U.S. v. Arch

• Decision Date: 20 October 1993
• Docket Number: No. 92-2946,92-2946
• Citation: 7 F.3d 1300
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. George ARCH, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 1300

7 F.3d 1300

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. George ARCH, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 92-2946.

United States Court of Appeals Seventh Circuit.

Argued Feb. 22, 1993.

Decided Oct. 20, 1993.

Donna Eide, Steven D. DeBrota (argued), Office of the U.S. Atty., Indianapolis, IN, for plaintiff-appellee.

Jack F. Crawford, Indianapolis, IN (argued), for defendant-appellant.

Before CUMMINGS, CUDAHY, and ROVNER, Circuit Judges.

ROVNER, Circuit Judge.

A jury convicted George Arch of possessing with the intent to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1). On appeal, Arch challenges the district court's denial of his pretrial motion to suppress. We affirm.

I. FACTS

The facts relevant to the suppression motion are not in dispute. On the afternoon of February 9, 1992, Arch checked into a Dollar Inn motel in Indianapolis, Indiana, under an assumed name. That evening, Arch complained to the front desk that he was unable to get into his room. Janie Rilenge, the night manager, learned from a co-worker that Arch already had complained several times about the door and that he had also reported drilling noises in his room. Rilenge accompanied Arch to his second-floor room and verified that his key did not unlock the door. Because the motel had no other key, Arch called a locksmith and eventually gained access to the room.

Security officer Harry Kern stopped by the motel on routine patrol a short time later. Kern had been trained as a special deputy by the Marion County Sheriff's Department ("MCSD") but worked for a private security firm. Rilenge asked Kern to check on Arch, explaining that he was acting strangely and making her nervous. Kern went to Arch's room and knocked on the door. When Arch cracked open the door, he had a knife in his hand, which he put down at Kern's request. After Kern identified himself as a special deputy, Arch opened the door a bit further, enabling Kern to step into the doorway and look around the room. Kern noticed that an overturned chair was blocking the door, that items were strewn across the floor, and that the beds were torn apart. He also saw a bloody rag and two syringes on the floor. From the doorway, however, Kern could not see into the bathroom or between the beds.

When Kern inquired about the syringes, Arch replied that he was a diabetic and took insulin. Kern asked to see an insulin bottle, but Arch had none. Kern then asked permission to enter but Arch refused, yelling that Kern had no right to come in to his room. Arch then lifted the 320-pound officer out of the doorway, pushed him to the balcony railing outside, and retreated into his room, slamming the door behind him.

Kern decided to arrest Arch for battery and returned to the motel lobby to call for assistance, certain that he would not be able to restrain Arch alone. Arch followed Kern to the lobby, telling Kern that he wanted to call his lawyer. While Kern waited for backup, Arch phoned directory assistance and purchased a soda from the vending machine. MCSD officers arrived shortly and helped Kern arrest Arch. Kern testified that when he attempted to handcuff Arch, Arch "just went wild" and demanded repeatedly that the officers not go into his room.

Kern estimated that it took five minutes to control and handcuff Arch. Rilenge, who observed the scuffle, added that it took three to four officers to subdue Arch, whose demeanor she described as "crazy" and "very irate." She also recalled that Kern had removed two knives from Arch's pocket before attempting to handcuff him. Carey Buckner, an MCSD road deputy who arrived at the motel in the midst of the arrest, estimated that it took five officers eighteen minutes to place Arch in handcuffs. ¹

Once handcuffed, Arch was taken outside and placed in an MCSD van. After Buckner returned to the lobby and was treated for a small cut on his hand, Kern asked some of the officers to accompany him to Arch's room. Kern thought there might be an injured person inside given Arch's demeanor, the condition of the room, and the bloody rag on the floor. Buckner and another deputy went with Kern but found Arch's room locked. Buckner could see through the window that there was an empty syringe on the floor. When they returned to the lobby, the officers found that Arch had left his room key on top of the vending machine. Buckner and a second deputy took the key and unlocked the door to Arch's room. ²

The deputies entered the room with their weapons drawn and searched the room from front to back, looking beside the bed and elsewhere for any sign of an injured person. The officers did not open any drawers or suitcases, but when they reached the bathroom, they observed a partially open suitcase standing upright on the bathroom floor. A package on top of the case had been torn open to reveal a white powdery substance that was later determined to be cocaine. Without touching the case, the officers could see similar packages inside. Finding no one in the bathroom, they retreated from Arch's room without touching the packages and immediately called their supervisor.

