U.S. v. Laughton

• Decision Date: 26 June 2006
• Docket Number: No. 02-20016.,02-20016.
• Citation: 437 F.Supp.2d 665
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. James Howard LAUGHTON, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Michigan

Page 665

437 F.Supp.2d 665

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. James Howard LAUGHTON, Defendant.

No. 02-20016.

United States District Court, E.D. Michigan, Northern Division.

June 26, 2006.

Kenneth R. Sasse, Federal Defender Office (Flint), Flint, MI, for Defendant.

ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANT'S MOTION TO SUPPRESS EVIDENCE

LAWSON, District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on the defendant's motion to suppress evidence filed on January 6, 2006. The motion concerns evidence seized in a warrantless search of a motor vehicle that occurred on April 20, 2002, which evidence supports the charge contained in court four of the superseding indictment in this case. The government contends that the search can be justified either by the defendant's consent to search or as a search incident to a lawful arrest. After considering the evidence offered at the evidentiary hearings held on the motion and the parties' submissions, the Court concludes that both of the government's arguments are untenable, the search violated the Fourth Amendment, and the evidence must be suppressed.

I.

A brief recapitulation of this case is appropriate here. On April 10, 2002, the defendant was charged in a six-count indictment with various drug and weapons offenses, not including the charge contained in the present count four, which is the object of the motion to suppress. The drug offenses concerned trafficking in methamphetamine. Counts one through four of the original indictment were based on controlled buys conducted by the police with the assistance of a confidential informant named Thomas Pell. Based on these controlled buys, Deputy Sheriff Scott Clarke swore out an affidavit for a warrant to search the defendant's home. The warrant was issued and a search of the defendant's home was conducted. Counts five and six were based on items found during the search.

Unfortunately for the government, Deputy Clarke's affidavit was poorly drafted. On June 18, 2002, the defendant filed a motion to suppress the evidence obtained in the search. On August 29, 2002, this Court held that the warrant lacked probable cause. However, the Court found that the officers conducting the search acted in good faith in relying on the warrant, saving the evidence from the application of the exclusionary rule. The case proceeded to trial; the defendant was found not guilty on counts one and two and guilty on counts three through six.

On appeal, the defendant challenged this Court's application of the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule. On May 17, 2005, the Sixth Circuit reversed, holding that Ink) reasonable officer could have believed that the affidavit was not so lacking in indicia of probable cause as to be reliable." United States v. Laughton, 409 F.3d 744, 751 (6th Cir.2005). The court of appeals reversed the judgment of conviction on all counts and remanded the case "for further proceedings consistent with this opinion." Id. at 752.

The government now seeks to retry the defendant but admits that it cannot meet its burden on counts five and six of the original indictment without the evidence from the search (including some drugs and a firearm), which must be suppressed according to the court of appeals' decision. Counts three and four of the original indictment remain. However, on November 30, 2005, the grand jury returned a superseding indictment. Counts three and four from the first indictment are renumbered as counts one and two, and the indictment contains two additional charges. New count three alleges that the defendant violated 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) on November 7, 2001 by possessing a firearm while being a felon. New count four alleges that the defendant violated 21 U.S.C. § 844(a) on April 20, 2002 by possessing methamphetamine after having been convicted of two drug offenses. This last count arises from a search of the defendant's vehicle by Michigan State Police Trooper William Arndt and his partner, Trooper G. Hubers, at the scene of a minor automobile accident on the April 2002 date.

Testimony was taken at the hearings on the suppression motion on February 21 and March 23, 2006; both Trooper Arndt and the defendant testified. Mr. Laughton testified that he was in an automobile accident around 5:30 p.m. on the day of the incident, which he thought was April 19, 2002. He was driving a GMC Jimmy that he had just purchased three or four days earlier from a woman in Flint. He had gone to a secretary of state office the day before the accident to transfer the title and license plate. When the police arrived at the scene about thirty minutes after the accident, the defendant was standing on the shoulder of the road with the driver of the other car. The Jimmy was in a ditch about six to eight feet deep and twelve feet from the road. Laughton denied being under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the accident.

