Richardson v. United States, 85-1237.

• Decision Date: 28 January 1987
• Docket Number: No. 85-1237.,85-1237.
• Citation: 520 A.2d 692
• Parties: James J. RICHARDSON, Jr., Appellant, v. UNITED STATES, Appellee.
• Court: D.C. Court of Appeals

520 A.2d 692

James J. RICHARDSON, Jr., Appellant, v. UNITED STATES, Appellee.

No. 85-1237.

District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Argued July 3, 1986.

Decided January 28, 1987.

George Denney, Washington, D.C., appointed by this court, for appellant.

Robert MacNair Morgan, Asst. U.S. Atty., with whom Joseph E. diGenova, U.S. Atty., and Michael W. Farrell and Judith Hetherton, Asst. U.S. Attys., Washington, D.C., were on brief, for appellee.

Before PRYOR, Chief Judge, and BELSON and TERRY, Associate Judges.

BELSON, Associate Judge:

Richardson was convicted of possession of dilaudid, a controlled substance, D.C. Code § 33-541(d) (1986 Supp.). On appeal, he argues that the trial court erred in denying his motion to supress evidence. He first asserts that the United States Park Police officers who arrested him lacked the authority to do so because the arrest took place outside of any federal park or reservation, and that the evidence they seized should therefore be suppressed. Second, he argues that the trial court erred in finding that his seizure by the officers occurred only after he had thrown into the street a pill box which contained the dilaudid tablets. We hold that United States Park Police officers have jurisdiction to make arrests anywhere in the District of Columbia. We also hold that the officers seized appellant only after he had discarded incriminating evidence and attempted to flee, thereby furnishing specific and articulable facts justifying the seizure. We therefore affirm.

The facts relevant to this appeal were developed in a hearing held on Richardson's motion to suppress evidence. The only witness was Officer John Harasek of the United States Park Police's Narcotics Enforcement Unit. He testified that in the early evening of March 25, 1985, he was on routine patrol with Detective Ronald Schmidt and Sergeant Billy Zeh. The officers were in plain clothes and were driving an unmarked car. As they were driving north on 11th Street, N.W., they passed a club known as the "Ballpark Club." Harasek said he knew the club to be a place where drugs were sold. As they drove past the club, Richardson came out of the club and locked a metal door behind him. Richardson started to walk north on 11th Street and looked back at the police car. Harasek said that Richardson appeared to be nervous.

Sergeant Zeh noticed that Richardson was holding a small white object in his left hand. Richardson looked back at the police car one more time, and quickly put the object in his pocket. Harasek put the car in park, and the officers started to get out of the vehicle.

As Schmidt and Zeh were getting out of the car, they called out, in voices loud enough for Richardson to hear, "Police, wait a second. We want to talk to you." Richardson then reached into his pocket, and threw the white object into the street. Harasek immediately ran into the street to retrieve the object.

After throwing the object into the street, Richardson started to run away. Schmidt and Zeh caught up with him and the three scuffled. In the meantime, Harasek had picked up the object, which turned out to be a white Bayer aspirin pill box, opened it, and saw six pills marked "K-4," which he recognized to be dilaudid. He went back to the sidewalk to help his fellow officers subdue Richardson. The officers then arrested Richardson.

Prior to trial, Richardson moved to suppress the drugs, arguing that the Park Police were outside of their jurisdiction when they arrested him, that they lacked articulable suspicion to justify stopping him, and that they were without probable cause to arrest him. It is undisputed that there is no federal park or other federal reservation near the place of the arrest, 11th and P Streets, N.W.

In the first phase of the suppression hearing, the motions judge heard extensive arguments concerning the authority of the United States Park Police to make arrests outside of the parks or federal reservations within the District of Columbia. The court ruled that Park Police officers have that authority.

In the second phase of the suppression hearing, Officer Harasek testified concerning the facts surrounding the arrest of appellant. Thereafter, the court entertained argument from counsel. Richardson argued that the police "seized" him at the moment they got out of their car, and that they did not have specific and articulable facts which justified that seizure. See Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 21, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1879, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968). The government argued that the police merely approached Richardson to ask questions, and that they did not need articulable suspicion to do so.

