State v. Lee
| Decision Date | 24 January 2022 |
| Docket Number | 972-2021 |
| Parties | STATE OF MARYLAND v. KASON K. LEE |
| Court | Court of Special Appeals of Maryland |
Circuit Court for Cecil County Case No. C-07-CR-20-000391
Graeff, Arthur, Eyler, James R. (Senior Judge, Specially Assigned), JJ.
On June 17, 2020, the Grand Jury for Cecil County returned a five-count indictment against Kason K. Lee, appellee charging him with: (1) possession of heroin; (2) possession of fentanyl; (3) possession of fentanyl with intent to distribute; (4) possession of heroin with intent to distribute; and (5) possession of a mixture containing heroin and fentanyl with intent to distribute. Prior to trial, appellee moved to suppress the evidence recovered after a traffic stop in Elkton, Maryland, arguing that the stop of the automobile that he was driving and the subsequent searches were unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Circuit Court for Cecil County granted the motion to suppress.
On appeal, [1] the State presents the following question for this Court's review, which we have rephrased slightly, as follows:
Did the circuit court err in granting appellee's motion to suppress?
For the reasons set forth below, we conclude that the circuit court's grounds for granting the motion to suppress are unclear. Accordingly, we shall remand to the circuit court to clarify the basis for its ruling.
On July 19, 2021, the Circuit Court for Cecil County held a hearing on appellee's motion to suppress. The hearing involved multiple cases against appellee, but we will discuss only the portion relating to the case on appeal.
Four members of the Elkton Police Department (the "EPD" or the "Department") testified for the State at the suppression hearing: Detectives LaSassa and Saulsbury members of the Street Crimes Unit; Officer Mlodzianowski, a member of the Patrol Division; and Officer Nussle, a member of the K-9 Unit.[2] The officers testified to the following facts.
At some point prior to December 12, 2019, the EPD received a tip from a confidential informant regarding an individual identified by the nickname "Face." The informant described the individual as a black, heavy-set male with a beard. The individual drove a gold Nissan Maxima, resided at 247 Hollingsworth Manor, and distributed controlled dangerous substances ("CDS") from 44 Hollingsworth Manor. The informant lived near the addresses in Hollingsworth Manor, which is a residential neighborhood with a "very high" level of criminal activity, including thefts and crimes related to CDS and guns. The EPD had received complaints that people were selling drugs in that neighborhood.
The EPD determined that the informant's tip was credible. The informant previously had provided information in other investigations, and the informant had always been reliable and truthful. Accordingly, the Department attempted to corroborate the tip by "spot-checking" the 247 and 44 Hollingsworth Manor addresses. A few days prior to December 12, 2019, the EPD "observed a gold Nissan in front of 247" that appeared to have "a paper tag through Texas."
On December 12, 2019, Detective LaSassa, Detective Saulsbury, and Officer Mlodzianowski were on patrol in Hollingsworth Manor. Detective Saulsbury was driving the patrol car, Detective LaSassa was in the front passenger seat, and Officer Mlodzianowski was in the rear passenger seat. While on patrol, they passed a gold Nissan with a paper "Texas tag" that was going to "the exit of Hollingsworth Manor." They recognized the Nissan as the "suspect vehicle," and therefore, they turned around and started following it.
They observed the vehicle approach a stop sign, with a "white painted mark on the pavement," at the intersection of Road A and Landing Lane.[3] As the Nissan stopped at the stop sign, it crossed the white mark by approximately five to six feet, "which interfered with the crosswalk" at the intersection. The Nissan then made a left-hand turn onto Landing Lane, and the officers activated their emergency lights and sirens and conducted a traffic stop. Appellee was the driver and sole occupant of the Nissan.
The traffic stop began at 5:24 p.m. on Landing Lane near the entrance of a Wawa convenience store. Detective LaSassa initially approached the vehicle, with Officer Mlodzianowski "backing [him] up on the traffic stop." Detective Saulsbury remained in the patrol car and notified the EPD dispatch of the traffic stop.
Detective LaSassa approached the Nissan on the vehicle's passenger side. The window was up, so he "had to knock on it." Appellee lowered the window approximately seven inches. Detective LaSassa requested appellee's driver's license and registration. Appellee asked why he was stopped. Detective LaSassa replied that appellee did not stop at the pavement mark at the stop sign. Appellee became argumentative.
