U.S. v. Goodrich

Decision Date29 October 2001
Docket NumberNo. CR. 99-10387-DPW.,CR. 99-10387-DPW.
Citation183 F.Supp.2d 135
PartiesUNITED STATES of America v. Robert GOODRICH
CourtU.S. District Court — District of Massachusetts

Miriam Conrad, Federal Defender Office, Boston, MA, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

WOODLOCK, District Judge.

Robert Goodrich moves to suppress physical evidence seized as a result of searches he argues were in violation of his Fourth Amendment rights. He contends that the warrantless "inventory search" of the car he had been driving, conducted by the Swampscott Police Department after arresting him, was an investigative effort prohibited by the Fourth Amendment. He contends further that the subsequent search—to which he formally consented— of a bag found in the trunk of the car during the inventory search, is invalid as the fruit of the earlier search.

Following an evidentiary hearing, I will grant the motion to suppress on grounds that the inventory search was impermissible and that the search of the bag was tainted by it.

I. Findings of Fact

On September 7, 1999, Robert Goodrich was arrested at the VFW Hall in Swampscott, Massachusetts, by officers from the Swampscott Police Department acting pursuant to outstanding warrants for armed robbery. Officer Tim Cassidy1 had surveilled the VFW Hall because Goodrich's wife worked there. After seeing Goodrich drive up, park in the VFW lot,2 and enter the Hall, Officer Cassidy called for other officers to assist in Goodrich's arrest. At that time, he was informed that the car Goodrich was driving belonged to Goodrich's sister. Shortly thereafter, Sergeant Cassidy and Officers Delano and Waters arrived at the VFW hall. Waters and Delano entered the VFW Hall and arrested Goodrich, while Officer Cassidy and Sergeant Cassidy attempted to enter by the side doorway, discovered that it was locked, and initially remained outside at the side doorway.

After Goodrich was apprehended, Officer Cassidy entered the VFW Hall and searched the bathroom, where he found Goodrich's jacket. Officer Cassidy searched elsewhere in the VFW Hall hoping to find the gun with which Goodrich had allegedly committed the armed robbery.

Officer Waters transported Goodrich back to the Police Station, where he was given his Miranda rights and booked. Meanwhile, Officer Cassidy and Sergeant Cassidy remained behind, obtained keys to the car, and began a search of it.

The evidence is muddled about how the officers obtained the keys to the car to gain entrance to the trunk. Sergeant Cassidy testified that he thought Goodrich's wife came outside into the parking lot and gave him the keys, perhaps on the request of the police. Officer Cassidy had no memory of how the keys were acquired. According to Goodrich's wife, after Goodrich was handcuffed but while he was still in the VFW Hall, she asked him for his keys, and he attempted to pass them to her, but they dropped to the floor. She testified that Sergeant Cassidy then picked them up and, upon her request, removed her house keys and gave them to her. Sergeant Cassidy testified that he believed he never entered the VFW Hall.

Given Sergeant Cassidy's memory that Mrs. Goodrich provided him with the keys, and Mrs. Goodrich's memory that Sergeant Cassidy retrieved the keys off the floor when her husband attempted to pass them to her, I find at a minimum that the police took the car keys from Mrs. Goodrich, the person to whom they knew the keys had been or were being entrusted, in order to conduct a search of the vehicle.

During the car search, Sergeant Cassidy discovered a duffel bag in the trunk. He called the station on the radio to discuss with Lieutenant Chadwell whether or not a warrant would be required to search the trunk and open the duffel bag found there.3

Sergeant Cassidy told Chadwell that "[t]he trunk is open, there's a bag in there that's zippered closed and I do not want to jeopardize what's in it. If you get my meaning." During that conversation, Chadwell suggested to Sergeant Cassidy that he believed that Cassidy could continue the search without a warrant pursuant to the Department's Inventory/Towing policy. Officer Waters then communicated that Goodrich, who was within hearing range of their conversation, had stated that there was a gun in the duffel bag in the trunk.4 Lieutenant Chadwell offered some alternative theories to justify opining the bag, but concluded that Sergeant Cassidy ought to bring the bag in to be opened in the station. Sergeant Cassidy removed the duffel bag from the trunk of the car and waited for the tow truck to arrive.

