U.S. v. Pindell

Decision Date25 July 2003
Docket NumberNo. 01-3085.,01-3085.
Citation336 F.3d 1049
PartiesUNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Warren L. PINDELL, Appellant.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (No. 00cr00216-01).

Steven J. McCool, appointed by the court, argued the cause and filed the briefs for appellant.

David B. Goodhand, Assistant U.S. Attorney, argued the cause for appellee. With him on the brief were Roscoe C. Howard, Jr., U.S. Attorney, John R. Fisher, Thomas J. Tourish, Jr., and J. Patrick Rowan, Assistant U.S. Attorneys.

Before: GINSBURG, Chief Judge, and EDWARDS and GARLAND, Circuit Judges.

Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge GARLAND.

GARLAND, Circuit Judge:

In 1999, defendant Warren Pindell was an officer of the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia, working a prostitution detail on Georgia Avenue, N.W. By 2001, Pindell's law enforcement career was over. In March of that year, a federal jury convicted him of, among other things, depriving thirteen men of their civil rights by robbing them while they were apparently soliciting the services of prostitutes. The defendant's modus operandi was as follows: After a would-be customer picked up a prostitute in his car, Pindell would follow the pair to the location where the transaction was to take place. Soon thereafter, the defendant, dressed in his police uniform, would approach the driver's side of the car and question the man, usually demanding to see some identification. He would then order the victim out of the car and take his cash. Pindell often threatened his victims with a gun or billy club, handcuffed them, and went through their jackets and pants pockets searching for additional cash. Several victims reported that Pindell wrote down their personal information in a small notebook.

The district court entered judgment against the defendant on the jury's verdict and sentenced him to a total of 262 months' incarceration. Pindell now appeals, contending that much of the evidence used against him at trial was the fruit of illegal searches and seizures, and that the district court made a variety of trial errors. We find all of Pindell's arguments to be without merit, and affirm the judgment of the district court.

I

On December 13, 1999, Victor Zelaya reported to the police that he had been robbed in the early hours of that day after picking up a woman on Georgia Avenue. Zelaya told Detective Anthony Paci that he and the woman were interrupted by a man "dressed as a police officer," who ordered Zelaya out of the car, pointed a gun at his head, forced him to kneel, and took approximately $250 from him. 2/26/01 Tr. at 14. Zelaya also told Paci that, during the robbery, the assailant had written down personal information in a "notebook like the police use." Id. at 24; see 2/1/01 Tr. at 12.

Two weeks later, on December 28, Osman Dainkeh reported that he had been the victim of a similar robbery the day before. Dainkeh told Detective Paci that he had picked up a prostitute on Georgia Avenue, driven a short distance away, and stopped the car. Soon thereafter, a police officer approached, forced him out of the car at gunpoint, handcuffed him, and searched his wallet and coat. The officer stole $500, a white gold chain, Dainkeh's driver's license, and his alien registration card ("green card"). The prostitute, Wygenia Jones, provided a description of the robber that Detective Paci believed matched Pindell; she then picked Pindell's picture out of an array of nine photographs. The next morning, the police showed the earlier victim, Zelaya, a photo array that included Pindell's picture, and Zelaya identified the defendant — with "a hundred percent" certainty — as the person who had robbed him on December 13. 2/26/01 Tr. at 35-36.

On December 29, 1999, on the basis of Dainkeh's complaint, Detective Paci applied for a warrant to search Pindell's car for a "green card and driver's license [in] the name of Osman Dainkeh, cash money in the amount of approximately $500, a white gold chain, a dark blue police uniform, and any other evidence of a violation of Title 18 U.S.C. § 242." Appellant's App. at Tab 8, Tab 11. In support of the warrant, Paci submitted an affidavit that set forth the details of the Dainkeh robbery. A U.S. Magistrate Judge in the District of Columbia issued the requested warrant, and Paci proceeded to execute it that afternoon. While doing so, the detective noticed a notebook on the back seat of Pindell's car, lying next to a police uniform. The notebook was similar in size to those used by D.C. police officers, and its exposed front page was inscribed with Pindell's name and the date "11-12-99." Paci seized the notebook, and detectives later used the information it contained to connect Pindell to the Dainkeh robbery, to locate other victims, and to link Pindell to additional crimes.

