Court Opinion

ID: 9475133
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 05:18:05.549167+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:44:31.715041
License: Public Domain

OAKES, Circuit Judge
(dissenting):
On federal Tuesday, October 16, 1984, the area of the West Forties between Eighth and Ninth Avenues was, at the time Valez was mistakenly arrested, “very busy with traffic and people,” according to Sergeant Zarr’s suppression hearing testimony. It contained, Sergeant Zarr admitted, “lots and lots of Latin people,” with “twentiesh [sic] Latin males with black leather-type jackets and gray pants,” a “not uncommon” element of the street population. Compare United States v. Shavers, 524 F.2d 1094, 1095 (8th Cir.1975) (no probable cause because “[a]t 9 o’clock on any weekday morning, many individuals answering to the broadcast description could be found in a business district such as the one where Shavers was arrested”).
By sending an officer into the area with a description only of race, approximate age, and clothing and, oh yes, of a comb in the hip pocket — but not mentioning facial hair or its absence, or the length of the suspect’s haircut — Zarr was insufficiently distinguishing the person who made the sale from other Latin males of “not uncommon” appearance in the immediate area. It was the equivalent of “identifying” a suspect in the Wall Street area by describing him as a white, thirty-ish man with a button-down shirt and dark pinstripe suit, carrying a leather attache case. In the Wall Street case, as in this case, it would hardly be surprising if the victim of a mistaken arrest matched the description in all its elements and was wearing clothes “remarkably similar” to those of the suspect.
Of course, it is not surprising that Zarr’s description was cast in general terms. Zarr was observing a milling group of individuals, whose numbers, he said, ranged from “three to five, and at sometimes [sic] six or seven” congregating at the corner of Forty-Eighth Street and Ninth Avenue; he was 200 feet from that comer, his view was partially obstructed, and his binoculars were only seven-power. Zarr’s testimony at trial shows that, under these circumstances, he did not provide a detailed description of the suspect because he was *29unable to do so. Zarr acknowledged that from his vantage point he could not tell whether the suspect was actually Hispanic; the policeman could only tell that the individual selling narcotics was not black, and the description of him as Hispanic was an educated guess based on the neighborhood. Zarr also admitted that, from where he was watching, he could not tell whether the person he was studying had any facial hair, and he could not determine facial features. In any event, the description he provided did not include elements that in the context of that particular time and neighborhood a description of Turiago should have contained, and those omissions made the mistaken arrest possible. Zarr failed to note that Turiago had a short haircut (Valez had hair well below his ears) and was clean-shaven (Valez had a thick moustache and, I would say, not so small a goatee).
In directing that an arrest be made pursuant to a description that likely fit a number of people in the area, Sergeant Zarr failed to demonstrate the proper amount of prudence. In arresting Valez, Officer Allen was also not acting prudently. Zarr’s description had specifically referred to “a whitish shirt with a V-neck collar with dark trim,” a description fitting the actual suspect Turiago but, at least in my observation, not Valez, since the latter’s V-neck shirt had neither a collar nor dark trim around the neckline, as demonstrated by the photographs of each taken on arrest. I view the photo of Valez as merely showing a sidelight shadow on the neckline trim, a shadow consistent with other folds in the shirt.1
Here under the totality of circumstances it was unreasonable to arrest Valez on the belief that he was Turiago. United States v. Fisher, 702 F.2d 372, 376-77 (2d Cir.1983); see Hill v. California, 401 U.S. 797, 91 S.Ct. 1106, 28 L.Ed.2d 484 (1971). The “disguise” suggestion in the majority opinion, i.e., that a clean-shaven person might have put on a goatee and moustache (and, since Zarr’s description failed to mention hair length, the majority presumably should also have argued that a person with a short haircut might have put on a wig), rings hollow not only in light of the short lapse of time involved but the place — Blimpie’s — where any such disguise might have been put on. This case is stronger for the defendant than Fisher, for it is not even suggested that anything Valez himself did other than to be around the corner from the drug-sale scene furnished Officer Allen with any cause for the arrest.
The majority opinion seems to me to contain factual error in the case of the shirt trim, and it makes a crucial omission in failing to consider Zarr’s not mentioning the suspect’s haircut. Even if these issues are ignored, that opinion still merits rejection because it is in disregard of our precedent, Fisher (which the majority cites with a “compare”), and contrary to the Eighth’s Circuit’s compelling opinion in Shavers. For these reasons, I respectfully dissent.

. There is in the record a mug shot taken the day after Valez’s arrest at the United States Marshal’s office showing him wearing a gray sweatshirt with red trim around the neckline, most of which is obscured by the identity sign he is holding. To me that does not appear to be the same shirt he was wearing in the photo taken at the police station on his arrest. But even if I am wrong, Sergeant Zarr's insufficient description would require reversal in my opinion.