In re T.H.

• Citation: 898 A.2d 908
• Decision Date: 11 May 2006
• Docket Number: No. 05-FS-306.,05-FS-306.
• Parties: In re T.H.; District of Columbia, Appellant.
• Court: Court of Appeals of Columbia District

Page 908

898 A.2d 908

In re T.H.; District of Columbia, Appellant.

No. 05-FS-306.

District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Argued November 17, 2005.

Decided May 11, 2006.

Sidney R. Bixler, Assistant Attorney General, with whom Robert J. Spagnoletti, Attorney General for the District of Columbia, Edward E. Schwab, Deputy Attorney General, and Rosalyn Calbert Groce, Chief, Juvenile and Criminal Section, were on the brief, for appellant.

Shilpa S. Satoskar, Public Defender Service, with whom James Klein and Samia Fam, Public Defender Service, were on the brief, for appellee.

Before FARRELL, RUIZ, and KRAMER, Associate Judges.

KRAMER, Associate Judge:

The District of Columbia appeals from the trial court's decision to suppress a handgun found during a search of the appellee, T.H., incident to his arrest for possession of illegal fireworks. The trial court ruled that the arrest of T.H. was without probable cause and, therefore, that the evidence found during the search was inadmissible. We affirm.

I.

On June 30, 2004, at approximately 10:00 p.m., Officer Leonard Fogle saw a Sport Utility Vehicle ("SUV") parked illegally on 54th Street, Northeast. Officer Fogle, observing that there was no one in the driver's seat, approached the vehicle. As he approached, he saw a front-seat passenger, a rear-seat passenger (T.H.), and a box of fireworks in the back compartment behind the rear passengers' seat where T.H. was sitting. The officer asked T.H. and the front seat passenger who owned the fireworks, and both replied that the fireworks belonged to the absent driver. Thereafter, both were arrested for possessing the fireworks and were searched incident to that arrest. The officers found a handgun in T.H.'s pocket, leading to the motion to suppress that is at issue here.

After his arraignment on the charges of Carrying a Pistol Without a License, Possession of an Unregistered Firearm, Unlawful Possession of Ammunition, and Unlawful Possession of Fireworks, that is firecrackers and roman candles,¹ T.H. filed a motion to suppress the handgun, arguing that the police lacked probable cause to arrest him. On March 1, 2005, the trial judge held a hearing on the motion, and later made sixteen findings of fact. Specifically, he found:

[1] [T]he police officers approached an SUV that ... was illegally parked.

[2] [A]t the time [T.H.] was the sole rear passenger in the SUV.

[3] [A] front seat passenger also occupied the SUV.

[4] [T]he driver of the SUV was not present.

[5] [T]he officers saw multiple boxes of fireworks in plain view in the rear compartment of the vehicle.

[6] [N]either fireworks nor any other contraband was located in any other part of the SUV.

[7] [N]othing obstructed full access to the rear compartment, the back compartment from the rear seat.

[8] [S]ome of the fireworks were within arms reach of [T.H.] if [he] were to pivot in his seat and face the back of the SUV.

[9] [B]oth [T.H.] and the front seat passenger said neither the SUV nor the fireworks were theirs. Rather, they ... said that those ... belonged to the driver, who they named.

[10] [N]o indicia of ownership existed through the evidence that ... by that I mean there was nothing in the evidence that showed that the respondent somehow owned or controlled the vehicle or fireworks.

[11] [T]he officers ordered the respondent out of the vehicle and he complied.

[12] [T]he respondent may have attempted to flee, although the evidence was less than resoundingly credible on this point. But either way, he was immediately stopped.

[13] [O]fficers handcuffed the respondent and placed him under arrest for possession of fireworks.

[14] [A]ll parties agreed that at this point [T.H.] was under arrest and that no warrant existed for his arrest.

[15] [T]he officers recovered the loaded firearm that was contained within a small zipped bag inside [T.H.'s] pants pocket, [and] [16] [T.H.] made no furtive gestures at any time.

At the conclusion of his findings, the trial judge ruled that "the government ha[d] not proven that the officers had probable cause . . . to believe that the respondent intended to exercise dominion and control over the fireworks." Accordingly, he granted the motion to suppress.

On appeal, the government argues that the judge erred by applying a reasonable doubt standard rather than a probable cause standard in determining whether T.H.'s arrest was proper. Further, the government argues that under the probable cause standard, the motion to suppress should have been denied. Thus, the two issues before this court are whether the trial court applied the proper standard in suppressing the handgun and, if it did apply the proper standard, whether it applied it correctly.