Also on December 29, Detective Elbert Griffin applied to a U.S. Magistrate Judge in Maryland for a warrant to search Pindell's home. That application listed the same items specified in the car warrant, and was based on a nearly identical affidavit. The magistrate authorized the warrant. Prior to the search, Detective Paci briefed Detectives Griffin and Pamela Williams regarding the relevance of certain items including, in particular, jewelry, identification cards, and notebooks. With regard to the latter, Paci advised the detectives that a victim had reported seeing Pindell taking notes in a notebook during the December 13 robbery, and that victims' names might therefore be written in such notebooks.

Inside a plastic garbage bag in Pindell's basement, Detective Williams found several small notebooks that were large enough to conceal a driver's license or currency and that she regarded as of the type typically used by police. She flipped through the notebooks and, after discovering that they contained personal information including names, dates, phone numbers, and addresses, she seized them. Meanwhile, Detective Griffin searched another part of Pindell's basement, where he located a backpack that he examined for the items listed in the warrant. Inside the pack, Griffin discovered a partially completed Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Form 251 that described the "stop and frisk" of an individual named Joe Wicks. 2/20/01 Tr. at 33. Griffin seized the form because the event described was "similar" to the robbery recounted in the affidavit. Id. at 36.

After concluding these searches, the detectives continued their investigation into Pindell's activities. They ultimately discovered a total of fourteen robberies. The fourteenth victim, an MPD auditor named Joseph Wicks, identified the defendant as the man who, dressed in a police uniform with a name tag marked "Pindell," had interrupted Wicks and a woman in a car off Georgia Avenue. Pindell ordered Wicks out of the car, put a gun to his head, and pulled the trigger — producing a "loud click." 2/28/01 Tr. at 130. Wicks resisted Pindell's efforts to handcuff him, and the defendant finally called for police assistance. 2/28/01 Tr. at 125. When other officers arrived, they let Wicks go.

On July 11, 2000, a grand jury issued a superceding indictment, charging Pindell with thirteen counts of depriving individuals of their civil rights while armed, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 242; thirteen counts of armed robbery, in violation of D.C.CODE §§ 22-2901 and 22-3202; and one count of assaulting Joseph Wicks with a dangerous weapon, in violation of D.C.CODE § 22-502. The district court denied Pindell's motion to suppress the items seized from his car and home as well as evidence derived from those items. The case proceeded to trial, at which all of Pindell's victims — as well as several prostitutes and his former girlfriend — testified against him. The government also introduced into evidence the notebooks and MPD form that the police had seized from Pindell's basement and car. Inside the notebooks were personal details regarding all thirteen of the victims named in the civil rights counts.

Pindell took the stand in his own defense, testifying that, although he had stopped each of the victims for engaging in prostitution, he had never robbed any of them. He also proffered two witnesses who testified that a man named "Boo" Farrow had been robbing prostitutes' customers during the same period. The jury convicted Pindell on all counts, with the exception of one of the civil rights counts, as to which it found Pindell guilty of a lesser included charge.

We address Pindell's appeal of the denial of his motion to suppress evidence in Part II. In Part III, we consider the defendant's claim that the district court committed a number of trial errors.

II

In reviewing the denial of a motion to suppress, we examine the district court's legal conclusions de novo, but apply a "clearly erroneous" standard to its underlying findings of fact. See United States v. Hill, 131 F.3d 1056, 1059 n. 2 (D.C.Cir. 1997); United States v. Taylor, 997 F.2d 1551, 1553 (D.C.Cir.1993).

The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution provides that "no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." U.S. CONST. amend. IV. The Amendment's particularity requirement effectively prohibits the issuance of "general warrants." Andresen v. Maryland, 427 U.S. 463, 478, 480, 96 S.Ct. 2737, 2747, 2748, 49 L.Ed.2d 627 (1976). Pindell contends that the warrants issued in this case violated the particularity requirement because of the catch-all phrase that came at the end of each warrant's list of specific items to be seized:

[A] green card and driver's license [in] the name of Osman Dainkeh, cash money in the amount of approximately $500, a white gold...

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