U.S. v. Corbin

• Decision Date: 26 October 1981
• Docket Number: 80-5136,Nos. 80-5130,s. 80-5130
• Citation: 662 F.2d 1066
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Harry Nelson CORBIN, Jr., Appellant. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Janice Lee RUGGIERO, Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

Page 1066

662 F.2d 1066

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Harry Nelson CORBIN, Jr., Appellant.

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Janice Lee RUGGIERO, Appellant.

Nos. 80-5130, 80-5136.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued June 5, 1981.

Decided Oct. 26, 1981.

Paul F. Kemp, Asst. Federal Public Defender, Baltimore, Md. (Fred Warren Bennett, Baltimore, Md., on brief), for appellant in 80-5130.

Howard L. Cardin, Baltimore, Md. (Cardin & Gitomer, Baltimore, Md., on brief), for appellant in 80-5136.

Steven A. Allen, Asst. U. S. Atty., Baltimore, Md. (Russell T. Baker, Jr., U. S. Atty., Baltimore, Md., on brief), for appellee.

Before PHILLIPS and MURNAGHAN, Circuit Judges, and WILLIAMS ^*, District Judge.

MURNAGHAN, Circuit Judge:

Harry Nelson Corbin and Janice Lee Ruggiero appeal their convictions for possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute (21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1)), and interstate travel with intent to promote a business enterprise involving narcotics or controlled substances (18 U.S.C. § 1952). We affirm the convictions with regard to possession with intent to distribute, but reverse the convictions based on the Travel Act.

I.

On February 6, 1980, two agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and a Maryland State Police trooper were conducting routine surveillance to intercept potential drug traffickers at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. The agents were not looking for anyone in particular, but became suspicious as Corbin and Ruggiero departed a flight arriving from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The agents maintained surveillance as Corbin and Ruggiero waited in the baggage claim area. Eventually the agents approached Corbin and Ruggiero and identified themselves. When Corbin and Ruggiero gave evasive answers to questions, the agents asked Corbin and Ruggiero to accompany them to an office located off the concourse for further investigation.

During the investigation, Corbin and Ruggiero were shown a brown vinyl suitcase that remained unclaimed from the Fort Lauderdale flight. Each denied ownership or possession of the suitcase. An airline employee, following an established airline procedure of entering unlabeled lost or unclaimed baggage to seek identification of the owner, searched a side pocket of the suitcase solely to determine ownership, and discovered papers bearing both Corbin's and Ruggiero's names. ¹ The agents then sought a warrant to search the other sections of the suitcase, and released Corbin and Ruggiero. When the agents obtained the warrant the next day, they found in the suitcase 4,700 quaalude tablets in five glassine packages. Corbin's and Ruggiero's arrests and convictions followed.

II.

Corbin and Ruggiero first argue that the district court should have suppressed the tablets at trial, because the agents did not have a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity that justified the initial stop and detention. The argument relies primarily on Reid v. Georgia, 448 U.S. 438, 100 S.Ct. 2752, 65 L.Ed.2d 890 (1980). The Supreme Court held in Reid that a DEA agent could not have a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity, as a matter of law, simply because a passenger departing an airplane fit four characteristics of a "drug courier profile." ² The passenger in Reid (1) had arrived from Fort Lauderdale, a principal place of drug traffic; (2) on an early morning flight, when law enforcement activity was diminished; (3) appeared to be trying to conceal the fact that he was travelling with a companion; and (4) had no luggage other than a shoulder bag. Noting that only the third characteristic related to the passenger's particular conduct, the Court said that the "other circumstances describe a very large category of presumably innocent travellers, who would be subject to virtually random seizures were the Court to conclude that as little foundation as there was in this case could justify a seizure." Id. at 441, 100 S.Ct. at 2754.

The agents here testified that their attention was drawn to Corbin and Ruggiero because they met several characteristics of a drug-courier profile. Corbin and Ruggiero arrived from Fort Lauderdale, each appeared nervous, neither had a tan. Corbin was dressed in shirt sleeves and tan slacks, Ruggiero wore a white shag fur coat. ³ Those facts alone, we may assume, would be insufficient as a matter of law to support a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. But before the agents approached Corbin and Ruggiero, the following events occurred. ⁴ Corbin and Ruggiero lingered at the boarding gate until the other passengers walked ahead, and scanned the area as if to determine whether they were under surveillance. They paid particular attention to one of the agents. Corbin and Ruggiero then walked toward the baggage claim area, with the agents maintaining surveillance. When Corbin and Ruggiero reached the bottom of an escalator, they stopped and scanned the area. They took special notice of one of the agents as the agent travelled down the escalator, walked past Corbin and Ruggiero and continued to the baggage claim area. When Corbin and Ruggiero reached the baggage claim area, they stood apart from the other passengers. They continued to scan the area, and again appeared to take special notice of the agents. At one point Corbin went to make a phone call. When one of the agents walked over to the telephones, Corbin hung up and returned to where Ruggiero was standing. Corbin later approached one of the agents and asked for change.

