U.S. v. Lopez-Valdez

• Citation: 178 F.3d 282
• Decision Date: 01 June 1999
• Docket Number: No. 97-50949,LOPEZ-VALDE,D,97-50949
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Sonia Luzefendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 282

178 F.3d 282

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Sonia Luz LOPEZ-VALDEZ, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 97-50949.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

June 1, 1999.

Joseph H. Gay, Jr., United States Attorney, William Thomas Reid, IV, San Antonio, TX, for Plaintiff-Appellee.

Philip J. Lynch, San Antonio, TX, for Defendant-Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas.

Before EMILIO M. GARZA, BENAVIDES and DENNIS, Circuit Judges.

BENAVIDES, Circuit Judge:

Sonia Luz Lopez-Valdez ("Lopez") appeals from her criminal conviction for willfully transporting illegal aliens. Lopez contends that the district court erred in denying her motion to suppress certain evidence gathered after law enforcement officers stopped her car near the U.S.-Mexican border. This Court has jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291. For the reasons set forth below, we REVERSE the district court's July 22, 1997 denial of Lopez's motion to suppress and remand for further proceedings consistent herewith.

I. BACKGROUND

At about 8:30 a.m. on August 14, 1996, Appellant was driving east on Farm to Market Road (FM) 2644. FM 2644, which connects FM 1021 to U.S. Highway 277, originates in El Indio, Texas, a small town near the U.S.-Mexican border. FM 2644 is the main road from El Indio to the larger towns of Carrizo Springs and Crystal City.

Heading east, away from the border, Lopez's Buick passed the west-bound marked patrol unit of Texas Department of Public Safety ("DPS") trooper Charles Flori. Flori's passenger, United States Border Patrol Agent Matthew Mizell, ¹ noticed numerous passengers in the Buick. Based on the number of people in the car and the fact that FM 2644 circumnavigates the Highway 277 checkpoint, Agent Mizell suspected that the vehicle could be engaged in alien smuggling. Agent Mizell and Trooper Flori discussed these suspicions. Trooper Flori decided to turn his patrol car around so that he and Agent Mizell could get a better look.

Before turning his patrol car around, Trooper Flori saw in his rearview mirror the Buick's brake lights come on. Flori observed that the right taillight had a hole in its lens cover and that the taillight emitted both red and white light. ² Agent Mizell also saw that the Buick had a damaged taillight. Later inspection revealed that an inch-long, rectangular-shaped piece of the taillight lens was missing. The bulb was behind the intact part of the red lens.

Trooper Flori stopped the Buick because he believed that a broken taillight constituted a traffic infraction. Trooper Flori turned on his patrol car's flashing lights; the Buick stopped. As Flori talked with Lopez, Agent Mizell asked the passengers about their citizenship status. Most of the passengers did not have documents with them. They were arrested and read their Miranda rights. Lopez was also arrested and advised of her rights.

Lopez was transported to the border patrol station in Carrizo Springs, Texas, where she was processed and placed in a cell. Border Patrol Agent Eduardo Martinez removed Lopez from the cell to question her. Once in the interrogation room, he informed her, in English and Spanish, of her rights concerning remaining silent and receiving assistance of counsel. Lopez signed forms indicating that she understood her rights, and she answered the officer's questions. After the interrogation was finished, Lopez signed a typed statement of her answers. In the statement, Lopez admitted that she knew the people in her car were illegal aliens and that she was paid to drive them to Carrizo Springs.

Lopez was indicted on August 21, 1996, in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas for two counts of willfully transporting illegal aliens. Before trial, she moved to suppress certain evidence, including her post-arrest statements and witness testimony, on the basis that it was the fruit of an illegal detention. ³ Lopez waived her right to a jury trial. The district court carried the motion to suppress with the bench trial.

At the end of Lopez's trial, the district court heard arguments on the motion to suppress. Lopez, relying on Vicknair v. State, 751 S.W.2d 180 (Tex.Crim.App.1986, no pet.), asserted that it is well established law in Texas that a broken lens causing a taillight to emit both red and white light does not constitute an offense and as such could not serve as the basis for a traffic stop. Additionally, she contended that the facts known to the officers did not give rise to a reasonable suspicion that she was involved in illegal activity. The Government, on the other hand, argued that the totality of the circumstances justified the initial stop and that Flori's conduct amounted to a good-faith view of Texas traffic laws concerning broken taillights. The Government contended that this good-faith view would except from exclusion the evidence gathered subsequent to the stop.

