincing evidence, that the consent was voluntary. Juarez v. State, 758 S.W.2d 772, 775 (Tex.Crim.App.1988); Rumbaugh v. State, 629 S.W.2d 747, 751 (Tex.Crim.App.1982). The State must prove more than just a peaceful, involuntary submission to a display of authority. Morrow, 757 S.W.2d at 491. To eliminate any taint from an illegal seizure of an individual, the State must offer proof that the consent was both voluntary and that it was not the product of the illegal detention. Berry, 670 F.2d at 604.
The Supreme Court of the United States has reasoned that once the connection between the lawless conduct of the police and the discovery of the challenged evidence has become so “attenuated as to dissipate the taint,” the evidence is admissible against a defendant who has suffered a violation of his rights. Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 488, 83 S.Ct. 407, 417, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963).
This Court recently considered whether the connection between an illegal arrest and the defendant’s consent to search, obtained during his illegal detention, was sufficiently attenuated from the primary taint to permit the items seized to be used at trial. Martinez v. State, 792 S.W.2d 525, 529 (Tex.App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1990, no pet.). The factors we analyzed in the Martinez case included:
*523(1) The giving of the Miranda warnings;
(2) The temporal proximity of the arrest and the search;
(3) The presence of intervening circumstances; and
(4) The purpose and flagrancy of the officers’ conduct.
Id. at 529, citing Brown v. Illinois, 422 U.S. 590, 604-605, 95 S.Ct. 2254, 2261-62, 45 L.Ed.2d 416 (1975); Ball v. State, 724 S.W.2d 780, 783 (Tex.Crim.App.1986).
In the present case, appellant was not given Miranda warnings. Though Miranda warnings do not cover a defendant’s right to refuse to consent to a search, the officers maintain that appellant was told he was free to withhold consent to search both the car and the trunk of the car. In considering the temporal proximity of the arrest and the search, I note that no circumstances intervened between the illegal seizure of appellant and the request for consent to search. Officer Bernias took appellant’s keys and followed appellant directly from the Customs area to his car. Finally, though the purpose of the officers’ conduct was to investigate the possibility of a narcotics transaction, the appellant’s consent to search would probably not have been obtained independently of the continuing illegal detention of appellant. I find that the illegal seizure of appellant is so closely related in time and purpose to the consent to search that the consent cannot be excised from the illegal seizure. Such conduct by the officers was flagrant in light of my conclusion that the officers lacked probable cause for the seizure of appellant.
I cannot conclude that the prosecution proved, by clear and convincing evidence, that the consent by appellant that allowed Bernias to search the trunk of his car was voluntary. Further, when examining the evidence presented at the suppression hearing in light of the factors set forth by this Court in the Martinez case, I am unable to state affirmatively that the evidence seized by the officers was obtained by means sufficiently distinguishable from the arrest to purge it of the primary taint of illegality.
I would sustain point of error four, reverse the judgment, and remand the cause to the trial court.

. Appellant exhibited no conduct that was different from that of any other citizen. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has expressly stated that conduct such as nervousness or lying when asked a question does not constitute grounds for reasonable suspicion. Daniels v. State, 718 S.W.2d 702, 705 (Tex.Crim.App.1986).