Court Opinion

ID: 9458509
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 20:53:58.606312+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:47.553712
License: Public Domain

MOORE, Circuit Judge
(dissenting):
Here is another illustration, in my opinion, of an appellate court, writing in the comparative safety of its chambers, telling an experienced Federal Narcotics Agent what his subjective reaction should have been when the Agent, during a legitimate “frisk”, discovered an object (contents then unknown) in the pocket of a companion of a just-arrested drug dealer. It was the Agent’s concern as to the object and at that time, not months later on a suppression hearing, that should be the relevant focus of our inquiry. It was the Agent’s throat which might have been cut by a razor, knife or sharp object — not an appellate judge’s.
Only by wholly ignoring the Agent’s testimony can a court hold that the object “could not reasonably have aroused the suspicion of a weapon.” There is no need for speculation; the Agent gave an undisputed account of his reaction.1
Q. At the time you felt the object in Mr. Del Toro’s pocket, what did you believe that the object could have been?
A. I did not know what it was.
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The Court: We are asking you what you thought at the time, not what your present thinking is.
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The Witness [La Briola]: Yes, I am saying what I thought at the time. When I first felt the object, through my mind went a knife or possibly a razor blade.
Q. In your experience as a New York City Policeman, have you had experience to remove objects such as knives or razor blades ?
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A. Yes, I have.
Q. And during the past seven years, on approximately how many occasions have you found personally a knife or a razor blade of approximately that size on a suspect?
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A. Maybe 60 per cent of the time.
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The Witness: Maybe four hundred times, three to four hundred times possibly.2
As it turned out, the object, when removed from the suspect’s pocket, was a folded $10 bill in which were 2.2 grams of cocaine. On some 50 previous occasions, the Agent had seen folded United States currency which contained cocaine. On some 300-400 occasions, knives or razor blades had been found. Therefore, the odds were 300-400 to 50 that the object might well have been dangerous. To the majority it “strains credulity” that the Agent could have “suspected anything other than the possible presence of cocaine.” They hold that “as a matter of law a ten dollar bill folded to a size of 2" x %" and containing 2.2 grams of cocaine” could not reasonably have aroused suspicion of a weapon. But it was the Agent’s experience and his life which count — not the court’s present belief of what the Agent should have thought at the time. If the narcotics traffic is to be stopped or diminished, the Agents should be protected, not hampered. And in the final analysis, the odds in favor of the object containing a razor blade or knife were overwhelming. Therefore, in my opinion, the Agent’s action in removing the ob*524ject and inspecting its contents can only be characterized as “reasonable” under the circumstances.
The law boasts that it is based upon Reason. In this case, Reason motivated the Agent’s acts. It should sustain him now.
I would reverse the order suppressing the seized cocaine.

. In his affidavit submitted in support of a motion to reopen tbe suppression hearing, Jame P. Tierney, Assistant United States Attorney offered inter alia, to present Sergeant Louis Amendola of the New York City Police Department, Crime Analysis Section, who would testify that of some 264,814 total arrests in New York Oity in 1970, some 30,599 cutting instruments (knives, razors) were seized, and that during the first 10 months of 1971 there were some 210,336 arrests in which some 34,829 cutting instruments were seized.

. Transcript of Hearing at 35-38.