Court Opinion

ID: 9468175
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:07:22.138159+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:44.287577
License: Public Domain

GARZA, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent. I have no quarrel with the facts of this case as stated by the majority. My nonconcurrence in the majority opinion comes about because of my interpretation of those facts which does not agree with the interpretation given to them by the majority.
My brothers seem to give no importance to the fact that the officers who stopped the cars coming out of the Kaufman County Ranch were armed with a search warrant to search the ranch and the buildings thereon for contraband, namely marihuana.
The majority lays great stress on the case of Robbins v. California,-U.S.-, 101 S.Ct. 2841, 69 L.Ed.2d 744 (1981). I would rather lay stress on the case of Michigan v. Summers,-U.S.-, 101 S.Ct. 2587, 69 L.Ed.2d 340 (1981). Footnote 4 of the majority opinion rightfully states that the appellees do not assert that the respective warrantless searches of the vehicles and seizure of the bags in those vehicles violated their Fourth Amendment rights and that the only issue before this Court on appeal is the constitutionality of the warrantless core sampling. The core sampling did not take place until after the search warrant on the Kaufman County Ranch had been executed and thousands of pounds of marihuana had been found therein near the place where the officers had seen the automobiles in question being loaded with bags. There cannot be any question that the bags from which the core sampling was done came from the ranch that had been searched pursuant to a valid search warrant.
There is no question that some of the garbage bags seized from the automobiles coming out of the Kaufman County Ranch had tears on them and that marihuana stems in plain view of the officers protruded from some of the bags. The smell of marihuana was present. The majority lays great stress on the fact that no officer testified as to which automobile had bags that had tears and showed marihuana in plain view of the officers. I ask, what difference would this make? The bags all came from the same place and if the appellees had been caught on the premises when the search warrant was executed, any container that could have held the contraband the officers were searching for could have been searched, including the garbage bags *1057from which the core samples and the bricks of marihuana were obtained.
Instead .of the core sampling being unreasonable and in violation of the Constitution in this case, I believe that it would have been unreasonable for the officers not to have taken the core samples under the facts of this case. In Michigan v. Summers, supra, the Court said “Because it was lawful to require respondent to re-enter and to remain in the house until evidence establishing probable cause to arrest him was found, his arrest and the search incident thereto were constitutionally permissible.” I would paraphrase that holding of the Supreme Court in this case by saying that since the officers had a lawfully issued search warrant it was lawful for them to require the defendants in this case to be detained until evidence establishing probable cause to arrest and search them was found and under the facts of this case, their subsequent arrest and the search incident thereto, including the taking of core samples, were constitutionally permissible. I would not have granted the Motions to Suppress and I would reverse the Court below.