State v. Darden, 278
| Decision Date | 01 September 1992 |
| Docket Number | No. 278,278 |
| Parties | STATE of Maryland v. Ricky DARDEN. , |
| Court | Court of Special Appeals of Maryland |
Donald Edward Ansell and Donna L. Seeley, Upper Marlboro, for appellee.
Submitted before ALPERT, BLOOM and DAVIS, JJ.
On August 20, 1991, at approximately 1:50 p.m., Ricky Darden, in the midst of approximately fifteen to twenty people, disembarked from a train arriving at the New Carrollton Metro Station in Prince George's County from New York City. He caught the attention of Officers T.N. Mallory and Thomas J. Call as he proceeded past them on the platform and then down the escalator to the mezzanine level, at which time, according to Mallory at the suppression hearing, he followed Darden to the exit of the Amtrak subway station. There, Mallory approached Darden, identified himself as a Metro Transit Police Officer, and requested to speak with him. According to Mallory, Darden had made eye contact with him four times--three times looking over his left shoulder and once over his right shoulder. As Darden proceeded down the escalator, glancing at the Metro policemen, "he was very nervous and started to shake." He then looked over his left shoulder and was observed shaking.
Darden agreed to speak with Mallory, whereupon Mallory advised him that he and his partner were conducting drug interdiction "to stop the illegal flow of narcotics coming from New York City into the metropolitan area." Mallory observed that Darden "was sweating profusely at that time from his forehead and that he was shaking." It was his opinion that the perspiring was inconsistent with the temperature in the Metro station at the time. When asked for his train ticket, Darden replied that he didn't have one, at which time Mallory "advised him that he needed a ticket to ride the Amtrak train."
After producing his wallet from a pants pocket, Darden "start[ed] to fumble in his wallet for the ticket." The witness opined that Darden appeared to have problems locating his ticket, he was very nervous, his hands were shaking, and "he had trouble getting anything out of his wallet." Darden handed the ticket to Mallory and, after observing that Darden had boarded the train at Penn Station in New York City, the police officer returned the ticket to Darden, inquiring if he had purchased the ticket. Darden advised him that his mother had paid for the ticket.
When asked his name, the appellee identified himself as Ricky Darden and then, when requested, spelled his last name D-A-R-D-O-N. Darden then produced identification in the form of an unofficial laminated ID card on which the name indicated was Ricky Darden with the last name spelled D-A-R-D-E-N. The identification card was returned to the appellee, and he was next questioned about his destination, whereupon he stated he was going to 18408 London Lane in Bowie, Maryland. When questioned further, Darden indicated that he was not carrying any large amounts of money or drugs on him or in his bag. Mallory then asked Darden for permission to search his bag; according to Mallory, the appellee gave his consent.
As Mallory began to open up the center pouch of the gym bag, appellee went over to Officer Call and asked, "Did I [Mallory] have to look in the bag?" Upon being advised that Mallory could only search the bag if he had Darden's consent, appellee stated that he did not want the officers to look in the bag, at which point Mallory stopped. Before he was able to fasten the zipper, however, Darden "grabbed the handles of the bag and tried to walk off very quickly." Mallory grabbed the bag and told Darden that he was temporarily detaining the bag in order to call a narcotics detection dog to "do the exterior inspection of the bag." Darden was free to go or stay, as he chose, until the dog arrived and inspected the bag. Appellee was advised that it would be somewhere between ten to twenty minutes before the dog arrived and, if the dog did not indicate the presence According to Mallory, the narcotics detection dog arrived approximately twenty minutes later. 1 The drug-sniffing dog, Wolf, conducted an exterior inspection and indicated the presence of a controlled dangerous substance by scratching the bag vigorously. Following the dog's reaction, the officers took the bag to a Prince George's County police station and prepared an application for a warrant to search the bag. Once the application was completed, Mallory called Assistant State's Attorney Kathy Evans, who approved the warrant application after it had been read to her over the telephone. Mallory then learned that Judge Devlin was on duty that evening and went to his home, where Mallory attested, under oath, to the facts in the affidavit. Mallory affixed his signature, and the judge signed the warrant, returning it to Mallory.
of narcotics, the bag would be returned if appellee would provide the officers with an address and a phone number where he could be located. The address Darden gave them was 18408 London Lane
The officer returned to the police station with the warrant and searched the bag, discovering 223.9 grams of suspected cocaine. The substance field-tested positive for cocaine, and Mallory prepared an arrest warrant for Darden. Mallory then went to the commissioner's office and had Darden charged with possession with intent to distribute.
The next day Mallory and other officers attempted to arrest Darden at the address he had given and discovered that there was no house at the address given. Through a BMW automobile registered in his name, police tracked Darden to 14808 London Lane, where they observed Darden leaving the residence at approximately 11:00 a.m., carrying a green paper bag and a plastic bag. Darden entered a Officer Tommy Call was the final witness to testify concerning the incident, and he related facts identical to those given by Officer Mallory.
waiting taxi cab and departed. The officers, who were in unmarked vehicles, pursued and arrested Darden when the cab stopped at a Camp Springs apartment complex. Police recovered a loaded 9mm handgun and a triple-beam scale from the green paper bag. A loaded .25 caliber gun was recovered from the other bag
The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides:
[Security from Unwarrantable Search and Seizure]
The right of people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
The constitutional right against unreasonable searches and seizures is made applicable to the States through the Fourteenth Amendment and is specifically applicable to State prosecutions by the Supreme Court's decision in Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 81 S.Ct. 1684, 6 L.Ed.2d 1081 (1961).
The appellee, citing Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 30, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1884, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968), acknowledges that it is permissible for an investigating officer to "briefly detain a person for investigative purposes if the officer has a reasonable suspicion supported by articulated facts that criminal activity 'may be afoot' even if the officer lacks probable cause." Appellee contends that "no reasonable articulable suspicion supported the seizure of Darden's bag and that the court was therefore correct in its finding that the State's remaining evidence must be suppressed because it "was the direct result of the unlawful seizure." The State The lower court, in its memorandum opinion, determined that the initial confrontation in questioning of the appellee was constitutionally permissible because "it would appear to a reasonable person in [appellee's] position, that he had a right, at any time, to terminate the questioning and leave," citing U.S. v. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544, 546, 100 S.Ct. 1870, 1873, 64 L.Ed.2d 497 (1980). The court further observed that appellee's constitutional rights were not violated when the initial search commenced because it was pursuant to the consent obtained. Concerning the initial seizure of the appellee's sports bag, the lower court considered six factors relevant to the inquiry:
replies that the trial court's ruling is erroneous because there was articulable suspicion of criminal activity to justify the seizure of the bag. Assuming, arguendo, the bag was illegally seized, the State alternatively contends that the subsequent actions of the police officers were based upon the good faith exception that they were acting pursuant to a valid search warrant
To summarize, at the time Officer Mallory detained the bag, the Officer knew the following: (1) defendant had been a passenger on a train which had come from a "source city"; (2) from the time defendant got off the train until the time the bag was seized, defendant was agitated...
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