State v. Arthur

Citation691 A.2d 808,149 N.J. 1
PartiesSTATE of New Jersey, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Christopher ARTHUR, Defendant-Respondent.
Decision Date18 March 1997
CourtUnited States State Supreme Court (New Jersey)

Deborah C. Bartolomey, Deputy Attorney General, for appellant (Peter G. Verniero, Attorney General of New Jersey, attorney).

M. Virginia Barta, Assistant Deputy Public Defender, for respondent (Susan L. Reisner, Public Defender).

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

HANDLER, J.

A police officer, engaged in covert surveillance in an area known for heavy narcotics activity, observed defendant park his car on the street and a person enter the car on the passenger side, sit next to defendant for a short time, and then exit the car with a paper bag. The officer, believing that a drug sale had occurred, subjected the passenger to an investigatory stop and searched the bag. He found narcotics paraphernalia in the bag. Defendant's car, which had left the scene, was later stopped by the police. On being stopped, defendant spontaneously stated he had drugs in his pocket, as a result of which the police searched him and found cocaine.

The basic issue raised by defendant's conviction for possession of the cocaine is whether the officers had sufficient justification to carry out the investigatory stop of his car, which led to the seizure of the drugs from his person. Because the drug-related items seized from the passenger may have been a relevant circumstance giving rise to the reasonable suspicion that was necessary to justify the stop of defendant's vehicle, the Court must also consider whether the investigatory stop of the passenger and the seizure of drug paraphernalia from her were unlawful and, for that reason, invalidated the subsequent stop and search of defendant.

I

On June 26, 1993, Detective Harem Smallwood and a team of Plainfield narcotics detectives conducted an undercover surveillance operation on the 1100 block of West Third Street, an area known for drug trafficking. At approximately 12:20 p.m., Detective Smallwood observed, through binoculars from a distance of approximately 150 feet, a white Ford Tempo drive into the area and park on West Third Street. Nothing obstructed Detective Smallwood's view. It was a clear, sunny day. The driver, later identified as defendant, was the sole occupant of the automobile. Defendant sat alone in the car for about two minutes until a woman, later identified as Deborah Walls, walked up to the vehicle and entered it from the passenger's side. Detective Smallwood had not encountered either defendant or Walls before that day.

Defendant and Walls, who were visible to the detective only from the chest up, talked to each other in the car for about five minutes. As Walls emerged from the car, she "started looking around really suspiciously, looking back and forth up and down the street." She was carrying a brown paper shopping or grocery bag that had been rolled down so that it was approximately five inches high. Walls had the bag tucked under her arm "like a running back would hold a football," and she began walking away from the car. Defendant drove away in a different direction.

Detective Smallwood concluded that Walls had obtained the bag during her encounter with defendant, as the officer did not observe the bag on her when she entered the car and as Walls could not have concealed the bag under her clothing. He believed that he had just witnessed a drug transaction based on his experience as a detective in over 1,000 narcotics investigations, "the numerous times [he][had] seen people transferring and pass narcotics in paper bags and make dropoffs," "the area," and the suspicious nature of the pair's activities. The detective broadcast a description of defendant's vehicle and advised of its direction of travel. He then radioed Detectives Newman and Hoose, who were patrolling the area in a marked vehicle, and instructed them to stop Walls. Detective Hoose stopped Walls and immediately grabbed the bag from her. He looked inside and found between 100 and 200 glass vials containing a white residue. Walls was placed under arrest. Either Detective Hoose or Detective Newman radioed Detective Smallwood and advised him that Walls had been in possession of "used vials." Detective Smallwood would later testify that the glass vials used to package cocaine are regularly recycled by "the street people."

After hearing from Detectives Hoose and Newman, Detective Smallwood radioed a description of defendant's car, together with its license plate number, to all nearby units. He requested that defendant's car be stopped based on the suspicion that defendant possessed drugs or narcotics paraphernalia in his vehicle. Almost immediately after receiving Detective Smallwood's second transmission, Detectives Williams and Hawkins, patrolling in a marked car, spotted defendant's automobile approaching. They permitted defendant to pass, made a U-turn, and pulled over defendant's car. Both detectives exited the patrol car simultaneously. Detective Williams approached the Tempo from the driver's side, while Detective Hawkins approached from the passenger's side. As they neared defendant, the detectives ordered him out of the car. As he exited the vehicle, defendant blurted out that he had "bottles" in his back pocket. Detective Williams understood "bottles" to mean "glass vials of cocaine" in street parlance. He then retrieved and confiscated three vials of crack cocaine from defendant's right rear pants pocket and placed him under arrest.

