U.S. v. Dhinsa
| Decision Date | 26 March 1999 |
| Docket Number | Docket No. 98-1605 |
| Citation | 171 F.3d 721 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Appellant, v. Gurmeet Singh DHINSA, Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
David C. James, Assistant United States Attorney, Brooklyn, N.Y. (Zachary W. Carter, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Kristin M. Cappel, Assistant United States Attorney, on the brief) for Appellant.
Gerald L. Shargel, New York, N.Y. (Jeffrey Lichtman, Marc Fernich, Seth Ginsberg, on the brief) for Defendant-Appellee.
Before: WINTER, Chief Judge, JACOBS and POOLER, Circuit Judges.
The government appeals an October 19, 1998, order of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Edward R. Korman, Judge ) granting two suppression motions of defendant Gurmeet Singh Dhinsa. In a previously issued order, we reversed the rulings, and we now explain the bases for those reversals.
The district court's first ruling suppressed the fruits of a car stop and subsequent search. This ruling causes us to revisit the familiar issue of whether a law enforcement officer's subjective intentions can vitiate otherwise existing probable cause to stop a motor vehicle. However, the facts in this case differ somewhat from the usual scenario in that the detectives who stopped Dhinsa observed him commit a traffic violation before the stop but testified that the violation played no role in their decision to stop the car. Because the detectives had objective cause to stop the car, we conclude that their subjective motivation was irrelevant and that the stop was constitutionally permissible.
The second ruling we address occurred in an unusual procedural context. Judge Korman made findings supporting admission of the fruits of a purported inventory search of Dhinsa's car. However, the district court disregarded these findings and granted a suppression order because the defendant would not have been able to appeal from an order denying suppression without first standing trial in an anticipated lengthy capital proceeding. While we sympathize with the district court's institutional concerns, we do not approve its solution of entering an order inconsistent with its findings. We therefore summarily reverse the order.
On August 22, 1997, a grand jury charged Dhinsa in a 29-count superseding indictment with crimes including racketeering, murder, conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, and witness intimidation. The government charged that Dhinsa, who owned gas stations throughout the New York City area, and members of a criminal enterprise that Dhinsa directed rigged gasoline pumps so that customers were charged for more gasoline than they actually received. The government further charged that members of the criminal enterprise committed various violent crimes to cover up and further their fraudulent scheme.
On July 1, 1997, Detectives Brian Quinn and Louis Pia of the Queens homicide squad of the New York City Police Department went to the Queens neighborhood of an individual who allegedly had received death threats from Dhinsa. The two detectives' supervisor, Sergeant Michael Conroy, had instructed Quinn and Pia to pick up this individual and his family and take them to a safe location. However, shortly before the detectives reached the pick-up location, Pia received a coded message on his pager instructing him to cancel the pick-up and call Conroy. Quinn drove past the pick-up location to a phone booth approximately two to two and a half blocks away and parked the unmarked patrol car. 1 As Quinn approached the phone booth, he noticed an olive-skinned man in a Lincoln Town Car pull up on the opposite side of the street. During Quinn's conversation with Conroy, the driver of the Lincoln stared at Quinn. Consequently, Quinn asked Conroy if the Lincoln had anything to do with the investigation. After checking, Conroy responded that to his knowledge it did not. When Quinn got back in the car, he told Pia about the individual who had been staring at him. Pia also noticed the driver staring at him and at the patrol car. The two detectives agreed that they should pull over the Lincoln. Quinn then made a u-turn, and the driver of the Lincoln pulled away from the curb. The two detectives followed the Lincoln for about two blocks and observed its driver change lanes without signaling. However, both officers testified that the traffic violation played no role in their decision to make the stop and they did not intend to ticket the driver. Instead, Pia testified that he acted out of a desire to identify the man who was staring at him and a concern that the driver might have been conducting a surveillance of the person whose life had been threatened. Quinn was concerned because the driver had been staring at him.