When Trooper Arndt and his partner arrived at the scene, the defendant gave them his driver's license. The defendant states the officers asked him if he had been drinking, which he, denied, and they asked him for other documents, including his vehicle registration and proof of insurance. The defendant testified that these documents were in the car's glove box, a fact that remains uncontradicted on this record. However, the officers would not let him go down into the ditch to get the documents. Instead, Trooper Arndt's partner went to get them. Trooper Arndt put the defendant in the police vehicle while his partner went down to the defendant's car to look for the documents. The defendant was not handcuffed, but he claims he was locked in the car. The defendant denies giving consent for the officers to search his car; in fact, he claims he was not even asked.

The defendant testified that he could see Trooper Arndt's partner taking items out of his car and putting them on the roof. The officer spent about five minutes looking in his car, then he waived at Trooper Arndt. At that point, Trooper Arndt took the defendant out of the police car, placed him under arrest, handcuffed him, and put him back in the police car. The defendant asked why he was being arrested. He testified that Trooper Arndt told him that his partner must have found something illegal. At some point while he was in the police car, the defendant testified that he was given a preliminary breath test (PBT), and the results were negative. He does not remember if he was handcuffed before or after he was administered the test. The defendant testified that the officers did not give him a ticket for not having a registration or proof of insurance.

A tow truck came to pull the Jimmy from the ditch. Laughton explained that he had called for the tow before the police arrived. The defendant was in jail for 18 hours before he was released. When he returned to the vehicle, the documents the police had requested were still in the glove box of the Jimmy. The defendant does not know where those documents are now, and they were not produced at the motion hearings. Laughton says that he believes his lawyer in a prior state court case may have them. While the defendant was in jail, he claims the officers asked him to sign a form consenting to a search of his vehicle so the police could go back to seize a bulletproof vest they had seen in the car that they had not seized at the scene of the accident. He refused.

Two days after he was released, the defendant surrendered after being indicted in this case. He has been in custody since that time. He left his car in front of the courthouse.

Trooper William Arndt testified for the government. He said that when he and his partner arrived at the accident scene, the defendant and the other driver were standing by the side of the road, and the Jimmy was off the road and down in the ditch. Arndt said that his preliminary check on the vehicle revealed that the Jimmy was not registered to the defendant but had plates on it that were registered to a different car owned by the defendant. Arndt then asked the defendant for paperwork proving ownership of the vehicle and insurance, but his inquiries were met by inconsistent answers to questions about where the defendant's paperwork was. First, he stated he had no papers. Then he explained that he had gone to the secretary of state's office to effectuate the transfer. Trooper Arndt found these statements to be inconsistent, and he testified that he arrested the defendant for having no proof of insurance. However, Arndt stated he did not handcuff the defendant or put him in the police vehicle right away. Rather, the defendant continued to stand on the shoulder of the road. Trooper Arndt claims the defendant was arrested first, and the search was conducted afterwards with consent.

As for the consent, Arndt testified on direct examination he asked the defendant, "Do you mind if I take a look in the vehicle?" He claims the defendant said that he could. Trooper Arndt then testified a few minutes later that he asked the defendant if he had any weapons in the vehicle, and the defendant denied having any weapons and offered to allow the officers to conduct a search, stating, "You can look if you want to." Arndt said he and his partner went down into the ditch. Arndt testified that he saw a six pack of beer in the vehicle, so he went back up to the road to talk to the defendant, leaving his partner to conduct the search. Arndt then testified that the search was conducted incident to the arrest for no insurance and also with the defendant's consent. Arndt's partner found a bulletproof vest and a Harley Davidson tin that contained methamphetamine. The methamphetamine was seized at that time, but the vest was not. Trooper Arndt stated the defendant was not given a breath test, even though one was available, because the defendant did not appear intoxicated.

On cross examination, Arndt testified that the defendant was given a citation for not having proof of insurance. However, Arndt also...