Court Opinion

ID: 9482618
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:55:39.429054+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:06.157001
License: Public Domain

PREGERSON, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I dissent. The majority states that there is insufficient evidence to determine whether Pyne consented to the search of her home. The record is clear that Pyne did not voluntarily consent to the search. A remand on this issue is unnecessary.
At the suppression hearing, Pyne emphatically maintained that she never gave verbal or written consent to a search of her home. She testified that her signature on the consent forms produced by the government was neither knowing nor voluntary. Pyne testified that the forms were not completed when she signed them; that she believed the forms were for the search of her impounded van, not her home; and that she signed the forms unwillingly. The government offered no evidence to counter Pyne’s version of the events surrounding the signing of the forms, nor did the government offer any explanation as to why the address of the residence was filled in after Pyne signed the forms.
Pyne’s testimony — which was not negated — further indicates that any consent she may have given was vitiated by the coercive and terrifying tactics the police used in seizing Pyne and her children. Pyne described the encounter as follows:
When I got to the door, there’s just a bunch of people screaming at me to come out, lie on the ground. They all had guns to my head. I just screamed back that it was just me and the children inside the house and we went outside and laid on the floor. I got [my sons, aged 12 and 6] and my youngest one underneath me.
[[Image here]]
Then we were outside on the ground and they had guns to me — to all of us. And then the police went in.... They kept the guns to our heads.
[[Image here]]
We just laid on the ground and then — I wasn’t laying, I was more on my knees, down on my knees. And I had my little boy like kind of under me. And then they stayed with the gun to my head and we sat out there.... And then they had [the defendant] over to the side and they were hitting him. And then when I was looking more over, the man in front of me got the gun closer into my head and had me turn my head. Told me if I turned my head again, he would shoot. I kept still watching over there and they were just basically just beating, hitting him.
[[Image here]]
It was just like we were being invaded.... And then at that point I had asked them, ‘Do you have a warrant or anything?’ And somebody else came at me_ he came cussing at me, ‘F-in’ warrant’ and ‘You’re F-in this,’ and just basically screaming at me.
[[Image here]]
They tore the house apart.... Five with me and just questioning me and yelling and screaming and cussing. And just basically mostly cussing every time I would try to say something.
[[Image here]]
When we were outside, like I said, there was about six of them, seven of *932them. The only thing that they kept screaming at me, that I had done a bank robbery.
[[Image here]]
They just cussed at me every other word or every word was F-you this, and I was a drug addict, my mother was a drug addict, I was a prostitute and that it was true....
The government has the burden of proving Pyne’s consent was voluntary. United States v. Kaplan, 895 F.2d 618, 622 (9th Cir.1990). Whether consent to a search was voluntary, or was the product of duress or coercion, is a question of fact to be determined from the totality of the circumstances. Schneckloth v. Bustamonte, 412 U.S. 218, 227, 248-49, 93 S.Ct. 2041, 2058-59, 36 L.Ed.2d 854 (1973). Among the factors we consider in determining whether consent is voluntary are: (1) whether the person was in custody; (2) whether the arresting officers have their guns drawn; (3) whether Miranda warnings have been given; (4) whether the person was told she has a right not to consent; and (5) whether the person was told a search warrant could be obtained. United States v. Castillo, 866 F.2d 1071, 1082 (9th Cir.1988).
Pyne was clearly in custody at the time the police initially searched her home. See United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544, 554, 100 S.Ct. 1870, 1877, 64 L.Ed.2d 497 (1979). The police officers not only had their guns drawn, they had them pointed at Pyne’s head and at her children, who were huddled on the ground. See United States v. Al-Azzawy, 784 F.2d 890, 895 (9th Cir.1985). One officer allegedly threatened to shoot Pyne if she turned her head. Pyne testified that the officers were beating the defendant nearby, and that they shouted and swore at her.
Although Sergeant Addington testified that he told Pyne she had the right not to consent to a search of her residence, there is no evidence that any Miranda warnings were given at the time. There is also no evidence that the police told Pyne that a search warrant could be obtained. Under the totality of the circumstances, even if Pyne did consent at the time of the arrest — which she flatly denies — the government in my view has not shown that her consent was voluntary. See Schneckloth, 412 U.S. at 249, 93 S.Ct. at 2059 (government must “demonstrate that the consent was in fact voluntarily given, and not the result of duress or coercion, express or implied”).
Although the district court ruled that the evidence indicated that Pyne gave consent, the court never found that Pyne’s consent was voluntary. In fact, the district court acknowledged that Pyne “may have given her consent under some pressure.”
The government has failed to meet its burden of showing that Pyne’s consent was voluntarily given and was not the product of duress or coercion. The search of Pyne’s home was undertaken with undue force and intimidation. Her consent was not voluntarily obtained. Submission to police coercion is not consent. Though the acquisition of evidence is vital to the effective administration of justice, evidence must not be obtained in violation of an individual’s right to be secure in her own home. The officers clearly abused their authority when entering Pyne’s home without her consent.