Court Opinion

ID: 9496352
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:24:18.787703+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:57:31.200832
License: Public Domain

CLAY, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
Although I agree with the outcome reached in this case, as well as most of the majority opinion’s reasoning, I write separately to articulate my view of some of the issues in this case, and why I am persuaded that the Ohio Court of Appeals’ decision to affirm Joshua’s conviction “resulted in a decision that was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States.” 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1).
The Fourth Amendment requires a law enforcement officer to possess reasonable suspicion to detain a suspect at a traffic stop; thus, if reasonable suspicion is not apparent at the outset of a traffic stop, the *452officer must release the suspect. Berkemer v. McCarty, 468 U.S. 420, 439-40, 104 S.Ct. 3138, 82 L.Ed.2d 317 (1984) (“[U]n-less the detainee’s answers provide the officer with probable cause to arrest him, he must be released.”). If the officer is suspicious at the outset but the officer’s inquiries reasonably allay that suspicion, the officer must release the suspect. Hayes v. Florida, 470 U.S. 811, 815-16, 105 S.Ct. 1643, 84 L.Ed.2d 705 (1985); United States v. Heath, 259 F.3d 522, 531 (6th Cir.2001); United States v. Butler, 223 F.3d 368, 375 (6th Cir.2000). The officer may not detain a suspect without legal justification in hopes of generating reasonable suspicion by observing the suspect’s subsequent actions or by acquiring subsequent information.
The record in the instant case indicates that Trooper Hannon detained Joshua’s vehicle based on the Read & Sign. However, for the reasons stated in the majority opinion, the Read & Sign did not provide the requisite reasonable suspicion. Thus, Trooper Hannon should have released Joshua at that time or shortly thereafter. Instead, Trooper Hannon continued to detain Joshua while he waited for the drug-sniffing dogs to arrive. It was unreasonable under the circumstances to detain Joshua for even a short time pending the arrival of the drug-sniffing dogs because at that point Trooper Hannon lacked a sufficient basis for detaining him. In point of fact, the dogs did not arrive until 11:49 a.m., some forty-two minutes after the traffic stop had been initiated. A detention of that duration without a sufficient legal basis was particularly unreasonable.
The intervening developments at the scene of the traffic stop cited by the Ohio Court of Appeals and described by the dissent did not provide the requisite reasonable suspicion in lieu of the Read & Sign. A fair reading of the record shows that the events proceeded as follows:
11:07 a.m. Trooper Hannon stops Joshua’s car. Joshua gives Hannon his driver’s license and car rental papers.
11:10 a.m. Trooper Hannon runs a status check; the dispatcher informs him about the Read & Sign entry. Trooper Hannon requests a canine unit.
11:15 a.m. The dispatcher calls Columbus to see if Joshua has any outstanding warrants; there are none. Around this same time, the dispatcher promises Trooper Hannon that he will have a detective “familiar” with Joshua call Trooper Hannon back.
11:17 a.m. Trooper Barnes arrives on the scene. Joshua and his companion exhibit “constant activity in the vehicle.”
11:20 a.m. Trooper Hannon asks the dispatcher to check on Joshua’s car rental papers.
11:22 a.m. Joshua’s rental papers check out. The dispatcher runs a criminal check on Joshua and transmits the results of Joshua’s criminal history to Trooper Hannon.
11:25 a.m. The dispatcher reaches a canine unit.
11:45 a.m. Sergeant Turner arrives and helps Trooper Hannon place stop sticks around Joshua’s vehicle.
11:48 a.m. A detective who is “familiar” with Joshua calls Trooper Hannon back; he tells Trooper Hannon that Joshua may be armed and dangerous.
11:49 a.m. A canine unit arrives. The drug-sniffing dog alerts on Joshua’s vehicle, whereupon the police search the vehicle and discover drugs.
None of these events permitted Trooper Hannon to detain Joshua over this forty-two minute time frame. Certainly the concern about the rental car paperwork did *453not provide reasonable suspicion because the discrepancy in the paperwork perceived by the trooper did not surface until approximately 11:18 a.m. Trooper Hannon should already have released Joshua by 11:18 a.m. because by that time Trooper Hannon had already detained Joshua for several minutes without reasonable suspicion. Moreover, the paperwork discrepancy was resolved expeditiously, i.e., around 11:22 a.m., leaving a twenty-seven minute time gap until the drug-sniffing dogs arrived.
Furthermore, none of the additional factors cited by the dissent amounted to reasonable suspicion. As the majority opinion points out, by the time reasonable suspicion had surfaced, Trooper Hannon had been detaining Joshua illegally for a substantial period of time, and thus a Fourth Amendment violation had already occurred notwithstanding any subsequent events purportedly giving rise to reasonable suspicion. The additional factors mentioned by the dissent, even when considered in tandem with the other facts, fail to constitute reasonable suspicion.
