U.S. v. Grogins

• Decision Date: 16 November 1998
• Docket Number: No. 97-4931,97-4931
• Citation: 163 F.3d 795
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. George Alan GROGINS, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

Page 795

163 F.3d 795

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. George Alan GROGINS, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 97-4931.

United States Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit.

Argued Sept. 24, 1998.

Decided Nov. 16, 1998.

Argued: Timothy Richard Murphy, Special Assistant United States Attorney, Norfolk, Virginia, for Appellant. Timothy Gerard Clancy, Cumming, Hatchett & Jordan, Hampton, Virginia, for Appellee. On brief: Helen F. Fahey, United States Attorney, Robert E. Bradenham II, Assistant United States Attorney, Norfolk, Virginia, for Appellant. Lisa A. Mallory, Cumming, Hatchett & Jordan, Hampton, Virginia, for Appellee.

Before WILKINSON, WILKINS and NIEMEYER, C.J.

Reversed and remanded by published opinion. Chief Judge WILKINSON wrote the opinion, in which Judge WILKINS and Judge NIEMEYER joined.

OPINION

WILKINSON, C.J.

George Alan Grogins was charged with possession with intent to distribute heroin and cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1). The district court granted Grogins' motion to suppress drug evidence seized at his home on the grounds that the police officers unreasonably failed to knock and announce their presence in violation of Wilson v. Arkansas, 514 U.S. 927, 115 S.Ct. 1914, 131 L.Ed.2d 976 (1995). The government appeals, arguing that the officers had a reasonable suspicion that knocking would have placed them in personal danger. We agree. Officers need not gamble with their safety when they execute a search warrant at a drug stash house. We therefore reverse the suppression ruling of the district court.

I.

The search in this case grew out of a police investigation of Alonzo "Cutt" Wooten's activities in Newport News, Virginia. The Newport News police received information that Wooten was a drug dealer who supplied his downtown retail location from a residential "stash house" in which he stored cocaine, heroin, and related paraphernalia. Grogins lived in this stash house.

Wooten was not unfamiliar to the police. Detective Dawes testified that he had known Wooten since 1980 and that Wooten had a notorious history of drug-related and violent activities. Wooten had been involved in shoot-outs and had managed a drug-selling operation. In the 1980s, he spent time in jail. After he was released, Wooten continued selling drugs. In the mid-1990s, he intimidated several people who owed him money by shooting into their dwellings. In addition, Wooten trained his associates in techniques of evidence destruction. He instructed his confederates on the street to discard drug evidence upon the first sight of police. He told other accomplices to keep a bucket filled with water and lye nearby; if police officers arrived on the scene, Wooten told them to throw the drugs into the bucket because officers would not put their hands in the lye. Wooten also had stated that he was not going back to jail and that he would do whatever was necessary to avoid it.

Dawes learned from a reliable informant that Wooten would visit Grogins' house daily to retrieve drugs that were stored there. Wootentook steps to avoid being connected with the stash house. He frequently drove the vehicles of others and occasionally walked to the stash house. On September 6, 1997, the informant told Dawes that Wooten had visited the house earlier in the day in a gray Fiero. That informant also stated that Wooten would visit the house that evening. Based upon the information that the home was a stash house, Dawes obtained a search warrant for Grogins' residence.

As Dawes and his fellow officers prepared to conduct the search, surveillance of Grogins' home revealed that a yellow car was parked outside. The police believed the car belonged to Wooten's stepfather. They could not, however, locate Wooten himself. They attempted to locate him that evening at his own residence, but the lights to his house were dark and no vehicles could be spotted in the driveway.

The police arrived to search Grogins' house at approximately 11:20 p.m. They found the house lit, but could not see anyone inside. Dawes decided to execute the warrant without knocking and announcing the presence of police. A search of the house turned up seven ounces of cocaine, ten ounces of heroin, equipment and supplies to package the drugs, and a .25 caliber semi-automatic handgun. Grogins was the only person in the house. He was charged with two counts of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1).