The district court rightly decided that the suppression motion turned on the lawfulness of the vehicular stop. The court found that the taillight on Lopez's Buick emitted both white and red light. The court also found that officers Flori and Mizell did not manufacture the circumstances under which Flori effectuated the stop. The court noted that, to the extent that Lopez's vehicle had been stopped for a traffic violation, Vicknair would require the motion to suppress to be granted because, in Texas, a damaged taillight which emits both red and white light could not justify a traffic stop. The court did not attempt to carve out a good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule. Instead the district court relied on the reasonable suspicion test that governs roving border patrol stops, and concluded that, given all the facts and circumstances in possession of both the federal agent and state trooper, there were sufficient articulable facts to raise a reasonable suspicion justifying the initial stop.

The district court denied the motion to suppress and found Lopez guilty as charged. Lopez received five years' probation.

II. DISCUSSION

On appeal, Lopez argues that law enforcement officers lacked the reasonable suspicion necessary to justify an immigration stop of her vehicle; that a broken taillight did not provide probable cause for the police to effect a traffic stop; that a Texas DPS trooper's erroneous belief that a broken taillight constituted a traffic infraction did not excuse the vehicular search under the good-faith exception to the probable cause requirement; and that, in accordance with the Fourth Amendment prohibition against illegal searches and seizures, the illegal stop and detention of Lopez requires the suppression of all evidence acquired subsequent to the stop. The Government argues that the district court improperly concluded that the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule was inapplicable and that either reasonable suspicion or the good-faith exception justified the vehicular stop.

A.

In reviewing the denial of a motion to suppress, a district court's purely factual findings are reviewed for clear error. See United States v. Nichols, 142 F.3d 857, 864-65 (5th Cir.1998). Its conclusion that the facts provided the probable cause or reasonable suspicion necessary to justify a detention is reviewed de novo. See Ornelas v. United States, 517 U.S. 690, 699, 116 S.Ct. 1657, 134 L.Ed.2d 911 (1996).

B.

A vehicle may not be stopped simply because it is traveling on a road near the U.S.-Mexican border. See Brown v. Texas, 443 U.S. 47, 49-52, 99 S.Ct. 2637, 61 L.Ed.2d 357 (1979) (noting that presence in a high-crime area does not provide reasonble suspicion); United States v. Newell, 506 F.2d 401, 405 (5th Cir.1975) (explaining that presence in a border area does not place a citizen "within a deconstitutionalized zone"). A border patrol agent may briefly detain a vehicle only if the agent is "aware of specific articulable facts, together with rational inferences from those facts, that reasonably warrant suspicion" that the vehicle is involved in illegal activities. United States v. Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. 873, 884, 95 S.Ct. 2574, 45 L.Ed.2d 607 (1975); see also United States v. Inocencio, 40 F.3d 716, 722 (5th Cir.1994). In assessing the objective reasonableness of a stop, the reviewing court must consider the "whole picture." United States v. Cortez, 449 U.S. 411, 417-18, 101 S.Ct. 690, 66 L.Ed.2d 621 (1981). Several factors comprise that picture: (1) the area's proximity to the border, including evidence that the vehicle recently crossed the border; (2) the previous experience of the arresting agents with criminal activity; (3) known characteristics of the area; (4) the usual traffic patterns of that road; (5) information about recent illegal trafficking in aliens or narcotics in the area; (6) the behavior of the vehicle's driver; (7) the appearance of the vehicle; and (8) the number, appearance, and behavior of any passengers. See Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. at 884, 95 S.Ct. 2574. In applying the Brignoni-Ponce standard, this Court has recognized that the Supreme Court underpinned the standard with a balancing test; the public interest in addressing the continuing problems of alien and drug smuggling must be weighed against the private interest of an individual to be let alone in exercising his or her liberty. See Nichols, 142 F.3d at 861-62.

Although no single Brignoni-Ponce factor is controlling, see Inocencio, 40 F.3d at 722, we have considered physical proximity to the border to be a "vital element" in analyzing the totality of the circumstances. Nichols, 142 F.3d at 867 (citation omitted). ⁴ The Government relies on United States v. Cardona, 955 F.2d 976 (5th Cir.1992) (finding that agents had a reasonable suspicion to conclude that the defendant's vehicle had originated at the border in light of the number of towns along the road, the number of intersecting roads, and the number of miles from the border), and argues that...