U.S. v. Abadia

• Decision Date: 19 November 1991
• Docket Number: No. 91-1562,91-1562
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Lucelly ABADIA, a/k/a Lucelly Ochoa, Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 956

949 F.2d 956

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Lucelly ABADIA, a/k/a Lucelly Ochoa, Appellant.

No. 91-1562.

United States Court of Appeals,

Eighth Circuit.

Submitted Sept. 13, 1991.

Decided Nov. 19, 1991.

Michael Dwyer, St. Louis, Mo., argued, for appellant.

Howard J. Marcus, St. Louis, Mo., argued, for appellee.

Before BOWMAN, Circuit Judge, ROSS, Senior Circuit Judge, and LOKEN, Circuit Judge.

BOWMAN, Circuit Judge.

On May 20, 1990, law enforcement officers intercepted and detained the appellant, Lucelly Abadia, immediately upon her arrival at Lambert International Airport in St. Louis, for the purpose of investigating a tip that she was smuggling cocaine. During her detention she consented to the search of her luggage which led to the discovery of cocaine and, ultimately, to her formal arrest. Prior to her trial, she unsuccessfully moved for the suppression of the statements that she made and the evidence that was seized from her at the airport. After a two-day jury trial she was convicted for possessing cocaine with the intent to distribute it, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) (1988), and sentenced to sixty-three months in prison. On appeal she contends it was error for the District Court ¹ to deny her suppression motion because the detention that proceeded her formal arrest (hereinafter her pre-arrest detention) was itself a de facto arrest and was unsupported by probable cause. We affirm.

On or about May 18, 1990, a confidential informant advised Enrique Aguilar, Senior Special Agent for the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service, that on May 20 Lucy Abadia would be flying from Miami to St. Louis, with one or two kilograms of cocaine in her check-on luggage. ² The informant described Abadia as a Colombian female in her late twenties, five feet four inches tall, with wavy, dark hair. Because this particular informant had provided accurate information on two recent occasions, Agent Aguilar considered the tip reliable and he proceeded to verify the information. Upon contacting the information office of Transworld Airlines (TWA), Agent Aguilar learned that a Lucy Abadia was listed as a passenger on TWA flight 683, which was flying to St. Louis from Miami on May 20. This information was passed along to the Miami Airport Police, but efforts to intercept Abadia in Miami failed.

Agent Aguilar thereupon conveyed this information to Sergeant Larry Wheeler, a St. Louis County Police Officer who had been assigned to the Drug Enforcement Agency (hereinafter DEA) Task Force as a Detective at Lambert International Airport. Sgt. Wheeler then contacted TWA and verified that Abadia would be coming into St. Louis on flight 683. He also learned that that flight was scheduled to arrive in St. Louis at gate 46 at 2:56 p.m. and that Abadia's seat number was 17A.

Sgt. Wheeler, Agent Aguilar, and several other law enforcement agents waited for flight 683 at gate 46. When it arrived, Sgt. Wheeler, Officer Kimberly Presley of the Airport Police Department, and several other officers obtained permission from the captain to board the plane. To aid the officers, the flight attendant instructed the passengers to remain seated. With the passengers still on the plane, Sgt. Wheeler approached row 17, ³ saw a woman in that row who fit the informant's description of Abadia, ⁴ and identified himself to her as a police officer, showing her his DEA credentials. He asked her if she was Lucy Abadia. She nodded and also indicated that she did not understand much English. He then directed her to follow him off the plane. After Abadia had disembarked, Officer Presley asked her for her ticket and Abadia complied. Officer Presley saw that the ticket was in the name of Lucelly Abadia ⁵ and returned it to her. Sgt. Wheeler and Officer Presley then led Abadia to the airport DEA office, approximately 2400 feet away from the location at which Abadia arrived. There they were met by DEA Task Force Officer Michael Williams, who was to serve as a Spanish/English translator. ⁶

