Court Opinion

ID: 2964040
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2015-09-21 21:19:30.427748+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:00:35.389289
License: Public Domain

USCA1 Opinion

	

          May 3, 1996           [NOT FOR PUBLICATION]

                            UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                                FOR THE FIRST CIRCUIT

                                                     
                                 ____________________

        No. 95-2276

                              UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

                                      Appellee,

                                          v.

                                 FARRELL SUTHERLAND,

                                Defendant, Appellant.

                                                     
                                 ____________________

                     APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

                              FOR THE DISTRICT OF MAINE

                       [Hon. Gene Carter, U.S. District Judge]
                                          ___________________

                                                     
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                                        Before

                                Cyr, Boudin and Lynch,

                                   Circuit Judges.
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                                 ____________________

             Robert A. Levine, with whom Law  Offices of Robert A. Levine  was
             ________________            ________________________________
        on brief for appellant.
             F. Mark Terison,  Assistant United States Attorney, with whom Jay
             _______________                                               ___
        P. McCloskey, United States Attorney, was on brief for appellee.
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                                 ____________________

                                                     
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                    Per Curiam.  Defendant  Farrell Sutherland, who entered
                    Per Curiam.
                    ___ ______

          conditional  guilty pleas  to two  bank robbery  charges, see  18
                                                                    ___

          U.S.C.    2113(a), appeals  the adverse suppression  rulings upon

          which his pleas were conditioned.  See Fed. R. Crim. P. 11(a)(2).
                                             ___

          We affirm.

                    Sutherland claims that the police did not have probable

          cause to arrest him on March 18, 1995, after stopping the taxi in

          which he and  a female companion were traveling  to Massachusetts

          following  a bank robbery in Portland, Maine.  The district court

          made supportable findings that:  (i) the bank robbery  investiga-

          tion  had  focused on  the  passengers  in this  particular  taxi

          because bank surveillance photographs, and an eyewitness  report,

          revealed  that Sutherland  had  committed two  bank robberies  in

          Portland,  the  most recent  having been  at  9:00 a.m.  the same

          morning;  (ii) an  ABC taxi  had been dispatched  to Sutherland's

          Portland residence  around 11:00 a.m. to  transport Sutherland   

          and a female companion  suspected of assisting him in  an earlier

          Portland bank  robbery    to  Lynn, Massachusetts; and  (iii) the

          Portland  police  had  notified  the  Massachusetts  State Police

          ("MSP")  to  stop the  taxi,  and  provided a  specific  physical

          description of Sutherland, including  items of his clothing (grey

          or white sweatshirt  and black leather jacket), together with the

          information that he  had obtained  $2,460 in $20  bills from  the

          bank robbery earlier that day. 

                    Upon stopping the taxi, which contained two passengers,

          a male  and a female, the MSP observed a black leather jacket and

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          a grey sweatshirt inside the vehicle.  The male passenger matched

          the physical description provided by the Portland police.1  

                    We  review  the district  court's factual  findings for

          clear  error, see United States  v. Martinez-Molina, 64 F.3d 719,
                        ___ _____________     _______________

          726 (1st Cir. 1995), whereas its ultimate  legal determination as

          to whether a  given set  of facts established  probable cause  is

          subject to plenary review,  see United States v. Zapata,  18 F.3d
                                      ___ _____________    ______

          971, 975 (1st Cir. 1994).  There is probable cause for a warrant-

          less arrest  if "the  facts and  circumstances within  [the offi-

          cer[s']] knowledge and of which [they] had reasonably trustworthy

          information  were sufficient  to  warrant a  prudent [person]  in

          believing that the [defendant]  had committed . . .  an offense."

          Alexis v. McDonald's Restaurants of Mass., Inc., 67 F.3d 341, 349
          ______    _____________________________________

          (1st Cir. 1995) (some brackets in original).  These findings were

          sufficient  to  support  the district  court's  "probable  cause"

          ruling.2 

                    Sutherland next claims that his post-Miranda confession
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          ____________________

               1Furthermore, after the two passengers were removed from the
          vehicle, the  female immediately  consented  to a  search of  her
          purse, which  was found to contain  $2,300 in $20 bills.   As the
          district court considered  the evidence seized from  the purse in
          arriving at its probable cause determination, it implicitly found
          that the consensual search preceded Sutherland's arrest.  We find
          no  clear error.  See  United States v.  Martinez-Molina, 64 F.3d
                            ___  _____________     _______________
          719, 726 (1st Cir. 1995).  

               2Appellant vigorously insists that  the search of his person
          which occurred  at roadside,  after  the police  pulled down  his
          trousers  to  inhibit his  movement, invalidated  his warrantless
          arrest.   We  have  been presented  with  no reasoned  basis  for
          concluding that  a brief roadside protective  search for weapons,
          see Terry  v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1,  26 (1968), undermined the arrest
          ___ _____     ____                          __________ ___ ______
          itself,  particularly  since  the  roadside  search  disclosed no
          ______
          evidence. 

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          was involuntary, since he was undergoing heroin withdrawal at the

          time, such that  a promise  the police made  to provide him  with

          methadone treatment was tantamount to coercion.  An unimpeachable

          district court finding  conclusively undermines the  involuntari-

          ness  claim.  After  hearing conflicting testimony  as to whether

          Sutherland  had  been promised  methadone  treatments, the  court

          accepted the version  provided by  the police.   Thus, there  can

          have been no clear error.   United States v. Valle, 72  F.3d 210,
                                      _____________    _____

          214 (1st Cir. 1995) (trial judge's credibility choice between two

          plausible versions of the events cannot be clearly erroneous).  

                    Affirmed.
                    Affirmed
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