U.S. v. Dickey-Bey

• Decision Date: 29 December 2004
• Docket Number: No. 04-4265.,04-4265.
• Citation: 393 F.3d 449
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Maurice Norman DICKEY-BEY, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

393 F.3d 449

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Maurice Norman DICKEY-BEY, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 04-4265.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued: October 29, 2004.

Decided: December 29, 2004.

ARGUED: James Thomas Wallner, Special Assistant United States Attorney, Office Of The United States Attorney, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellant. Kenneth Wendell Ravenell, Schulman, Treem, Kaminkow & Gilden, P.A., Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Thomas M. DiBiagio, United States Attorney, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellant.

Before NIEMEYER and LUTTIG, Circuit Judges, and HAMILTON, Senior Circuit Judge.

Reversed and remanded by published opinion. Judge NIEMEYER wrote the opinion, in which Judge LUTTIG and Senior Judge HAMILTON joined.

OPINION

NIEMEYER, Circuit Judge:

Police arrested Maurice Dickey-Bey without a warrant after Dickey-Bey picked up a sealed package at Mail Boxes Etc. in Towson, Maryland, and exited from the store. Police knew before Dickey-Bey retrieved the package that it contained two kilograms of cocaine. Following the arrest, officers searched Dickey-Bey's automobile, which was approximately 30 feet away, and discovered rental receipts and keys for other mailboxes to which other packages, also known by police to contain cocaine, had been sent.

On Dickey-Bey's motion to suppress the evidence seized from his vehicle, the district court concluded that police did not have probable cause to believe that Dickey-Bey knew that the package contained cocaine and that, therefore, the police did not have probable cause for his arrest and for the search. The court also concluded that even if probable cause for the arrest existed, the search of Dickey-Bey's vehicle was not a valid search incident to an arrest. It reasoned that Dickey-Bey's "association with the vehicle was too attenuated at the time of the arrest to support application of the [New York v.] Belton bright-line rule," which holds that the passenger compartment of a motor vehicle may be searched incident to the lawful custodial arrest of an occupant. See New York v. Belton, 453 U.S. 454, 460-61, 101 S.Ct. 2860, 69 L.Ed.2d 768 (1981).

Based on the totality of the facts found by the district court, we conclude, as a matter of law, that the police officers had probable cause to believe that Dickey-Bey was knowingly possessing cocaine and that the police officers had independent probable cause to believe that Dickey-Bey's automobile was being used as an instrumentality of a crime. Accordingly, we reverse the district court's suppression order and remand for further proceedings.

I

Law enforcement officials in Los Angeles notified Sergeant John Campbell of the Maryland State Police Package Drug Interdiction Unit on September 23, 2003, that three packages would be arriving in the Baltimore area by overnight delivery service from The UPS Store in Culver City, California, and that the packages were thought to contain cocaine. The Los Angeles officers told Campbell that a drug-detecting dog had "alerted positive" to the packages; that the packages had the same return address; and that they were addressed variously to Baltimore-area UPS and Mail Boxes Etc. retail stores,¹ including one addressed to "Special Design at Box 187, Mail Boxes Etc., 727 Dulaney Valley Road, Towson, Maryland."

The next morning, September 24, members of the Maryland State Police Package Drug Interdiction Unit intercepted the three suspected packages at two Baltimore-area UPS distribution facilities. At that time, they also discovered a fourth package similarly addressed and marked with the same return address. All four packages were scanned by a drug-detecting dog, and in each case the dog alerted positive, indicating the presence of a controlled substance.

With this information, the Maryland State Police obtained a search warrant to open and search the four packages. In each package, the officers found four large plastic tubs of hair gel — consistent with the hair care theme indicated by the addressees' names, such as "Natural Feels" and "Special Design" — and in each tub they found one plastic-wrapped block of cocaine weighing approximately one-half kilogram. The four packages thus contained in the aggregate approximately eight kilograms of cocaine, having a street value of approximately $200,000.