Detective LaSassa again asked for appellee's driver's license and registration. Instead of complying with the request, appellee "pulled out his phone and started recording." Because the traffic stop was also being recorded on Detective LaSassa's "body worn camera," Detective LaSassa informed appellee that "he was being recorded as well."
Shortly after asking for appellee's license and registration, Detective LaSassa requested a K-9 Unit to respond to the scene. At that time, Detective Saulsbury was "running the tag," i.e., providing the Texas temporary tag on the vehicle to the EPD dispatch "so they could run it through their NCIC database." Detective Saulsbury advised dispatch that "it probably would not come back to anything" because generally, "temporary tags, especially out of state tags, don't come back to anything." Because of that, Detective Saulsbury provided dispatch with the vehicle identification number ("VIN") as well.
Approximately one minute after Detective LaSassa first requested appellee's license and registration, appellee showed Detective LaSassa his driver's license, but appellee would not give it to the detective. Detective LaSassa had to reach into the vehicle and take the driver's license from appellee. The address listed on appellee's driver's license was 247 Hollingsworth Manor.
After Detective LaSassa took the driver's license, he asked again for the registration. Seconds later, he told Officer Mlodzianowski, who was standing at the driver's side of the Nissan, to take appellee out of the vehicle. Officer Mlodzianowski ordered appellee to get out of the vehicle, but instead of exiting the vehicle, appellee initially argued with the officer. Detective LaSassa testified that he ordered appellee to be removed from the Nissan "because he wasn't listening," which was a "safety concern."[4]
Appellee eventually exited the vehicle, and the police put appellee in handcuffs. When asked if appellee was under arrest, Detective LaSassa stated that he was detained. He was put in handcuffs for his own safety and that of the officers because appellee was "not compliant." Detective LaSassa reiterated that appellee was screaming and causing a commotion, in a situation where pedestrians were walking around and cars were stopping.
Shortly after the stop at 5:24 p.m., Officer Nussle and his canine, Mauser, were dispatched to the scene. They arrived approximately four minutes later, at 5:28 p.m. Officer Nussle met with Detective Saulsbury, who asked Officer Nussle "to conduct the scan of the vehicle." Officer Nussle requested that Detective Saulsbury turn off the Nissan and "have everybody step away from it." Mauser "walked from the rear bumper on the driver's side" of the Nissan up "towards the front of the vehicle." Mauser had "his head raised up a little bit" at the front of the Nissan, which indicated to Officer Nussle that Mauser was "detecting an odor that's a little bit higher than his head level and he wants to try to get to it." Mauser proceeded "back around to the door," stopped, and barked while looking "at the window of the driver's door." When Mauser stopped barking, he started staring at the Nissan and looking at Officer Nussle. At this point, Officer Nussle understood that Mauser was giving "a positive alert and a final response." Officer Nussle informed Detectives LaSassa and Saulsbury of Mauser's positive alert.
After Mauser alerted on the Nissan, Detective Saulsbury learned from the EPD dispatch that there was no registration matching the vehicle tag or the VIN. He then asked dispatch if the VIN that was on the registration in the car matched the vehicle. Dispatch advised that they did not match.
Detectives LaSassa and Saulsbury proceeded to search the Nissan, but they did not find any CDS in the vehicle. Detective Saulsbury did observe in the passenger cabin small, black rubber bands, which Detective Saulsbury knew, based on his "training, knowledge and experience," were "used to package CDS."
Appellee was placed under arrest for failing to obey and based on the K-9 alert. He was transported from the scene of the traffic stop to the Department.
Once in the Department's booking area, Detective Saulsbury and Officer Mlodzianowski conducted a strip search of appellee. They did "a thorough search" of appellee's person because, although there was a positive canine alert on the Nissan, they did not find anything in the vehicle, and therefore, they "believed that he was concealing the drugs on his person." During the search, the police recovered a large quantity of cash and "several bags of suspected heroin fentanyl mix."[5] After the search, appellee was released. The police did not charge him until June 17, 2020.
At a hearing on July 30, 2021, the prosecutor and defense counsel presented closing argument. Defense counsel first asserted that the...
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