Officer Williams identified himself to Abadia, showed her his DEA credentials, and read Abadia her Miranda rights in Spanish from a Spanish-English language card. He also had her read them to herself. Abadia indicated that she understood her rights and would talk to the law enforcement officers. Officer Williams then communicated with her in Spanish and he told Sgt. Wheeler in English what he and Abadia were saying. He explained to Abadia that they were investigating her for carrying cocaine in her luggage and asked her whether she had checked any luggage. She responded affirmatively. He also asked her if she packed it herself and whether she would describe it to him. She responded affirmatively and described her suitcase to him. He asked her if she would give them her claim ticket and permit an officer to retrieve her suitcase from the carousel. She said that they could do so and gave him her ticket. After another officer had retrieved her bag, Officer Williams asked her if she would give the officers permission to search it. Abadia answered affirmatively and motioned toward the suitcase. Sgt. Wheeler then searched the suitcase and discovered, concealed in a shoe box, two containers wrapped in brown tape and immersed in a layer of liquid hand soap. ⁷ Within the containers he found clear plastic bags of white powder, which a field test indicated was cocaine. Officer Williams then told Abadia that she was under arrest and he again read her her Miranda rights. In the search incident to the arrest, certain documentary papers were seized from Abadia's purse. In addition, Abadia responded to questions from Officer Williams regarding the source of the cocaine. At no time did she request an attorney or that the questioning stop.

On June 15, 1990, Abadia was charged with one count of possessing cocaine with intent to distribute it, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1). Prior to trial, she moved for the suppression of all the statements she made and all the evidence seized from her at the airport on May 20, 1990, on the basis that her pre-arrest detention violated her rights under the Fourth Amendment. ⁸ The District Court adopted the recommendation of the Magistrate Judge ⁹ and held that her pre-arrest detention did not constitute an arrest and also that it was supported by "the reasonable and articulable suspicion [necessary] to support a Terry stop." United States v. Abadia, No. 90-101CR(1), mem. op. at 5 (E.D.Mo. Nov. 27, 1990), reprinted in Addendum B to Appellant's Brief at D-5. ¹⁰ It also concluded that her statements were voluntary and that she consented to the search of her luggage, and it therefore denied the motion to suppress. Id. at 6. The court did not reach the issue of probable cause.

On appeal Abadia claims that it was error for the court to deny her suppression motion as, she contends, her pre-arrest detention exceeded the brief and limited investigatory detention permitted in a Terry-type stop and thus constituted a de facto arrest. She further argues that this de facto arrest was unconstitutional because it was not supported by probable cause, and thus the statements that she made and the evidence that was seized are inadmissible as the fruits of an illegal seizure. See Florida v. Royer, 460 U.S. 491, 501, 103 S.Ct. 1319, 1326, 75 L.Ed.2d 229 (1983) (plurality opinion) (opinion of White, J.) ("statements given during a period of illegal detention are inadmissible even though voluntarily given if they are the product of the illegal detention and not the result of an independent act of free will."). ¹¹ We disagree with Abadia's second claim--that her pre-arrest detention was not supported by probable cause ¹²--and we therefore affirm her conviction. ¹³

"Probable cause ... to make a warrantless arrest [exists] when, at the moment of the arrest, the collective knowledge of the officers involved," United States v. Wajda, 810 F.2d 754, 758 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 481 U.S. 1040, 107 S.Ct. 1981, 95 L.Ed.2d 821 (1987), is "sufficient to warrant a prudent man in believing that the [defendant has] committed or [is] committing an offense." Beck v. Ohio, 379 U.S. 89, 91, 85 S.Ct. 223, 225, 13 L.Ed.2d 142 (1964). ¹⁴ While " 'bare suspicion' of criminal activity is not sufficient to establish probable cause," United States v. Caves, 890 F.2d 87, 93 (8th Cir.1989), police officers are not "required to have enough evidence to justify a conviction before they make a warrantless arrest." Id. Whether probable cause exists is a common-sense and practical determination and must be based upon the totality of the circumstances. Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 230-32, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 2328-29, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983).

In Draper v. United States, 358 U.S. 307, 79 S.Ct. 329, 3 L.Ed.2d 327 (1959), the Supreme Court addressed the question of whether probable cause was present in a factual setting similar to the one now before us. There, the police were given a tip by a reliable informant that Draper would be taking a train from Chicago to Denver either on September 8 or 9 and that he would be carrying three ounces of heroin at the time. Id. at 309, 79 S.Ct. at 331. The informant described Draper as "a Negro of light brown complexion, 27 years of age, 5 feet 8 inches tall, weigh[ing] about 160 pounds, ... wearing a light colored raincoat, brown slacks and black shoes," id. at 309 n. 2, 79 S.Ct. at 331 n. 2. He also stated that Draper habitually walked fast and that he would be carrying a tan zipper bag when he arrived in Denver. On September 9, police staking out the Denver train station observed a man, who fit exactly the description provided by the informant, get off a train from Chicago and begin to walk quickly toward an exit. Based upon the tip and their independent corroboration of virtually all the facts contained in that tip, ¹⁵ the police arrested the suspect, Draper, who indeed was carrying heroin. Id. at 309-10, 79 S.Ct. at 331-32. In...