The officers resealed the packages and transported them to the addressee mailboxes for pickup. They also enlisted the assistance of Baltimore City, Baltimore County, and Anne Arundel County police to surveil each retail location. Maryland State and Baltimore County police officers arrived at the Mail Boxes Etc. store on Dulaney Valley Road at approximately 11:00 a.m. to stake out that location. Corporal Chad Hymel of the Maryland State Police delivered the package addressed to that location to undercover Baltimore County Police Officer Douglas Kriete, who was to act as a Mail Boxes Etc. employee. Officer Kriete briefed the Mail Boxes Etc employees on duty, and one employee advised Officer Kriete that Box 187 was rented to "Lisa Ruiz," with a business name "Special Design," and that the individual who customarily retrieved mail from Box 187 was "a black male of average height, about 5'8" or 5'9", with a heavy build," who usually wore some type of uniform shirt or jacket. Officer Kriete communicated this description to the surveilling officers outside the store. He also told the other officers that he would not exit the store unless an individual had accepted the package and was walking out: "Unless I come out of that building," Officer Kriete said, "there was nobody to be arrested or nobody to be stopped." Officer Kriete then assumed his role as a Mail Boxes Etc. employee.

At approximately 11:30 a.m., Baltimore County Detective Brian Martin observed a brown Dodge Daytona automobile pull into the Mail Boxes Etc. parking lot and back into a parking space. In the context of anticipating the arrival of someone who would make a drug pickup, Detective Martin found this conduct suspicious. All other vehicles in the parking lot had pulled in front-first, and a customer would have had to go out of his way to back into a parking space given the layout of the lot. The person who exited the automobile also fit the description of the person who customarily had picked up packages from Box 187. In addition, Detective Martin observed that the person looked around the parking lot before approaching the store. Detective Martin communicated over the radio to the other officers that the person who had exited the brown vehicle matched the description given by the Mail Boxes Etc. employee and was about to enter the store.

As the suspect, who was later identified to be Dickey-Bey, entered the store, the Mail Boxes Etc. employee identified Dickey-Bey to Officer Kriete as the one who had customarily come to pick up packages from Box 187. Dickey-Bey approached the mailbox area and asked for "any mail" in his box, and he was handed the package addressed to "Special Design" at that box. Moments later, he exited the store, with Officer Kriete following him. Upon hearing the screeching wheels of approaching police cars, Officer Kriete placed Dickey-Bey on the ground and under arrest. The officers variously testified that Dickey-Bey was arrested approximately three to five feet from the brown automobile in which he had arrived. An employee of Mail Boxes Etc., however, testified that Dickey-Bey had not gotten that far and was still on the sidewalk when he was arrested, approximately 30 feet from his vehicle.

After Dickey-Bey was secured, Detective Martin told the other officers that Dickey-Bey had "arrived, parked, and exited the brown vehicle that was backed into the spot." Approximately 15 minutes after Dickey-Bey was first placed on the ground, the officers proceeded to search the automobile and discovered folded-up rental contracts and corresponding keys for various mailboxes at other UPS retail stores, matching perfectly the addresses on the four recovered packages. All of the contracts were in the name of "Lisa Ruiz." Officers also discovered a contract and key to a fifth mailbox that was later found to contain a fifth package of hair-gel tubs packed with two kilograms of cocaine.

Dickey-Bey was indicted for possession with intent to distribute "5 kilograms or more of a mixture or substance containing a detectable amount of cocaine" and for conspiracy to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine. After pleading not guilty, he filed a motion to suppress "any and all evidence seized as a result of the illegal search of the defendant's 1989 Dodge Daytona" automobile.

Following a lengthy hearing on March 29, 2004, at which six witnesses testified, the district court issued an order from the bench granting Dickey-Bey's motion to suppress. The court concluded that there had been no probable cause to arrest Dickey-Bey and that the search of Dickey-Bey's automobile had been illegal. Considering first whether the officers had probable cause to arrest Dickey-Bey, the district court excluded from its consideration Detective Martin's observations of Dickey-Bey's arrival at the parking lot, including his backing into a parking space and looking around before entering the Mail Boxes Etc. store, noting that this information was not communicated to Detective Kriete before Kriete placed Dickey-Bey under arrest. Taking into account the remaining evidence, the court concluded that the officers did not have probable cause to believe that Dickey-Bey knew the package he picked up at the Mail Boxes Etc. contained cocaine. In addition, the court concluded that even if there was probable cause to support the arrest, the search of Dickey-Bey's automobile was too attenuated to be a valid search incident to arrest. Refusing to credit police officer testimony that Dickey-Bey was arrested within three to five feet of his automobile, the court found that he was arrested "some 30...