Court Opinion

ID: 9492358
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 14:39:32.18185+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:55:16.383642
License: Public Domain

MOORE, Circuit Judge,
concurring in the result.
I am troubled by several aspects of this difficult case. First, I find the actions of Troopers Stevens and Baranowski, as recorded on video tape, to be very suspicious. However, because I cannot conclude that the district court clearly erred in denying Navarro’s motion to suppress, I am compelled to concur in the result.
My second concern, and the reason for my separate writing, relates to the allegations of race and ethnicity targeting by the Ohio Highway Patrol (“OHP”) and the handling of evidence of such targeting in this and similar cases. Navarro attempted to introduce evidence from an unrelated civil rights suit which alleges that Trooper Kiefer and other OHP officers have singled out Hispanic motorists for investigatory stops on the basis of minor or nonexistent traffic violations. The district court refused to consider this evidence, and, as Judge Boggs correctly points out, evidence of racial or ethnic targeting is not relevant to the determination of whether the troopers had probable cause to stop Navarro’s vehicle. See Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806, 813, 116 S.Ct. 1769, 135 L.Ed.2d 89 (1996).
Although under Whren an officer’s motive in stopping a speeder is irrelevant for Fourth Amendment analysis, the selective enforcement of traffic laws based solely on race or ethnicity would violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. See United States v. Avery, 137 F.3d 343, 355 (6th Cir.1997). In a proper case, I believe that a defendant in Navarro’s position could achieve suppression of the evidence or. dismissal of the prosecution by demonstrating that the investigatory practice had a discriminatory purpose and a discriminatory effect. See United States v. Armstrong, 517 U.S. 456, 465, 116 S.Ct. 1480, 134 L.Ed.2d 687 (1996) (discussing selective prosecution elements); United States v. Jennings, No. 91-5942, 1993 WL 5927, at *4, 985 F.2d 562 (6th Cir. Jan.13, 1993) (unpublished disposition) (suggesting suppression as remedy for seizure of evidence in violation of Equal Protection Clause); Futernick v. Sumpter Township, 78 F.3d 1051, 1056 (6th Cir.) (noting that a “court should dismiss a case, or take other appropriate action” if defendant proves selective enforcement), cert. denied, 519 U.S. 928, 117 S.Ct. 296, 136 L.Ed.2d 215 (1996).1
In the instant case Navarro sought to introduce the complaint from an unrelated civil rights suit as evidence in support of his Fourth Amendment claims, not to demonstrate that he had been the victim of selective law enforcement in violation of the Equal Protection Clause. The complaint does not provide evidence of disparate treatment of Hispanic motorists, moreover, and thus would not be sufficient to establish an equal protection claim. See Armstrong, 517 U.S. at 465, 116 S.Ct. 1480. A selective enforcement claim in Navarro’s case would be weakened further by the undisputed evidence that the investigation of him resulted from a tip — a fact that undermines any assertion that he was stopped solely on the basis of his ethnicity. See Avery, 137 F.3d at 354 n. 5. For these reasons I conclude that the district court did not err in refusing to consider this evidence. The district courts should remain open, however, to the possibility of Fourteenth Amendment selective enforce*712ment challenges in future criminal prosecutions.

. Alternatively, a victim of selective enforcement could file a § 1983 action. See Futernick, 78 F.3d at 1056-57.