Court Opinion

ID: 9466917
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:32:25.769889+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:02.477576
License: Public Domain

ARNOLD, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I agree with the Court’s opinion in all but one respect. In my view, agent Fergus acted without authority of law when he directed Deggendorf and Schmidt to the police room, and the evidence that was obtained as a result should have been suppressed.
The facts are stated in the Court’s opinion, and will not be repeated here. I do submit, however, that one important aspect of the findings made below is omitted. As Deggendorf and Schmidt were walking towards the airport exit with their bags, agent Fergus stepped forward and identified himself as an officer of the Drug Enforcement Administration. As the Court notes, ante, p. 52 n. 4, the United States Magistrate found, and the finding was adopted by the District Court, that agent Fergus “asked” Deggendorf and Schmidt “to accompany him to the airport police room 200 to 250 feet away.” This quotation from the findings made below leaves the impression that Deggendorf was not under compulsion. This impression cannot survive a reading of the entire report and recommendation of the United States Magistrate on defendant’s motion to quash the search warrant and suppress evidence. The report states, for example, that “agent Fergus directed ” (emphasis supplied) Deggendorf and Schmidt to the police room. Designated Record (D.R.) 6. “At the time neither Deggendorf nor Schmidt were handcuffed, but Fergus would not have allowed Schmidt or Deggendorf to leave the airport area if they so desired.” (Emphasis supplied). Ibid. The District Court adopted the report in its entirety.
In view of these findings, I do not understand how it can be said that “Deggendorf voluntarily consented to accompany the DEA agents to the police room . . .,” ante, p. 53. If the District Court had found that Deggendorf had voluntarily cooperated with the agents, perhaps the finding could be supported under the clearly-erroneous rule. No such finding was made. Indeed, this Court takes the position, ante, at p. 52 n. 4, that “the District Court did not reach the issue of voluntariness . . .” One should recall, in addition, that the Government has the burden of proof on the issue of voluntariness, e. g., Schneckloth v. Bustamonte, 412 U.S. 218, 222, 93 S.Ct. 2041, 2045, 36 L.Ed.2d 854 (1973).
I think this case is controlled by Dunaway v. New York, 442 U.S. 200, 216, 99 S.Ct. 2248, 2258, 60 L.Ed.2d 824 (1979), where the Supreme Court said:
detention for custodial interrogation — regardless of its label — intrudes so severely on interests protected by the Fourth Amendment as necessarily to trigger the traditional safeguards against illegal arrest.
*55The Supreme Court’s description of the degree of restraint to which Dunaway was subjected is strikingly similar to the finding made by the court below in this case: “Petitioner was taken into custody; although he was not told he was under arrest, he would have been physically restrained if he had attempted to leave.” Dunaway v. New York, supra, 442 U.S. at 203, 99 S.Ct. at 2251. To be sure, Dunaway is not identical. There, the suspect was taken from a neighbor’s house to the police station for questioning. Here, Deggendorf was transported a much shorter distance, from the airport exit to a private detention room. In both cases, however, a citizen was forcibly deprived of his liberty by being compelled by the State to go to a place where he did not wish to be. In both cases the purpose was interrogation.
I do not agree that United States v. Mendenhall, -U.S.-, 100 S.Ct. 1870, 64 L.Ed.2d 497 (1980), is controlling. In that case, “[t]he District Court specifically found that the respondent accompanied the agents to the office . . . voluntarily in a spirit of apparent cooperation. . .” Id. at -, 100 S.Ct. at 1879. The Supreme Court’s opinion, as I read it, turns upon this key finding by the trier of fact. No such finding was made here. In short, Ms. Mendenhall voluntarily accompanied the agents who accosted her; Deggendorf did not.
If, as the opinion of Mr. Justice Stewart in Mendenhall states, the subjective intention of the agents to detain Deggendorf were irrelevant, a different result might follow. This portion of the opinion, however, was joined by only one other member of the Court. See- U.S. -, -, -, n. 6,-, 100 S.Ct. 1870, 1873, 1877, 1881, 64 L.Ed.2d 497.
Nor can the conduct of the agents in this case be justified under Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968). If the agents had simply questioned Deggendorf at the baggage carousel or the airport exit, Terry might be apposite. Much more happened here. Deggendorf was detained for investigation and questioning in an enclosure set aside by the police for that purpose.
I cannot agree that this deprivation of liberty, concededly without probable cause, can be justified under the Fourth Amendment. This case involves one of the core values of the Bill of Rights: that the physical liberty of the citizen to move about from place to place not be forcibly taken away by the State unless there is probable cause to believe that the citizen has committed or is committing a crime.
I respectfully dissent.