Court Opinion

ID: 9668202
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 02:05:17.273678+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:09:04.408213
License: Public Domain

DRAPER, Judge,
dissenting..
While I would agree with the majority’s discussion of the holdings in Alabama v. White, Florida v. J.L., and State v. Miller, supra, I respectfully disagree with the majority’s application of those cases to the instant case. I find the J.L. Court’s line of reasoning more persuasive in this case, and therefore, I respectfully dissent from the majority opinion and would reverse the judgment of the trial court and remand the cause.
An anonymous tip by itself seldom, if ever, produces reasonable suspicion that a person has committed a crime warranting a Terry stop. State v. Weddle, 18 S.W.3d 389, 393 (Mo.App. E.D.2000). See also, Alabama v. White, 496 U.S. 325, 329, 110 S.Ct. 2412, 2416, 110 L.Ed.2d 301 (1990). Moreover, an anonymous tip rarely demonstrates the informant’s basis of knowledge or veracity. Florida v. J.L., 529 U.S. 266, 270, 120 S.Ct. 1375, 1378, 146 L.Ed.2d 254 (2000). Although a detention and search and seizure generally is unlawful if conducted solely on the basis of an anonymous tip, an anonymous tip need not be ignored in determining whether reasonable suspicion exists. State v. Deck, 994 S.W.2d 527, 536 (Mo. banc 1999).
Police may consider the anonymous tip if it is in conjunction with other independent corroborative evidence suggestive of criminal activity. Id. At issue is the reasonable suspicion which requires that a tip be rehable in its assertion of illegality, not just its tendency to identify a determinate *678person. J.L., 529 U.S. at 272, 120 S.Ct. at 1379. Further, while having knowledge about a person’s future movements indicates some familiarity with that person’s affairs, it does not necessarily imply that the informant knows, in particular, whether that person is carrying hidden contraband. J.L., 529 U.S. at 272, 120 S.Ct. at 1379.
The J.L. Court held that an anonymous tip indicating a person was carrying a gun, without more, was insufficient to justify a Terry stop. J.L., 529 U.S. at 268, 120 S.Ct. at 1377. The Court noted that the officers’ suspicion that J.L. was carrying a weapon arose not from any observations of their own but solely from a call made from an unknown location by an unknown caller. Id., 529 U.S. at 270, 120 S.Ct. at 1378. The Court distinguished this case from “the moderate indicia of reliability” present in White, stating the anonymous call provided no predictive information and therefore, left the police without means to test the informant’s knowledge or credibility. Id., 529 U.S. at 271, 120 S.Ct. at 1379. Conceding that an accurate description of a subject’s readily observable location and appearance is reliable in a limited sense, the Court stated that such a tip does not show that the informant has knowledge of concealed criminal activity, which is required to meet the reasonable ' suspicion standard. Id. The Court stressed that the only information the police had was the bare report of an unknown, unaccountable informant who neither explained how he knew about the gun, nor supplied any basis for believing he had inside information about J.L. Id.
In the instant case, as in J.L., the police made no personal observations and had no reason, aside from the anonymous tip, to suspect Berry of any illegal activity at the time of the Terry stop. Deputy Ancell acknowledged he did not see Berry commit any traffic violation, but merely stopped the car based upon the information received from the anonymous caller. The anonymous caller gave no information about her relationship with Berry nor did she say how she knew the information. The police corroborated some information provided by the anonymous caller, however, all of the corroborated details were easily obtainable facts and conditions existing at the time of the tip, similar to the circumstances in J .L.. Providing the police with a description of Berry’s car, the license plate, and a probable route at a particular time of day is insufficient to rise to the level of reasonable suspicion. State v.. Miller, 894 S.W.2d 649, 654 (Mo. banc 1995).
The majority stresses the fact that the anonymous caller contacted the police station on three separate occasions with detailed predictive information, such as specifically naming Berry and describing his destination, time frame, vehicle, and criminal activity. Presumptively, the three separate phone calls indicated she had a special familiarity with Berry’s affairs, specifically as to his destination and time frame, which differed each time she called. However, despite the caller’s conflicting and changing information, the police still failed to investigate adequately this “detailed predictive information” upon which the majority relies on.
Recognizing that additional investigative work could have demonstrated whether the anonymous caller had a special familiarity with Berry’s affairs, the additional work was lacking in this case. As stated earlier there was no investigation regarding the caller’s relationship or basis of knowledge as to Berry’s activities. Furthermore, the police did not take steps to corroborate the other information, such as the destination and time frame, which could have been easily verified. Deputy *679Ancell testified that he did not see Berry leave his residence at the time and day indicated. There were no officers stationed along any of the most likely routes to Kansas City from Mexico to see if Berry was traveling along that route. Moreover, Deputy Ancell conceded that he did not know if Berry in fact had traveled to Kansas City that day.
Not only was the additional work lacking, the investigative work performed by the police was not sufficient to corroborate an anonymous tip under the dictates of State v. Miller, supra. They merely corroborated the description of Berry’s car, the license plate, and a probable route at a particular time of day, which is insufficient to rise to the level of reasonable suspicion. Moreover, simply because Berry had a previous drug conviction, and Deputy An-cell testified that he had some unelaborat-ed “intelligence” on Berry, these facts do not corroborate that he was engaged in current drug activity. See, Commonwealth v. Wimbush, 561 Pa. 368, 750 A.2d 807 (2000)(holding an anonymous tip insufficient to support reasonable suspicion based on the fact that defendant was suspected of drug activity in his community failed to corroborate he currently was engaged in drug related activity and surveillance failed to uncover any independent information that defendant was engaged in any criminal activity).
In the absence of sufficient corroboration, and based on the totality of the circumstances, I would hold the police did not have reasonable suspicion based solely on the anonymous tip to justify a Terry stop of Berry’s car. Therefore, the stop was illegal and the motion to suppress should have been granted. Finding Berry’s first point dispositive, I would not reach his second point challenging the sufficiency of the evidence to support his conviction and would reverse and remand for furthering proceedings.