Grogins moved to suppress the evidence seized during the search, arguing that the police unreasonably bypassed the normal practice of knocking and announcing their presence. The district court agreed and suppressed the evidence. The government appeals pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3731.

II.

"[T]he Fourth Amendment incorporates the common law requirement that police officers entering a dwelling must knock on the door and announce their identity and purpose before attempting forcible entry." Richards v. Wisconsin, 520 U.S. 385, 117 S.Ct. 1416, 1418, 137 L.Ed.2d 615 (1997). This knock-and-announce requirement may be excused by exigent circumstances. See, e.g., id.; United States v. Kennedy, 32 F.3d 876, 882 (4th Cir.1994). "In order to justify a 'no-knock' entry, the police must have a reasonable suspicion that knocking and announcing their presence, under the particular circumstances, would be dangerous or futile, or that it would inhibit the effective investigation of the crime by, for example, allowing the destruction of evidence." Richards, 117 S.Ct. at 1421; accord United States v. Ramirez, 523 U.S. 65, 118 S.Ct. 992, 995, 140 L.Ed.2d 191 (1998). "Whether exigent circumstances existed at the time of the entry, and whether the degree of the exigency was sufficient to justify the extent of the noncompliance, is determined by an analysis of the facts of each case." Kennedy, 32 F.3d at 882. For a no-knock search to pass constitutional muster, officers must have some particularized basis for their suspicion. See Richards, 117 S.Ct. at 1421;; United States v. Lalor, 996 F.2d 1578, 1584 (4th Cir.1993). Appellate review of whether this basis amounts to reasonable suspicion is de novo. Ornelas v. United States, 517 U.S. 690, 699, 116 S.Ct. 1657, 134 L.Ed.2d 911 (1996).

The government contends that the district court committed legal error by requiring police officers to have a "reasonable belief"--not simply a reasonable suspicion--that exigent circumstances existed. It argues that the legal test applied by the district court approached the more rigorous requirement of probable cause. See, e.g., id. at 696, 116 S.Ct. 1657 (probable cause exists "where the known facts and circumstances are sufficient to warrant a man of reasonable prudence in the belief that" exigent circumstances were present (emphasis added)). The use of the term "belief" may not be dispositive on this issue. See Maryland v. Buie, 494 U.S. 325, 110 S.Ct. 1093, 108 L.Ed.2d 276 (1990) (using "reasonable belief" to characterize the reasonable suspicion standard); Michigan v. Long, 463 U.S. 1032, 103 S.Ct. 3469, 77 L.Ed.2d 1201(1983) (same). In reviewing the record, however, we find that the district court's scrutiny approximated, if it did not exceed, the probable cause standard. The Supreme Court has expressly rejected this standard with respect to forgoing knocking and announcing. Richards, 117 S.Ct. at 1421-22. Instead, the Court has required that an officer have a reasonable suspicion--a "showing [that] is not high." Id. at 1422, 117 S.Ct. 1416.

III.

A.

We thus proceed to apply the appropriate standard to the search. Grogins does not contest that the police reasonably suspected that Wooten posed a danger, but he insists that the evidence must still be suppressed because the police did not reasonably suspect that Wooten would be at the stash house that evening. He notes that the informant told the police both that Wooten visits the stash house daily and that Wooten had already been to the house on the day of the search. Grogins contends that the only reasonable inference is that Wooten had no further business at the stash house and thus that he would not be there that evening. Grogins bolsters this argument by noting that police surveillance never spotted Wooten or the gray Fiero near the stash house that night. And he deduces from the darkness of Wooten's own residence and the hour of night (11:20 p.m.) that Wooten had retired for the evening. Thus, Grogins submits that the police lacked a reasonable suspicion that Wooten would be present at Grogins' home.

We disagree. Grogins' contentions ignore the reasonable basis the police did have for their suspicion. The officers knew Wooten frequented Grogins' home and used it as a stash house for his illicit wares. A reliable informant--one who had repeatedly provided details of Wooten's behavior that the police were able to confirm--told the police that Wooten would visit Grogins' house that night. The police could not locate Wooten...