After the conveyor belt started, Ruggiero walked over and engaged two of the agents in conversation. She said she had seen them wandering around the airport and asked if they worked there. As the conversation continued, and after other passengers had retrieved their luggage, Corbin pulled a small suitcase off the conveyor belt, and returned to where he had been standing. When Ruggiero rejoined him, Corbin took an item from inside the suitcase, and gave it to Ruggiero. Ruggiero placed the item in a magazine, and walked toward the women's rest room. At this point two of the agents stopped Ruggiero, and the third stopped Corbin. ⁵

The facts outlined establish a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. Reid did not hold that agents could never rely on characteristics of a drug carrier profile, but simply that general characteristics that apply to a large number of persons cannot alone reasonably support a suspicion of criminal activity. ⁶ Reid implicitly reiterates the established rule that a suspicion of criminal activity must be grounded in the conduct of the particular suspects, see United States v. Post, 607 F.2d 847, 850 (9th Cir. 1979); United States v. Chatman, 573 F.2d 565, 567 (9th Cir. 1977), and must be based on "specific and articulable facts which, taken together with rational inferences from those facts, reasonably warrant (the) intrusion," Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 21, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1880, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968).

To trained law enforcement agents, ⁷ "able to perceive and articulate meaning in given conduct which would be wholly innocent to the untrained observer," Brown v. Texas, 443 U.S. 47, 52 n.2, 99 S.Ct 2637, 2641 n.2, 61 L.Ed.2d 357 (1979), the conduct of Corbin and Ruggiero established a reasonable, particularized suspicion that they were transporting illegal drugs. From the time they departed the airplane, Corbin and Ruggiero appeared to be trying to determine whether they were under surveillance. ⁸ The agents reasonably could suspect that Corbin and Ruggiero engaged them in conversation precisely to determine whether they were in fact agents. Stopping Corbin and Ruggiero was a reasonable response to what appeared to be an attempt to destroy evidence; in fact, "(i)t would have been a failure of duty had the federal agents not detained (Corbin and Ruggiero) at that point in order to investigate further," United States v. Berd, 634 F.2d 979, 986 (5th Cir. 1981). ⁹ The intrusion at that point was minimal. ¹⁰ The agents did not draw their guns or make any other show of force. The agents identified themselves, and asked Corbin and Ruggiero questions.

The answers Corbin and Ruggiero gave to the agents' questions heightened the agents' suspicions. Corbin and Ruggiero told the agents their names, but could not produce identification, airline tickets, or baggage claim checks. They told the agents that they did not have their tickets, and did not know what they had done with them. Asked what names they were travelling under, Corbin said that they were travelling as Mr. and Mrs., but could not remember the names. After a second request for identification, Corbin produced his Social Security card, but could not recite the number from memory. The agents then asked Corbin and Ruggiero to accompany them to a Maryland State Police office located at the airport. Corbin and Ruggiero agreed.

Corbin and Ruggiero suggest, although they do not argue explicitly, that the location and length of the ensuing detention make the detention unreasonable. The argument would have force were it not for the fact that Corbin and Ruggiero agreed to accompany the agents to the office, and consented to be searched. ¹¹ Several courts have held that agents may request, without coercion, suspects stopped in public places to accompany them to an office or other place more convenient for an investigation. See, e. g., United States v. Chatman, 573 F.2d 565, 567 (9th Cir. 1977) (not improper for DEA agents to direct suspect stopped in airport to an interview room where interrogation could be conducted free from public view and attendant embarrassment); United States v. Oates, 560 F.2d 45, 57 (2d Cir. 1977) (agent could ask suspect stopped at departure lounge to step into an office located near boarding area).

In Dunaway v. New York, 442 U.S. 200, 216, 99 S.Ct. 2248, 2258, 60 L.Ed.2d 824 (1979), the Supreme Court held that custodial interrogation that approximates arrest must be based on...