U.S. v. Sugar

• Citation: 322 F.Supp.2d 85
• Decision Date: 24 June 2004
• Docket Number: No. CRIM.03-10362-PBS.,CRIM.03-10362-PBS.
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America v. Christopher SUGAR and Sean D. Stark, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Massachusetts

322 F.Supp.2d 85

UNITED STATES of America v. Christopher SUGAR and Sean D. Stark, Defendants.

No. CRIM.03-10362-PBS.

United States District Court, D. Massachusetts.

June 24, 2004.

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Cynthia W. Lie, United States Attorney's Office, Boston, MA, for USA, Plaintiff.

Melvin Norris, Mel Norris, Wayland, MA, for Sean Stark (2), Defendant.

Mark W. Shea, Shea, Larocque & Wood LLP, Cambridge, MA, for Christopher Sugar (1), Defendant.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER RE: DEFENDANTS' MOTION TO SUPPRESS

SARIS, District Judge.

INTRODUCTION

Defendants, charged with trafficking in marijuana, move to suppress marijuana discovered in the closet of a recreational vehicle in Missouri. At the evidentiary hearing on May 18 and 19, 2004, Carmelo Crivello of the Phelps County Sheriff's Department, and Defendants Sean Stark and Christopher Sugar testified. After hearing, the motion to suppress is ALLOWED.

FINDINGS OF FACT

On October 22, 2003, Carmelo Crivello of the Phelps County Sheriff's Department in St. Louis County, Missouri, was on the day shift patrolling I-Rte. 44. Because I-44 is a drug pipeline route, in the Sheriff Department's view, it has an aggressive drug interdiction practice there.¹

At about 12:30 p.m., Crivello saw a large recreational vehicle (RV) with Vermont plates traveling in the right lane of a highway divided by a grass median. On Crivello's side, there were two lanes and a shoulder. Intentionally trailing the RV in the passing lane for a half mile, Crivello hoped to discern a traffic violation. Crivello wanted to find grounds to stop the RV to search for drugs because it had out-of-state plates and was on a pipeline route. Crivello finally saw the right rear tire go completely over the "fog line," the white traffic line demarcating the shoulder, once. Crivello activated his blue lights and pulled over the RV.

The RV was 40 feet long and 13 feet tall. The driver, Christopher Sugar, and passenger, Sean D. Stark, are 30-something males. The driver, Christopher Sugar, had seen the marked cruiser in the passing lane and was making a deliberate effort to comply with traffic laws. The RV had been following a tractor-trailer, and Sugar believed that the wind turbulence from the trailer, or wind gusts, might have caused the RV to sway over the line. While he does not remember any swaying, he concedes it was possible. I find that the right rear double tires went over the fog line on the shoulder once.

Crivello approached the driver who was opening the driver side window. As there was no door on the driver side, he then went to the passenger side. When the door opened, steps automatically dropped down and Crivello ascended. When Crivello told the driver of the traffic violation — failure to maintain a single lane — Sugar attributed any problem to the tractor-trailer. Crivello did not believe him because he did not see any tractor-trailer pass the RV. The men explained that they were going biking in Vermont but again Crivello was skeptical. (The RV contained mountain bikes and camping gear). Crivello requested both licenses. Stark, the passenger, moved the CB radio away from the console to retrieve the licenses. Stark showed Crivello a note providing permission from the owner to use the vehicle.

Commenting that lots of narcotics were transported on the road, Crivello asked both men if they were transporting anything illegal and both stated no. Crivello then asked them to consent to a search of the RV and said that if they declined, he would call a canine unit. When they both refused his request for a search, Crivello next informed them that he was going to have the canine come to respond to the scene while he wrote up a summons for the traffic violation. Crivello told Sugar to return to Crivello's police car and left Stark at the RV. Complying, Sugar did not appear nervous. Crivello then contacted Sheriff Blankenship and requested that he respond with his canine. Stark came to the cruiser to make small talk. To Crivello, Stark seemed nervous because his hands were trembling and he seemed talkative. Stark asked if Crivello stopped them because they were two kids driving a motor home. No field sobriety test was done.

In the intervening time the record checks came back clean. The licenses were valid, and there was no criminal history. However, the licenses showed that both men were from Arizona, which Crivello believed was a source state for drugs. Crivello told the men they were "free" to go to a nearby restaurant or hotel to wait for the canine, but that they could not take the RV. The men declined and waited by the RV. After receiving the clean record check, it took about 10 to 15 minutes more for the dog Nitro to appear. Altogether, the canine unit arrived about 20 minutes after Crivello initially stopped the RV for the traffic violation.