After observing the traffic violation, Quinn and Pia stopped the Lincoln. Quinn recognized the driver as Dhinsa and asked him what he was doing in the neighborhood and who owned the car. Dhinsa responded that he was in the neighborhood to pick up receipts from one of his gas stations, one of his mechanics owned the car, and the registration papers were in the glove box. Dhinsa, Quinn, and Pia also briefly discussed the possibility of the detectives earning money by picking up receipts for Dhinsa, and Quinn and Dhinsa exchanged pager numbers. Next, Quinn took Dhinsa's car keys, opened the passenger-side front door and the glove box, and examined a packet containing the registration and other papers. Quinn also asked for permission to open the trunk. When Quinn opened the trunk, he observed circuit boards for gas pumps. Quinn then closed the trunk and returned the contents of the glove box to Dhinsa.
Detectives arrested Dhinsa on July 7, 1997. On the same date, the detectives seized Dhinsa's black Lexus, which they believed Dhinsa had used in connection with a murder. After the detectives brought the Lexus to their precinct house, Sergeant Conroy instructed Detectives Rakesh Verma and Jim Tampellini to conduct an inventory search to record property taken into police custody. Verma, however, believed that he also could look for items of investigatory or evidentiary value. Verma testified that he and Tampellini searched the trunk, glove compartment, console, and passenger area of the Lexus as well as a "stash" or "trap" compartment. During the course of the search, Verma observed many loose papers including a piece of paper bearing the name of a cooperating witness and a paper containing information about the car the cooperator was driving at the time of his arrest. Verma also saw a life insurance policy in the name of Gurdial Singh, a murder victim, and New York City Department of Consumer Affairs metal seals, warning stickers, and inspection stickers. After observing these items, Verma brought many of the materials and papers into the precinct, and the detectives copied the papers. They did not make an inventory list.
In pretrial motions, Dhinsa moved, among other things, to suppress the fruits of both the July 1, 1997, car stop and search and the July 7, 1997, inventory search. After conducting hearings, the district court granted both motions. Although the court somewhat reluctantly credited the detectives' testimony that they observed Dhinsa committing a traffic violation on July 1, 1997, it suppressed the fruits of that search because both detectives testified that the traffic violation did not cause them to stop Dhinsa. With regard to the July 7, 1997, search, the court held that the seizure of the car itself was "entirely reasonable" but that the detectives initially did not have probable cause to search the Lexus for evidence of the murder. However, the court also found that the search was permissible because (1) Conroy directed Verma to conduct an inventory search; (2) Verma erroneously believed he could conduct an investigatory search; and (3) regardless of Verma's intent or belief, the scope of the search he conducted did not exceed the permissible bounds of an inventory search until items he observed in plain view supplied him with probable cause to conduct a more extensive search. Notwithstanding these findings, Judge Korman went on to rule in Dhinsa's favor because the inventory search presented a close question and the defendant would have no opportunity to appeal denial of the suppression motion prior to trial. Judge Korman suggested that the unusual complexity and anticipated length of Dhinsa's capital trial justified holding for Dhinsa despite findings of fact and law that favored the government.
After we issued our order reversing the suppression order, Dhinsa's trial proceeded in district court. The jury convicted Dhinsa on several counts including racketeering, kidnapping, and murder but acquitted him on other counts.
In reviewing a suppression order, we reverse the district court's factual findings only for clear error but review its legal conclusions de novo. See United States v. Miller, 148 F.3d 207, 213 (2d Cir.1998), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 119 S.Ct. 804, 142 L.Ed.2d 665 (1999).
The government states in its brief on appeal that it seeks to reverse the district court's order regarding the car stop only to the extent that the order precludes the government from introducing evidence of (1) the detectives' identification of Dhinsa after the stop; (2) Dhinsa's explanation of why he was in the area; (3) Dhinsa's statements concerning ownership of the car; and (4) the exchange of contact numbers. Because the government did not seek to introduce testimony concerning the contents of the glove box or trunk, we focus our analysis solely on the permissibility of the original stop and do not consider the reasonableness of subsequent searches.
Dhinsa suggests two principal bases for affirming the...
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