A narcotics detective later arrived and took over the investigation. He opened the suitcase and found twelve one-kilogram packages of cocaine in addition to the one found on top of the case. Arch was subsequently charged under 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) with knowingly and intentionally possessing more than five kilograms of cocaine with the intent to distribute. Before trial, Arch moved to suppress the cocaine, contending that the packages had been seized in violation of the Fourth Amendment. The district court denied the motion after an evidentiary hearing. A jury subsequently convicted Arch at the conclusion of a one-day trial.

II. ANALYSIS

We review the denial of a motion to suppress for clear error. United States v. Rice, 995 F.2d 719, 722 (7th Cir.1993) (collecting cases). Because the resolution of such a motion is typically fact-dependent, we must "give particular deference to the district court that had the opportunity to hear the testimony and observe the demeanor of the witnesses." United States v. Edwards, 898 F.2d 1273, 1276 (7th Cir.1990) (citations omitted).

Motel guests enjoy the same constitutional protection against unreasonable searches and seizures as do the occupants of a private residence. United States v. Napue, 834 F.2d 1311, 1326 (7th Cir.1987); see also United States v. Rivera, 825 F.2d 152, 156 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 979, 108 S.Ct. 494, 98 L.Ed.2d 492 (1987). Because the deputies entered Arch's room without a warrant, we presume that the search of the room was unreasonable, and the government bears the burden of demonstrating that it fits within an exception to the warrant requirement. Id. Citing the officers' concern over the possible presence of an injured person in the room, the government contends that the warrantless entry and search was justified by the protective sweep doctrine. The district court agreed, relying on Maryland v. Buie, 494 U.S. 325, 110 S.Ct. 1093, 108 L.Ed.2d 276 (1990).

In Buie, the Supreme Court recognized an exception to the warrant requirement for a protective sweep accompanying an in-home arrest. The Court held that when the police arrest an individual at his home, they may conduct a limited search of the premises without a warrant and without probable cause if there are "articulable facts which, taken together with the rational inferences from those facts, would warrant a reasonably prudent officer in believing that the area to be swept harbors an individual posing a danger to those on the arrest scene." Id. at 334, 110 S.Ct. at 1098. This protective sweep doctrine derives from Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968), which authorized a limited, pat-down search of an individual's outer clothing during a street encounter where specific, articulable facts would lead a reasonable law enforcement officer to believe that the individual might be armed and dangerous. Buie, 494 U.S. at 331-34, 110 S.Ct. at 1096-98. Buie permits a similarly narrow search at the scene of an in-home arrest:

[A] protective sweep, aimed at protecting the arresting officers, if justified by the circumstances, is nevertheless not a full search of the premises, but may extend only to a cursory inspection of those spaces where a person may be found. The sweep lasts no longer than is necessary to dispel the reasonable suspicion of danger and in any event no longer than it takes to complete the arrest and depart the premises.

Id. at 335-36, 110 S.Ct. at 1099 (footnote omitted); see also id. at 327, 110 S.Ct. at 1094. At the same time, the investigating officer need not close his eyes to what he sees during the sweep, and any contraband that he observes in plain view may lawfully be seized. Id. at 330, 110 S.Ct. at 1096 (citing Arizona v. Hicks, 480 U.S. 321, 326, 107 S.Ct. 1149, 1153, 94 L.Ed.2d 347 (1987)); see also United States v. Richards, 937 F.2d 1287, 1292 (7th Cir.1991).

Whether Buie extends to searches for potentially injured individuals is a question of first impression. Arch opposes such an extension of Buie, contending that permission to sweep a home or motel room for injured persons "is too broad a license to extend to government personnel who can ... 'arrest' as well as aid." Arch Br. at 11. Yet, the propriety of a warrantless entry in this circumstance has already been recognized. As the Supreme Court noted in Mincey v. Arizona, 437 U.S. 385, 392, 98 S.Ct. 2408, 2413, 57 L.Ed.2d 290 (1978), "[w]e do not question the right of the police to respond to emergency situations. Numerous state and federal cases have recognized that the Fourth Amendment does not bar police officers from making warrantless entries and searches when they reasonably believe that a person within is in need of immediate aid." (Footnotes omitted.) Indeed, we recently found a warrantless entry into a home to search for a dead or...