Court Opinion

ID: 9463091
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:57:53.194156+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:37:55.782515
License: Public Domain

SWYGERT, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
I would reverse for all three reasons advanced by the defendant-appellant. The facts largely speak for themselves.
I
The majority admits that the search and seizure of the car cannot be defended on the plain view doctrine as contended by the Government. Yet the majority upholds the seizure on the ground that “exigent” circumstances existed. The circumstances cited by the majority are specious in my opinion.
At the time of its seizure, the car was in a closed private garage adjacent to a house occupied by Sarah Wells with whom the defendant was living. After Agent Ziegler had observed the car through the garage windows, he- radioed for a tow truck and another agent to assist him. The defendant was not present, but Ms. Wells was in the house. When the agent informed her that he was going to seize the car, she refused to open the garage doors after being told that the agent had no warrant authorizing the seizure. She said that she did not have the keys to the car; there were no keys in it. After a time another agent arrived followed by the tow truck. The truck pulled the car out of the garage and hauled it away.
Agent Ziegler further stated that the only person who entered the garage with him was a young man who had identified himself as the defendant’s son. He said he had no fear that this man was going to drive the vehicle away. Ziegler further admitted that he did not have any fear that anyone else was going to drive the vehicle away while he was there, especially after the other agent arrived.
It was an established fact that a magistrate was available for the issuance of a warrant had one been applied for. Clearly, Ziegler had ample opportunity to obtain a search warrant prior to the seizure of the car. As the trial judge pointed out, “[I]f he could radio for help and radio for a tow truck, why couldn’t he radio for one of his *1234brother agents to get a warrant while he sat out there and watched them?”
In denying the motion to suppress, the trial judge gave no reasons for his action (despite previous admonitions by this court that trial judges should find the facts specifically and state the grounds for disposing of motions to suppress). Thus, we are left to speculate as to the judge’s reasons for denying the motion; however, from the above quoted remarks, it is plain that he did not consider the circumstances exigent.'
Here, as in United States v. Young, 489 F.2d 914, 916 (6th Cir. 1974), the agents “[H]ad no grounds to believe that the vehicle might be moved within the few minutes required to make application for a search warrant from a concededly available magistrate.”
Exigent circumstances mean circumstances demanding immediate action. The rubric should not be used as a catchall to justify a warrantless seizure of evidence by federal agents, unjustified by any other exceptions, and when the circumstances are not truly exigent.
II
The challenged instruction did not relate to a criminal defendant’s felony conviction. It related only to convictions of a witness with reference to his credibility. The instruction should have stated in substance that the defendant’s convictions could be considered by the jury insofar as they might affect his credibility as a witness, but under no circumstances as evidence of the guilt of the crime for which he was being tried. The failure to give such an instruction had the potential of creating extreme prejudice.
III
The majority concedes that the prosecutor’s comments in her opening statement about the defendant’s testimony at the suppression hearing was “contrary” to the rule in Simmons v. United States, 390 U.S. 377, 88 S.Ct. 967, 19 L.Ed.2d 1247 (1968). Yet, says the majority, the prejudice was minimal; therefore “in view of the curative instruction and the substantial evidence against the defendant, no mistrial was necessary.” I, take a different view. The prosecutor’s impermissible reference to the defendant’s suppression hearing testimony could hardly have been anything less than deliberate. The defendant’s constitutional right to remain silent was impaired. The prosecutor’s remarks had the effect of forcing the defendant to the witness stand to explain his pretrial testimony. How such a grievous constitutional violation could be harmless escapes me. The only cure was a mistrial.