Defendant was indicted for third-degree possession of cocaine in violation of N.J.S.A. 2C:35-10(a)(1). Defendant later moved to suppress the cocaine alleging that the arresting officers did not have a legal basis for stopping his vehicle. The trial court denied the motion. Thereafter, defendant entered a guilty plea, reserving the right to appeal the denial of his motion to suppress. He was sentenced to three years of probation, ordered to perform five hours of community service every month for a year, and had his driving privileges suspended for six months. A $1,000 DEDR penalty, $50 lab fee, and $50 VCCB penalty were imposed.

On appeal, the Appellate Division reversed the denial of defendant's motion to suppress and remanded the matter. 287 N.J.Super. 147, 670 A.2d 592 (1996). This Court then granted the State's petition for certification. 145 N.J. 373, 678 A.2d 714 (1996).

II

The basic issue in this case is the validity of the officers' stop of defendant's automobile, which led to the seizure of drugs from defendant. The lower courts had two very different views of the significance of the several circumstances surrounding the stop of the vehicle.

On defendant's motion to suppress, the trial court found that the officers had formed a "clear articulable suspicion" sufficient to stop both Walls and defendant after Detective Smallwood had witnessed Walls leave defendant's vehicle with the paper bag. The court also found that the police were entitled to order defendant out of the car after the car had been stopped, and, that when defendant had informed the detectives that he was carrying "three bottles," the police had probable cause to search defendant and to seize the vials of cocaine. Further, the court concluded that, "even if the search and seizure of Miss Walls was improper," defendant's arrest would remain entirely lawful.

The Appellate Division concluded that the interplay between defendant and Walls was relevant in determining whether the stop of defendant had been justified. 287 N.J.Super. at 153, 670 A.2d 592. It noted that the transaction had occurred at midday, and that the detectives had had no previously acquired knowledge of defendant or Walls. It determined that Detective Smallwood had observed no transaction, no exchange of money, and no furtive gestures, and that he had "acted upon a hunch." Ibid. Commenting that "[p]urely innocent connotations [could] be ascribed to the observed conduct," ibid., the Appellate Division concluded that the "totality of the circumstances ... did not rise to the level of reasonable suspicion." Ibid. Specifically, it found that the police had not possessed an articulable suspicion to stop defendant independent of the evidence seized from Walls. Id. at 153-54, 670 A.2d 592. According to the court, because the search of Walls had been unlawful, the fruits of that search could not have been used to support reasonable suspicion of illegal drug activity, and thus the stop of defendant had also been unlawful. Id. at 156-57, 670 A.2d 592.

The standards by which the reasonableness of police conduct involving an investigatory stop of a person or an automobile originate with Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968). In Terry, the United States Supreme Court recognized that the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable search and seizure limited law enforcement's ability to conduct investigatory stops and protective searches of persons suspected of criminal activity. The Supreme Court stated that the reasonableness of the police conduct in conducting an investigatory stop in light of the Fourth Amendment could be generally assessed by " 'balancing the need to search (or seize) against the invasion which the search (or seizure) entails.' " Id. at 21, 88 S.Ct. at 1879, 20 L.Ed.2d at 905 (quoting Camara v. Municipal Court, 387 U.S. 523, 536-37, 87 S.Ct. 1727, 1735, 18 L.Ed.2d 930, 940 (1967)). The facts used in that balancing test are to be judged objectively: "would the facts available to the officer at the moment of the seizure or the search warrant a man of reasonable caution in the belief that the action taken was appropriate?" Id. at 21-22, 88 S.Ct. at 1880, 20 L.Ed.2d at 906 (internal quotations omitted). When determining if the officer's actions were reasonable, consideration must be given "to the specific reasonable inferences which he is entitled to draw from the facts in...

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