During the search of the car, Sergeant Cassidy had ordered Mrs. Goodrich to stay in the VFW Hall. At some point, she was permitted to come out and was told that the car was going to be towed. She did not ask if she could take custody of the car because Sergeant Cassidy told her it was going to be towed and because she didn't know she had the right to do so while the police investigation was underway. But she did complain that she would have trouble affording the tow charge. She also asked for permission to retrieve her sister-in-law's baby-seat from the car, which was allowed. The police entrusted to her the task of informing her sister-in-law, the car's registered owner, that the vehicle had been impounded.

After the car had been towed, Sergeant and Officer Cassidy returned with the duffel bag to the station, where Goodrich gave written consent to search his property. They opened the bag and found a handgun.

II. The Validity of the Impoundment and Subsequent Inventory Search

As a general proposition, and subject to a number of exceptions, police may conduct searches only pursuant to a valid warrant. The Supreme Court has held that one such exception allows police to conduct an "inventory" of the contents of a car when they validly impound the vehicle. Colorado v. Bertine, 479 U.S. 367, 371, 107 S.Ct. 738, 93 L.Ed.2d 739 (1987); South Dakota v. Opperman, 428 U.S. 364, 367-68, 96 S.Ct. 3092, 49 L.Ed.2d 1000 (1976). So long as the inventory is not a pretext to disguise an impermissible evidentiary search and is conducted pursuant to reasonable standard procedures designed to serve some interest other than collecting evidence of criminal wrongdoing, it is permitted. See Bertine, 479 U.S. at 375, 107 S.Ct. 738; United States v. Ramos-Morales, 981 F.2d 625, 626 (1st Cir.1992).

In this case, the precise question is not whether an inventory search may be conducted when the police have a car towed, but the antecedent question under what circumstances the police may seize and tow the car in the first place. See United States v. Duguay, 93 F.3d 346, 351 (7th Cir.1996)("the decision to impound (the `seizure') is properly analyzed as distinct from the decision to inventory (the `search')").

Pursuant to their "community care-taking" function, the police have the authority to impound or tow a car that is endangering the public or is itself endangered. See United States v. Rodriguez-Morales, 929 F.2d 780, 785 (1st Cir.1991); see also, South Dakota v. Opperman, 428 U.S. 364, 368, 96 S.Ct. 3092, 49 L.Ed.2d 1000 (1976). The Fourth Amendment provides no direct prohibition of such a seizure, so long as the "procedure employed (and its implementation) is reasonable" and there is a "strong noninvestigatory justification" for the seizure. Id. The need for a noninvestigatory purpose and reasonable procedures to justify a warrantless seizure and inventory search was reemphasized by the Supreme Court in Bertine, 479 U.S. at 375, 107 S.Ct. 738.

Goodrich argues that the police had no legitimate noninvestigatory purpose for removing his car because it was legally parked in a private lot and his wife could have driven it away or arranged to have it removed. A review of the caselaw supports the view that what distinguishes a permissible from an impermissible seizure of a legally parked car is whether the police had reason to believe that someone was available who could be entrusted with the car.

In United States v. Pappas, 735 F.2d 1232, 1234 (10th Cir.1984), the Tenth Circuit held that it was proper to suppress the fruits of the inventory search of a car towed when it was legally parked and when there was present "a young lady friend . . . who, if asked, might well have been able to take the car . . . ." Id. The court acknowledged United States v. Staller, 616 F.2d 1284 (5th Cir.1980), which held that "[t]he fact that a car is legally parked . . . does not necessarily negate the need to take the vehicle into protective custody." Id. at 1289-90. However, Pappas distinguished Staller on grounds that in Staller "the automobile's owner, who was from out of state . . . had no friend or relative available to take care of his car as his only traveling companion had also been arrested." Id. The court further noted that "Opperman cannot be used to justify the automatic inventory of every car upon the arrest of its owner. The justifications for the rule are too carefully crafted for this to be the intent." Pappas, 735 F.2d at 1234.5

In United States v. Zapata, 18 F.3d 971 (1st Cir.1994), the First Circuit held that a seizure of a car parked legally in a rest area was proper. The court made note of the fact that "all the relevant criteria are satisfied" when the car would have to be impounded because it was unregistered and uninsured and so could not be lawfully driven by anyone. Id. at 978.

In United States v. Duguay, 93 F.3d 346 (7th Cir.1996), the Seventh Circuit, through a majority opinion written by Judge Skinner of this court sitting by designation, held that a policy of routinely towing cars when the driver was arrested was constitutionally infirm. The Duguay court may have diverged from First Circuit law when it held that protecting the car from vandalism or theft is not a constitutionally valid reason for towing. Id. at 352-53.6 However, it appears to have been on common...

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