Court Opinion

ID: 9493326
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 15:05:05.151208+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:55:46.989738
License: Public Domain

MERRITT, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I disagree with the Court’s opinion in two respects. First, I certainly do not find clearly erroneous the District Court’s finding that the defendant consented to accompany the police officers to the police station. It seems to me that the District Court was correct in concluding that the defendant tried to allay suspicion by being cooperative with the police. Obviously, she knew she was guilty of smuggling cocaine and had it hidden in the game package in her possession, but she thought that she could deceive the officers if she appeared to cooperate in all respects, including consenting to accompany the officers to the police station and answering their questions. In fact, her strategy almost worked. It would have worked if the police had not found cocaine wrapped in a similar game box in the possession of her confederate as she was just about to leave. Accordingly, I would affirm the District Court’s finding of fact that the defendant consented to the ride to the police station and to the interrogation at the police station.
Second, the officers had probable cause to search the defendant’s Jeep Cherokee after they learned that the defendant’s confederate had a game package similar to the one defendant had and that inside that game package was found two and one-half kilograms of cocaine. Once they knew that the two people, defendant and defendant’s confederate, were carrying games of a similar type and that the confederate had cocaine in his game package, the police then had probable cause to believe that defendant’s game also probably contained cocaine. They had probable cause to believe that the two were engaged in a similar type of ruse. The automobile exception to the warrant requirement clearly applies here. The court is way off base on this issue. The police were entitled to search the Jeep Cherokee before allowing the defendant and Butler to leave in it.
Thus, there was consent, as found by the District Court, for the delay in allowing the defendant to leave and there was probable cause for the search of the Jeep Cherokee. Accordingly, I would affirm the judgment of the District Court.