Court Opinion

ID: 9493624
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 15:13:31.918594+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:52:05.712555
License: Public Domain

BEAM, Circuit Judge,
concurring specially.
This is a very close case that has been well presented by defendant’s counsel. And, I agree with Judge Bye’s able articulation of the applicable law and would likely join in the granting of the motion to suppress except that my analysis of the facts is somewhat different than that outlined in the dissenting opinion.
At the outset, I agree that we have held that a package may not be removed from the stream of mail and detained without a warrant unless there exists “a reasonable suspicion based on articulable, objective facts that a package contains contraband.” United States v. Sundby, 186 F.3d 873, 875 (8th Cir.1999). I am not certain, however, that under the “totality of circumstances” test outlined in United States v. Cortez, 449 U.S. 411, 417-18, 101 S.Ct. 690, 66 L.Ed.2d 621 (1981), all pertinent information had to be possessed by Postal Inspector Reeves. The dissent notes that Inspector Reeves had knowledge of Ms. Reeve’s “numerous prior arrests for controlled substances violations, and had served time in prison,” post at 5, only after he had ordered the package removed from the mail. However, it is clear that Investigator Andrew, the supplier of whatever information Inspector Reeves possessed, had discovered this information well before action was taken by Reeves.
However, assuming that Postal Inspector Reeves needed to individually possess all of the information required to develop “reasonable suspicion,” I am still inclined to affirm the district court based upon my understanding of the record. The following exchange occurred between the United States Attorney and Investigator Andrew:
Q: And during this interview, what specific information did Ms. Abbott provide to you?
A: She advised that Jenny Baker and Keith Miller lived with [his] mother, Valarie Reeves, at 1329 Rose Street, and that they were receiving shipments of narcotics — not narcotics, methamphetamines through the mail from California, and that it was being delivered to their mailbox in front of their house by the U.S. mail service.
Transcript at 51.
In my view, the district court was free to find, from this, that Ms. Reeves was not only aware of the drug sales of her son Keith Miller and his girlfriend Jenny Baker, but she was also aware that the drugs were being delivered to her mail box. While I agree that there is perhaps no preinterdiction evidence available to Inspector Reeves that Ms. Reeves was “receiving the packages and selling” as noted in the dissent’s footnote 4, there is also no evidence that she was not receiving packages and “using.” Indeed the inference is to the contrary. Investigator Andrew testified that when he asked Inspector Reeves to take a look at 1329 Rose Street and the packages coming from California, he “supplied [Inspector Reeves] with all of the information I had at that point and let him make his decision.” Transcript at 80. From this I think there were sufficient articulable and objective facts available to Inspector Reeves to form a reasonable suspicion that the package contained contraband, whether it was to be “used” or “sold.”
Accordingly, I would affirm the district court.