For instance, the dissent notes that although Joshua and his companion were initially calm, upon the arrival of backup they began turning around and staring at the officers. Yet, as the majority opinion correctly observes, the behavior described by Trooper Barnes might evidence little more than mere curiosity or concern by the two individuals as to their surroundings and the ever-increasing police activity. Any interpretation of this behavior as an indication that criminal activity was afoot amounts to little more than an “inchoate and unparticularized suspicion or -‘hunch.’ ” Reid v. Georgia, 448 U.S. 438, 441, 100 S.Ct. 2752, 65 L.Ed.2d 890 (1980) (per curiam) (rejecting as a possible basis for reasonable suspicion the airport agent’s testimony that the defendant and his traveling companion “appeared ... to be trying to conceal the fact that they were traveling together” because the defendant “preceded [the companion] and occasionally looked backward at him as they proceeded through the [airport] concourse,” and reasoning that this behavior provided “too slender a reed to support the seizure in this case”) (quoting Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 27, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968)) (internal quotation marks omitted); see also Florida v. Royer, 460 U.S. 491, 512, 103 S.Ct. 1319, 75 L.Ed.2d 229 (1983) (Brennan, J., concurring) (observing that facts leading the airport agents to detain the defendant did not constitute reasonable suspicion because they were “perfectly consistent with innocent behavior and [could not] possibly give rise to any inference supporting a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity”). Simply stated, turning around and staring at the police officers did not create a “rational inference! ]” that “reasonably warranted] the continued detention of’ Joshua and his companion. United States v. Smith, 263 F.3d 571, 588 (6th Cir.2001) (citing Terry, 392 U.S. at 21, 88 S.Ct. 1868).
Similarly unpersuasive as grounds for reasonable suspicion is Trooper Hannon’s purported knowledge of a “highly interesting telephone conversation between his dispatcher and a police officer in Portsmouth” and the statement by the Portsmouth detective that Joshua might be armed and dangerous. The information that Joshua might have been armed and dangerous, apparently of dubious origin and reliability, was not transmitted to Trooper Hannon until 11:48 a.m., some forty-one minutes after the traffic stop commenced. As the majority opinion correctly notes, a police officer may not properly detain a suspect in the hope of receiving useful information in the future.
*454I also am not persuaded that Trooper Hannon’s awareness of Joshua’s criminal record, even when considered together with Joshua’s purported nervousness, un-articulated furtive gestures, and “illogical” travel route, justified this lengthy detention. First of all, the record does not specify the nature of Joshua’s criminal history, obviating any consideration of the criminal history’s probative value on habe-as review. Second, Trooper Hannon was not informed of Joshua’s criminal history until 11:22 a.m. or 11:23 a.m. The situation presented by this case therefore differs markedly from the situation where a law enforcement officer has a legitimate basis to suspect a particular individual of a criminal offense and is advised during the course of the detention that the person being investigated has a criminal record suggestive of the kind of criminal activity under investigation. In that situation, which is obviously not present here, a further detention of the suspect in all likelihood would be justified.
Finally, the fact that the patrol dogs ultimately alerted on Joshua’s vehicle does not assist our legal analysis because although such an occurrence ordinarily would furnish probable cause for a police officer to search a vehicle for drugs, United States v. Bailey, 302 F.3d 652, 659 n. 7 (6th Cir.2002), the subsequent discovery of circumstances justifying probable cause— coming long after Joshua should have been released — cannot vitiate Joshua’s earlier improper detention without reasonable suspicion.
The dissent is correct that in some cases reasonable suspicion can properly be gleaned from several facts, considered in concert, none of which individually would give rise to reasonable suspicion. However, as previously stated, the factors cited in the dissent, even when taken together, do not meet this burden. Four of these additional factors did not manifest themselves until well after the point that Trooper Hannon should have released Joshua. The other factor — Trooper Hannon’s having learned from the dispatcher that a man with Joshua’s name was allegedly transporting drugs from Portsmouth to Columbus — is simply the information from the Read & Sign, on which Trooper Hannon cannot be permitted to rely, based upon the holding of United States v. Hensley, 469 U.S. 221, 233, 105 S.Ct. 675, 83 L.Ed.2d 604 (1985).1
To summarize, I am principally persuaded that Joshua’s habeas petition should be granted because the Read & Sign did not provide the requisite reasonable suspicion to justify the detention which eventually led to the discovery of the illegal drugs, and the additional justification for the detention, as described by the Ohio Court of Appeals and the dissent herein, was wholly inadequate and failed to establish reasonable suspicion. For these reasons, I concur in the majority opinion.

. The majority opinion reasons, as alternative grounds for disregarding the additional factors cited by the dissent, that this Court is not permitted to look beyond the facts found in the state court’s opinion, citing Harris v. Stovall, 212 F.3d 940, 943 (6th Cir.2000) for this proposition. Whether the reasoning in Harris extends to the present situation is uncertain at best. Harris seems to speak to the situation where the state court has not articulated its reasoning, in which case federal courts are obligated to review the entire record. Harris does not seem to expressly state that federal courts are precluded from conducting an independent review of the record when the state court has articulated its reasoning. Although the majority opinion’s reading of Harris might be appropriate, I do not find it necessary to rest my reasoning on those grounds. Instead, I am content to base my reasoning on the fact that the factors cited by the dissent and the Ohio Court of Appeals were insufficient to justify Joshua’s detention.