U.S. v. Cunningham

• Decision Date: 01 July 2005
• Docket Number: No. 04-3026.,04-3026.
• Citation: 413 F.3d 1199
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. William CUNNINGHAM, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

413 F.3d 1199

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. William CUNNINGHAM, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 04-3026.

United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.

July 1, 2005.

Patrick J. Berrigan, of Watson & Dameron, LLP, Kansas City, MO, appearing for the Defendant-Appellant.

Leon J. Patton, Assistant U.S. Attorney (Eric F. Melgren, United States Attorney, with him on the briefs), Kansas City, KS, appearing for the Plaintiff-Appellee.

Before SEYMOUR, Circuit Judge, McWILLIAMS, Senior Circuit Judge, and KELLY, Circuit Judge.

SEYMOUR, Circuit Judge.

Mr. William Cunningham conditionally pled guilty to one count of making, possessing, and uttering counterfeit securities (checks), in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2 and 513(a). He appeals the denial of his motion to suppress, contending the district court erred in finding that his consent to a search of his home by law enforcement officers was voluntary. We affirm on the alternative basis of the inevitable discovery doctrine.

I

From November 2002 through January 2003, law enforcement officers were investigating a counterfeit check-writing ring in the Kansas City metropolitan area. On January 28, 2003, four suspects in the ring were arrested as they tried to pass counterfeit checks at banks in Overland Park, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri. Information obtained from these suspects led law enforcement to believe they should focus their investigation on the 1100 block of East 76th Terrace in Kansas City, Missouri. Specifically, one of the suspects identified the residence at 1179 East 76th Terrace as the house from which their check "supplier," James Hughes, had gone to obtain the counterfeit checks. Another suspect reported that Hughes had actually acquired the checks from the neighboring house at 1175 East 76th Terrace. The two remaining suspects were unsure whether Hughes had derived the checks from either address. Police noted that the homes share a common driveway.

Based on this information, Police Detective Kevin Duncan prepared an affidavit for a search warrant for the residence located at 1175 East 76th Terrace and presented it to the Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA). According to Detective Duncan, during the meeting with the AUSA,

We came to the agreement that at this time it wouldn't be best to proceed with the search warrant based on the possibility that we would go into the wrong address. Obviously, that was a concern to everyone, and we decided to go ahead and continue surveillance and now concentrate on that area including those two houses ....

Aplt.App. at 82-83. In other words, although probable cause existed to believe that the supplier had obtained the checks from either 1175 or 1179 East 76th Terrace, the police pursued a policy of additional surveillance in order to specifically determine which of the two houses was the source of the criminal activity. The officers set up surveillance of the residences on the evening of January 29, 2003. That night they observed a red Chevrolet Lumina parked at 1179 East 76 Terrace. The vehicle matched the description of a car belonging to Tikko Parish, an individual previously identified by other suspects as someone who had frequently accompanied Hughes. As the car left the residence, officers stopped it and discovered both Hughes and Parish inside.

Police also stopped a black pickup truck in the area, which was being driven by Mr. Cunningham. He informed them he resided at 1179 East 76th Terrace. Mr. Cunningham was arrested on unrelated charges of driving with a suspended driver's license and transported to jail. Although Mr. Cunningham had not been implicated in the check-writing ring, the black pickup truck he drove matched the description of one identified earlier in the investigation.

Subsequent to the traffic stops, officers decided to knock at the door of 1175 East 76th Terrace. The residents, a family of three, permitted the officers to enter and look around their home. They spoke freely with the police and pointed out that the gray Blazer parked in the shared driveway — which matched the description of a vehicle earlier identified with Hughes— belonged to 1179 East 76th Terrace. Once the officers were satisfied that Hughes had not obtained the checks from 1175 East 76th Terrace, they decided to attempt to make contact with someone at 1179 East 76th Terrace.

As police knocked at the door of 1179 East 76th Terrace, Detective Linny Cunningham, a twenty-five year veteran of the Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department, arrived on the scene. Mrs. Cunningham recognized one of the officers present as Sergeant Roy Orth, a fellow member of her police department. Although Sergeant Orth was superior in rank to Mrs. Cunningham, he had no supervisory authority over her. Mrs. Cunningham identified herself as the owner of the house and reported that although she did not live at the location, her twenty-nine year old son, William Cunningham, had resided there for five years. Sergeant Orth indicated that the officers needed to get inside the house. He declined Mrs. Cunningham's offer to let them in, however, due to her inability to legally consent to a search of the home.

