U.S. v. Lingenfelter
| Decision Date | 30 June 1993 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 92-50348,92-50359 and 92-50362,s. 92-50348 |
| Citation | 997 F.2d 632 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Ronald L. LINGENFELTER, Defendant-Appellant. UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Gary MAROLF, aka Gary Marlow, Defendant-Appellant. UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Lawrence MORGAN, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
Donald M. Re, Los Angeles, CA, for defendant-appellant Lingenfelter.
Richard W. Bonner, Dana Point, CA, for defendant-appellant Marolf.
Michael D. Abzug, Los Angeles, CA, for defendant-appellant Morgan.
Jonathan S. Shapiro, Asst. U.S. Atty., Los Angeles, CA, for plaintiff-appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California, Alicemarie H. Stotler, District Judge, Presiding.
Before: WALLACE, Chief Judge, O'SCANNLAIN and FERNANDEZ, Circuit Judges.
Lingenfelter, Marolf, and Morgan appeal from their judgments of conviction following conditional guilty pleas to conspiracy to import approximately 900 kilograms of marijuana in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 963. Lingenfelter and Morgan also challenge their conditional plea convictions for conducting a financial transaction involving the proceeds of drug trafficking in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(1). Lingenfelter alone appeals his sentence under the United States Sentencing Guidelines (Guidelines). The district court had jurisdiction pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3231. We have jurisdiction over this timely appeal pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and 18 U.S.C. § 3742. We affirm.
On the morning of July 10, 1991, an anonymous telephone caller told Agent Stevens of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) that Morgan was in possession of approximately two tons of marijuana, which was stored in a warehouse located at 1835 Whittier Avenue, unit C-6, in Costa Mesa, California (warehouse). The caller indicated that Morgan owned or operated a company entitled Royal Pacific Golf Association, which leased the warehouse. The caller gave Stevens directions to Morgan's residence and stated that Morgan drove a white Ford van which would be parked in the driveway.
DEA agents followed the directions provided by the caller to 929 Arbor Avenue in Costa Mesa and located the white van. California Department of Motor Vehicles records revealed that the van was registered to Morgan. At approximately 12:30 p.m., two men drove the van from Morgan's residence to the warehouse. After spending a few minutes inside the warehouse, the men reentered the van and returned to Morgan's residence. Several minutes later, they returned to the warehouse and again spent a few minutes inside. They then left and drove to another residence in Costa Mesa, after which they returned to Morgan's residence.
During their surveillance, DEA agents observed that the warehouse was one of 30 to 35 units in a light industrial complex. Each unit had an office entrance in the front and a roll-up door in the back. A public alleyway ran along the rear of the units, where the roll-up doors were located. Unlike the other units in the complex, the warehouse was locked and the shades were drawn. The front bore the name Royal Pacific Golf Association.
At approximately 7:30 p.m., Officer Fleet of the Santa Ana Police Department and Carlos, his narcotics-sniffing canine, arrived at the warehouse. Fleet led Carlos along the public alleyway, as Carlos sniffed the roll-up doors of the unit next to the warehouse and then the warehouse. Carlos alerted to the warehouse.
Later that night, DEA Agent Potts obtained a search warrant for the warehouse, Morgan's residence, and the van. Potts attached to the affidavit in support of the search warrant a two-page unsigned expertise statement concerning Carlos's reliability that Potts had obtained from Fleet. Agents executed the warrant the next day and found approximately 1,445 pounds of Thai marijuana in the warehouse. The search of Morgan's residence and van uncovered additional evidence of narcotics trafficking.
On the day before the search of the warehouse, agents observed Morgan aboard a 55-foot motor sail ketch, the Asmara, which was in dry dock at the Blue Moon Marine boatyard in Newport Beach, California. The hull of the Asmara was covered by a blue plastic tarp which the agents thought might have been used to conceal work that was being performed on the vessel.
The next day, DEA Agent Donnelly spoke with several individuals at the boatyard in an effort to identify the owner of the Asmara. All of those questioned, including Lingenfelter, appeared nervous and gave evasive answers. The boatyard manager told the agents that Morgan had instructed him to remove the Asmara from the water. The manager also stated that the ship had been riding very low in the water when it arrived, and that Morgan had told him to repaint and change the water line. This information indicated to the agents that Morgan had attempted to hide the fact that the vessel had carried an extra-heavy cargo into port. Donnelly boarded the Asmara and found boat maps and charts indicating that the Asmara had recently returned from a trip to Thailand. Agents also observed that there was no registration number on the bow. Additional investigation revealed that the Asmara was not registered with the United States Coast Guard.
