Court Opinion

ID: 9481844
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:33:35.889008+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:48:36.947623
License: Public Domain

WELLFORD, Senior Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part:
I am in agreement with the decision of the majority with respect to the giving of the Allen charge in this case. There was no error in respect to this aspect of the case.
The district court found the initial stop of Cochran justifiable under Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968). While it is unclear that the officers in the case actually possessed a reasonable suspicion of danger justifying a Terry stop and subsequent arrest, Terry does not provide a means or stepping-stone for compelling the occupant of a residence, away from those premises, to return to the residence to aid in a search thereof. The district court held that this return of Cochran was justifiable under Michigan v. Summers, 452 U.S. 692, 101 S.Ct. 2587, 69 L.Ed.2d 340 (1981). The majority bases its decision also on Summers. Summers’ residence, like that of Cochran’s, was the subject of a search warrant for narcotics. The police “encountered” Summers, however, “descending the front steps” of his residence. Id. at 693, 101 S.Ct. at 2589. Clearly Summers was found on the very premises which were the subject of the warrant, and the police “requested his assistance in gaining entry and detained him while they searched the premises.” Id. at 693, 101 S.Ct. at 2589. Although the authorities seized Summers “within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment,” no constitutional violation was found in respect to his being seized and detained prior to this arrest. Id. at 696, 101 S.Ct. at 2591. The court found that “a significant restraint” on Summers’ liberty had occurred, but this detention had occurred fortuitously on the premises subject to the search warrant.
I find the circumstances in this case to differ materially from the circumstances in Summers, and I, therefore, dissent with regard to the basis for the initial away from the premises and forced return which were the subject of the search warrant. I do not, of course, take issue with the decision in Summers that “a warrant to search for contraband founded on probable cause implicitly carries with it the limited authority to detain the occupants of the premises while a proper search is conducted.” Id. at 705, 101 S.Ct. at 2595. (footnotes omitted).
Actions of the police in Summers took place on an unplanned, contemporaneous kind of reasonable action taken as they *341“were about to execute” the search warrant. Id. at 693, 101 S.Ct. at 2589. Here, in contrast, the police deliberately waited until after Cochran had departed the premises and then stopped him anticipating assistance in executing the search warrant for his residence. I am unwilling to extend the rationale of Summers to a situation where the owner of premises subject to a search warrant is some distance, even a “short” distance from the premises, and is stopped, detained, or taken into custody for the purpose of assisting the police in gaining entry into the residence itself. Neither a Terry stop nor a forfeiture seizure of a vehicle has before been used as a means to bring about assistance in carrying out a search warrant at another location.1 See Terry v. Ohio; United States v. Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. 873, 95 S.Ct. 2574, 45 L.Ed.2d 607 (1975).
The real focus of Michigan v. Summers was that a stop and detention of an owner on his premises, which were the subject of a search warrant, while the search took place and prior to arrest was not unconstitutional police conduct. I am not persuaded that this constitutes precedent and authority for the action in this case away from the premises in controversy. I, therefore, respectfully dissent from this extension of the stop and detention rule based on Summers. (No other authority for this action is cited by the district court or the majority opinion.)

. Stopping a subject citizen thought to carry firearms on his person or in a vehicle on a public street away from his residence hardly seems conducive to public safety. The police had decided previously "not to obtain an arrest warrant for his person.” J/A 111. Officer Crock testified that they did intend to seize the vehicle through forfeiture, but no warrant for this purpose, for search of the vehicle or arrest of Cochran, was sought despite having ample opportunity to do so. J/A 112.