II.

Whether the trial court applied the proper legal standard is a question of law subject to de novo review. See Davis v. United States, 564 A.2d 31, 35 (D.C. 1989) (en banc). It hardly needs noting that the predicate for a lawful arrest is evidence sufficient to make it reasonably probable that a crime was committed, not the reasonable doubt standard. Blackmon v. United States, 835 A.2d 1070, 1074 (D.C. 2003) (citing United States v. Gordon, 173 F.3d 761, 766 (10th Cir.1999)). As we said in Blackmon, "We need not decide whether the government could have proven beyond a reasonable doubt that appellant was in constructive possession of the cocaine, since the issue here is not whether there was sufficient evidence for a conviction, but only whether there was probable cause for an arrest." Id. at 1075.

In support of its contention that the trial court erroneously applied a reasonable doubt standard, the government first points to the trial court's analysis of In re F.T.J., 578 A.2d 1161 (D.C.1990). In F.T.J., we found sufficient evidence to support the appellant's conviction for constructive possession of a machine gun beyond a reasonable doubt. Id. at 1163. The District argues that the trial court's recitation of the elements of constructive possession² and analogy of this case to F.T.J. demonstrate that the court applied the reasonable doubt standard in lieu of the probable cause standard when it granted the appellee's motion to suppress. On the contrary, it is clear that the judge was merely stating the elements of the underlying offense for which the defendant was arrested because knowing the elements of an alleged crime is essential in determining whether the police had probable cause to believe that those elements were present. See Blackmon, supra, 835 A.2d at 1075 (listing the elements of constructive possession).

Indeed, the record is replete with confirmation that the judge knew that the standard was probable cause, not beyond a reasonable doubt. Two days before ruling on the suppression motion, at the hearing on the motion to suppress, the trial court acknowledged that probable cause was the applicable standard. The prosecutor had conceded that he could not prove Possession of Fireworks beyond a reasonable doubt, but reminded the trial court that the only issue before it was "whether or not [the police] had probable cause to detain [the appellee] and arrest him at that point." The judge replied, "I understand." Later in that hearing, the judge again acknowledged the proper legal standard during a colloquy with the appellee's counsel regarding Rivas v. United States, 783 A.2d 125 (D.C.2001) (en banc). In responding to counsel's citation of Rivas, the judge asked, "And what do you make of the government's argument that the Court in [Rivas] was discussing the beyond a reasonable doubt trial standard and not ... the issue of whether there was probable cause for arrest?"

Likewise, in announcing his ruling on the motion to suppress, the judge stated: "The issue here is whether the police had probable cause to arrest the respondent. Whether the authorities had probable cause that [the appellee] constructively possessed the fireworks, that's what this case is about, constructive possession." In his conclusion, the court stated: "Under the circumstances of this case I find that the government has not proven that the officers had probable cause . . . to believe . . . that the respondent intended to exercise dominion and control over the fireworks and, therefore, I grant the motion to suppress." Thus, we find the appellant's argument that the trial court applied the wrong standard to be unsupported by the record.³

III.

We next turn to the issue of whether the court applied the probable cause standard correctly. In doing so, "[o]ur standard of review for a trial court's ruling on a motion to suppress tangible evidence requires `that the facts and all reasonable inferences therefrom must be viewed in favor of sustaining the trial court's ruling.'" United States v. Watson, 697 A.2d 36, 38 (D.C.1997) (quoting Holt v. United States, 675 A.2d 474, 478 (D.C. 1996)). "While factual findings will not be disturbed if supported by substantial evidence, conclusions of law are reviewed de novo." Id. (citing Holt, supra, 675 A.2d at 478). "Whether or not police had probable cause . . . is ultimately a question of law." Id. (citing Ornelas v. United States, 517 U.S. 690, 697-98, 116 S.Ct. 1657, 134 L.Ed.2d 911 (1996)).

In this case, the trial court reviewed the elements of constructive possession and found that the police officers did not have probable cause to believe that the appellee intended to exercise control over the contraband. In reaching this conclusion, the trial court stated, "The only evidence supporting the probability that the respondent committed a crime was his mere proximity to the fireworks, his statement that he was aware of their existence, and the weaker evidence of his attempted flight."

"There is no fixed formula for determining the existence of probable cause to arrest; it is rather a matter left to the informed judgment of a reasonably prudent arresting officer. . . . Generally, probable cause exists where the facts and circumstances within the...