In the meantime, police released Mr. Cunningham from jail on a bond and transported him to 1179 East 76th Terrace for the purpose of obtaining his consent to search the house. When Mr. Cunningham arrived, the officers implored him to give consent to a search of his residence. They indicated that they were conducting an ongoing investigation and would obtain a search warrant should he refuse to provide consent. Nevertheless, Mr. Cunningham repeatedly refused to give permission to search. Even after his mother spoke to him, he continued to resist signing the consent form. Eventually, Mrs. Cunningham told her son "I got the feeling that I was in trouble now with the PD because with Orth there and he's expecting me to get [the consent form] signed for him." Id. at 192. She also informed her son that should he decide not to sign the consent form, the police were going to get a warrant and "they were going to go in there and they are going to tear up your house. Hopefully they won't do anything to the dogs inside of the house." Id. at 203. As Mrs. Cunningham spoke to her son, "he was sad, and he started sobbing." Id. at 192.

According to Mr. Cunningham's testimony, his mother said:

[T]hey are going to get in your house; they are going to tear your doors down. Your dogs are in there. You've got a pit bull, you know.... They are going to destroy your house. They are going to tear your doors off the hinges. Your dogs are going to get shot. Just let them in.

Id. at 217-18. Mr. Cunningham testified he was concerned that he had already embarrassed his mother and did not wish to get her into trouble. He spoke with her for five to ten minutes and "it was just upsetting." Id. at 219. At the conclusion of their conversation and approximately twenty minutes after his arrival on the scene, Mr. Cunningham finally consented to the search of his home. During the search, the police observed numerous items of evidentiary value including check stock paper, a shredder, and a computer with latex gloves nearby. The officers did not seize any evidence at the time. Instead, they secured the premises and revised their prior affidavit for a search warrant to include the new information that had focused them on 1179 East 76th Terrace, as well as the evidence they had seen at Mr. Cunningham's residence. A magistrate judge signed a search warrant and the police then seized the incriminating items.

Mr. Cunningham filed a motion to suppress the evidence obtained from his home, arguing that his mother had coerced his consent. The district court, however, found that the consent was valid and voluntary, stating:

I find that this may have been a very awkward situation for Mrs. Cunningham, the defendant's mother, but I think whether she was a mother or an officer or how she was acting is not really the point here because I think the totality of the evidence—and even if the representations that she made, if she made them to the defendant as a police officer, would still in this court's opinion fall short of coercion such as to render the consent other than voluntary. That finding, of course, is tempered by the fact that this was his mother telling him to sign this, and as I've said, even though it is an awkward situation for her, I find nevertheless that her actions did not rise to coercion.

Id. at 233. The court found that the officers had eliminated 1175 East 76th Terrace as a possibility before they obtained the warrant for Mr. Cunningham's home and there was thus probable cause for the warrant. Consequently, the court denied the motion to suppress.

II

On appeal, Mr. Cunningham contends the totality of the circumstances amounted to duress and coercion that rendered his consent to search his home involuntary. He points to the following facts to bolster this contention. He initially and repeatedly refused to consent to the search while supervising officers at the scene implored his mother, a police detective, to convince him to change his mind. His dogs and personal property in the house were threatened with destruction should he not cooperate. He also was convinced his mother's employment would be jeopardized if he refused to consent. We need not decide whether Mr. Cunningham's consent was voluntary, however, because we conclude the inevitable discovery doctrine clearly applies here and supports the denial of Mr. Cunningham's motion to suppress.

While we review the district court's factual determinations for clear error, our review of an ultimate Fourth Amendment question is de novo. United States v. Souza, 223 F.3d 1197, 1201 (10th Cir.2000). When a search violates the Fourth Amendment, the exclusionary rule normally dictates that evidence obtained as a result of that search be suppressed. See Nix v. Williams, 467 U.S. 431, 442-43, 104 S.Ct. 2501, 81...