After a lengthy colloquy with counsel, the trial court denied Richardson's motion to suppress, stating: "And the way I read the law, the cops could ask him to stop and could talk to him. And I find that that's exactly what they did."

I.

We first address Richardson's argument that Park Police officers lack jurisdiction to make arrests outside of parks and other federal reservations. We agree with the trial court that United States Park Police officers have jurisdiction to make arrests anywhere in the District of Columbia. Therefore, we reject Richardson's argument that the evidence seized must be suppressed because of the arresting officer's lack of authority to effect a legal arrest.

The question of Park Police arrest jurisdiction has been examined recently by Judge Harold H. Greene of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in United States v. Alatishe, 616 F.Supp. 1406 (D.D.C. 1985). Judge Greene concluded that Park Police officers have city-wide jurisdiction. Id. at 1410. Our reading of the statutes and legislative history, and our interpretation of Congress' reaction to information placed before it, lead us to conclude, as did the trial court and Judge Greene, that United States Park Police officers are authorized to make arrests anywhere in the District of Columbia.

Congress created the United States Park Police in 1882 by the adoption of statutory language that, as amended, remains a part of the District of Columbia Code today. The original enactment read:

That hereafter all watchmen provided for by the United States Government for service in any of the public squares and reservations in the District of Columbia shall have and perform the same powers and duties as the Metropolitan police of said District.

Act of August 5, 1882, ch. 389, 22 Stat. 219, 243 (codified as amended at D.C.Code § 4-201 (1981)).¹

This enactment can be interpreted as establishing a special force of watchmen, since renamed Park Police, created for the particular purpose of policing public squares and reservations, but whose members have and perform throughout the District of Columbia the same powers and duties as the Metropolitan police. This interpretation is quite plausible because there are no words of limitation in the statutory language that grants authority. The statutory language can also be interpreted, however, to provide that the police force it creates will have the same powers and duties as the Metropolitan police, but may exercise them only in the public squares and reservations of the District of Columbia.

The proper interpretation of the laws defining the powers of the Park Police was clarified when, in 1924, Congress adopted legislation placing the Director of the National Park Service in charge of the Park Police and authorizing him to appoint "special policemen" for the federal reservations in the District. That legislation provided:

That the officer in charge of public buildings and grounds, in his discretion, may appoint special policemen, without compensation, for duty in connection with the policing of the public parks and other reservations under his jurisdiction within the District of Columbia, such special policemen to have the same powers and perform the same duties as the United States park police and the Metropolitan police of said District of Columbia, and to be subject to such regulations as the chief of engineers may prescribe: Provided, That the jurisdiction and police power of such special policemen shall be restricted to the public parks and other reservations under the control of [the Director of the National Park Service].

Act of May 27, 1924, ch. 199, §§ 4, 9, 43 Stat. 174, 175-76 (codified as amended at D.C.Code §§ 4-202, -205 (1981)).

We conclude that the 1924 amendment reflects the view of Congress that the Park Police and the Metropolitan police have equal jurisdiction. If Park Police officers' arrest powers had already been limited to the parks, there would have been no need for Congress to include the proviso so limiting the jurisdiction of the special policemen.

We draw additional support for our conclusion that the Park Police have city-wide jurisdiction from the fact that Congress has not amended the statute over the past 60 years, even though on at least two occasions it was explicitly informed that the Park Police asserted and exercised jurisdiction throughout the District of Columbia. In 1948, Congress extended the jurisdiction of the Park Police to federal reservations in the District's environs.² Act of March 17, 1948, ch. 136, § 1, 62 Stat. 81, 81 (codified as amended at D.C.Code § 4-206 (1981)). The House and Senate reports incorporated a letter by the Secretary of the Interior who, without reference to any geographical limitations, stated that Park Police officers had, since 1882, exercised the same powers and authority as the Metropolitan police. H.R. REP. No. 1299, 80th Cong., 2d Sess. 2-3, reprinted in 1948 U.S. CODE CONG. & AD.NEWS 1158, 1159-60; S.REP. No. 929, 80th Cong., 2d Sess. (1948).

In 1976, Congress authorized law enforcement personnel within the National Park system to maintain law and order in the National Parks by investigating and executing warrants for offenses occurring within the National Parks and by arresting persons inside or fleeing from the National Park...