Once the canine unit arrived, the dog peed and then alerted to the right rear of the RV. The assembled law enforcement officers then entered the RV where they eventually found 376.9 pounds of marijuana in a locked closet. Stark and Sugar told the police that they did not have the key to this closet and that the closet had been locked from the time they left Arizona. Admitting during his testimony he lied to the police (and that he knew about the marijuana), Stark testified he had a key to the closet, which had been hidden. Sugar testified he did not know where the key was (and did not know the closet contained marijuana).

Crivello gave the following reasons for the Terry stop: (1) the RV had out-of-state plates; (2) the drivers were from Arizona, a "source" state on a known drug trafficking corridor; (3) Stark tried to kick the CB radio under the seat; (4) Crivello thought it was suspicious that the two men were going all the way across country just to mountain-bike in Vermont; and (5) Stark, the passenger, appeared nervous and talkative.

Crivello wrote up a traffic violation the next day but did not file it in court until told to do so by the U.S. Attorney.

Both defendants testified at the hearing. I found Sugar credible. He is employed, college-educated, and was honorably discharged from the Army. Although he shares these characteristics, Stark is less credible because he lied to the police and made a misleading statement in his affidavit. Stark has "trembling limb syndrome" for which he takes medication.

DISCUSSION

A. The Fourth Amendment Applied to Traffic Stops

The Fourth Amendment guarantees "[t]he right of the people to be secure ... against unreasonable searches and seizures." U.S. Const. amend IV. "As interpreted, the [A]mendment's prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures extends only to protect those places and interests in which the accused can be characterized as having a legitimate expectation of privacy." United States v. Cruz Jimenez, 894 F.2d 1, 5 (1st Cir.1990) (citing Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128, 140-50, 99 S.Ct. 421, 58 L.Ed.2d 387 (1978)). "Demonstration of such an expectation is a threshold standing requirement, and analysis cannot proceed further without its establishment." Id.

"A traffic stop, by definition, embodies a detention of the vehicle and its occupants." United States v. Chhien, 266 F.3d 1, 5 (1st Cir.2001). "It therefore constitutes a seizure within the purview of the Fourth Amendment." Id. (citing Delaware v. Prouse, 440 U.S. 648, 653, 99 S.Ct. 1391, 59 L.Ed.2d 660 (1979)); see also Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806, 809-10, 116 S.Ct. 1769, 135 L.Ed.2d 89 (1996) ("Temporary detention of individuals during the stop of an automobile by the police, even if only for a brief period and for a limited purpose, constitutes a `seizure' of `persons' within the meaning of this provision."). "This means, of course, that the stop must be supported by a reasonable and articulable suspicion of criminal activity, see Berkemer v. McCarty, 468 U.S. 420 439, 104 S.Ct. 3138, 82 L.Ed.2d 317 (1984), and that the detention must be reasonable under the circumstances, Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806, 809-10, 116 S.Ct. 1769, 135 L.Ed.2d 89 (1996)." Chhien, 266 F.3d at 5-6. A reasonable, articulable suspicion is "more than a naked hunch," but less than "either probable cause or evidence of a direct connection linking the suspect to the suspected crime." Id. at 6.

"In determining whether, in the absence of probable cause, an investigatory seizure and search violates the Fourth Amendment, [the First Circuit] use[s] the two-prong test set forth in Terry v. Ohio." United States v. Nee, 261 F.3d 79, 83 (1st Cir.2001). "First, we ask whether the officers' actions were justified at their inception, and second, whether their actions were reasonably related in scope to the circumstances which justified the officers' initial interference." Id. A court must be flexible in this analysis because, "while an officer's actions must bear some relation to the purpose of the original stop, he may shift his focus and increase the scope of his investigation by degrees if his suspicions mount during the course of the detention." Chhien, 266 F.3d at 6.

Moreover, "there is no talismanic time beyond which any stop initially justified on the basis of Terry becomes an unreasonable seizure under the [F]ourth [A]mendment." United States v. McCarthy, 77 F.3d 522, 530 (1st Cir.1996) (citations omitted). Therefore, "[t]he reasonableness inquiry is almost always fact specific." United States v. Owens, 167 F.3d 739, 748 (1st Cir.1999). "[A]n inquiring court must balance `the nature and quality of the intrusion on personal security against the importance of the governmental interests alleged to justify the intrusion.'" Chhien, 266 F.3d at 6 (quoting United States v. Sowers, 136 F.3d 24, 27 (1st Cir.1998)).

"The Supreme Court has directed courts making this inquiry to examine whether the police diligently pursued a means of investigation that was likely to confirm or dispel their suspicions quickly, during which time...