During the course of the search of the warehouse, Morgan told law enforcement agents that he was the owner of Morgan Rigging. Business records discovered in the search of Morgan's residence revealed that Morgan Rigging was a partner in Blue Moon Marine. In addition, the Asmara resembled an artist's rendition of a sailboat found in Morgan's briefcase. Finally, a drug "pay and owe" ledger sheet also found in the briefcase indicated the removal of cargo from a vessel.
The Asmara remained under continuous surveillance on July 11 and 12. On July 12, a shipyard employee told Agent Donnelly that he had been instructed to place the Asmara back into the water. Donnelly instructed the worker not to do so and seized the ship. A search of the vessel uncovered certain incriminating documents and two kilograms of Thai marijuana. Although Potts had prepared the application for a search warrant of the Asmara on Friday, the twelfth, she did not present the material to a magistrate until the following Monday because the vessel had already been seized.
Lingenfelter, Marolf, and Morgan moved to suppress the evidence obtained in the searches of the warehouse and the Asmara. In a declaration in support of his motion to suppress, Marolf stated that in 1990 he and Morgan had agreed to import marijuana from Thailand to California aboard the Asmara, which Marolf had purchased with funds advanced to him by Morgan. Lingenfelter's declaration asserted that in 1990 and 1991 he had entered into an agreement with Morgan and Marolf to import marijuana from Thailand to California, and that, as part of the agreement, he had arranged to have the Asmara shipped from California to Hong Kong. Lingenfelter also stated that he was a shareholder in Blue Moon Marine, and that he had caused the Asmara to be pulled from the water and its cargo of marijuana unloaded for storage at the warehouse.
The district court concluded that neither Lingenfelter nor Marolf had standing to contest the search of the warehouse and that Lingenfelter did not have standing to challenge the seizure and subsequent search of the Asmara. The district court denied the motions to suppress.
We first discuss the standing issues: whether Lingenfelter and Marolf had standing to challenge the legality of the warehouse search, and whether Lingenfelter had standing to contest the seizure and subsequent search of the Asmara. Where the facts are not in dispute, we review de novo the question of standing to assert a Fourth Amendment claim. United States v. Echegoyen, 799 F.2d 1271, 1277 (9th Cir.1986).
In order to challenge a search on Fourth Amendment grounds, a defendant bears the burden of demonstrating that he or she had a legitimate expectation of privacy in the place searched. Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128, 143, 99 S.Ct. 421, 430, 58 L.Ed.2d 387 (1978) (Rakas ); United States v. Singleton, 987 F.2d 1444 (9th Cir.1993). Fourth Amendment rights are personal rights and "[a] person who is aggrieved by an illegal search and seizure only through the introduction of damaging evidence secured by a search of a third person's premises or property has not had any of his Fourth Amendment rights infringed." Rakas, 439 U.S. at 134, 99 S.Ct. at 425. Under this rule, "coconspirators and codefendants have been accorded no special standing." Alderman v. United States, 394 U.S. 165, 172, 89 S.Ct. 961, 965, 22 L.Ed.2d 176 (1969).
Both Lingenfelter and Marolf ground their standing argument in the Ninth Circuit's "coconspirator exception" to the general Rakas rule that a defendant cannot contest the violation of another person's Fourth Amendment rights. See United States v. Taketa, 923 F.2d 665, 671 (9th Cir.1991). This exception provides that a defendant may challenge a search of a third party's property if he or she had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the place searched based on a formal arrangement indicating joint control or supervision. See id. Relying on this exception, Lingenfelter and Marolf contend that they were parties to a formalized agreement to import marijuana from Thailand to California aboard the Asmara and to store that marijuana at the warehouse.
In United States v. Padilla, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 1936, 123 L.Ed.2d 635 (1993), reversing, 960 F.2d 854 (9th Cir.1992), however, the Supreme Court flatly rejected our coconspirator exception as inconsistent with Alderman and Rakas. As the Court stated, ...
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