U.S. v. Maldonado, 94-1560

• Citation: 38 F.3d 936
• Decision Date: 28 October 1994
• Docket Number: No. 94-1560,94-1560
• Parties: 40 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 495 UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Richard MALDONADO, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 936

38 F.3d 936

40 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 495

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Richard MALDONADO, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 94-1560.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued Sept. 22, 1994.

Decided Oct. 28, 1994.

Barry Rand Elden, Diane Saltoun, argued, Asst. U.S. Attys., Criminal Receiving, Appellate Div., Chicago, IL, for U.S.

Eugene O'Malley, argued, Chicago, IL, for Richard Maldonado.

Before CUMMINGS, ESCHBACH, and MANION, Circuit Judges.

ESCHBACH, Circuit Judge.

Defendant Richard Maldonado appeals from his conviction for possession with intent to distribute cocaine, a violation of 21 U.S.C. Sec. 841(a)(1). Maldonado challenges the district court's denial of his motion to suppress evidence on the ground that his Fourth Amendment rights were violated. Maldonado also claims that the trial court erred in admitting statements he made during a plea bargain proffer with the government. For the reasons stated below, we will affirm.

I. Background

On February 19, 1993, Richard Maldonado was traveling from Los Angeles to New York on Amtrak Train Number 4 when he disembarked at a stop at Chicago's Union Station. Agents Gary Boertlein and Kenneth Krok, two members of a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) task force, were conducting routine surveillance of this particular train because it was known to travel along a popular route for drug traffickers. Agent Boertlein noticed Maldonado walking rigidly from the train toward the station house and in such a manner as to attract the agent's attention. Agent Boertlein also testified that he had observed an unusual square shape protruding from Maldonado's bag.

Agents Boertlein and Krok decided to follow Maldonado into the inner station. The two agents approached Maldonado and, after identifying themselves as police officers, asked if he would mind speaking with them. Maldonado calmly agreed. Upon request, Maldonado showed the agents his train ticket and an identification card. The train ticket had been purchased in defendant's name, in cash, one-way from Los Angeles to New York, and no telephone contact number had been provided. The agents briefly interviewed Maldonado and then asked him if they could search his luggage because they were looking for people traveling with large quantities of illegal drugs. Maldonado consented to the search of his luggage. While searching Maldonado's bag, Agent Boertlein came across two boxes which were each marked "juicer" and which purportedly contained juice machines inside.

Both parties acknowledge that Agent Boertlein requested further consent from Maldonado to search the "juicer boxes." However, at the suppression hearing there were discrepancies in the testimony regarding Maldonado's response to Agent Boertlein's request. The two DEA agents both testified that Maldonado affirmatively consented to Agent Boertlein's request to search the juicer boxes; nonetheless, neither agent was able to recall the specific words used by Maldonado to express his consent. Agent Krok testified that he did not hear Maldonado's response because of the background noise from the electronic doors, but that he did see Maldonado make an oral response and nod his head in a positive manner. Agent Boertlein testified that Maldonado made an affirmative response to his request to search the boxes, but Boertlein was unable to recall the exact words Maldonado used.

Maldonado was able to testify in greater detail. He testified that Agent Boertlein asked him to open the juicer boxes, which were taped shut. Maldonado testified that he told Agent Boertlein that he did not want to open the juicer boxes because the items inside were gift wrapped. According to Maldonado, Agent Boertlein then volunteered to open the containers himself. Maldonado testified that he again expressed his concern regarding the gift wrap, and Agent Boertlein responded that he had been conducting these kinds of searches for five years and that he would be careful not to disturb the gift wrapping. The district court made no explicit determination as to which testimony it found more credible, but the court evaluated Maldonado's testimony in determining the scope of consent because it was "[t]he only testimony we have as to what words were spoken by Mr. Maldonado." Tr. of Sept. 16, 1993 at 341.

The parties are at least in agreement on what transpired next. Agent Boertlein opened the juicer boxes and found no gift-wrapped juice machines inside the boxes; instead, he found several kilogram-sized packages of cocaine. Maldonado was subsequently placed under arrest.

On March 9, 1993, a grand jury indicted Maldonado on one count of possession with intent to distribute approximately six kilograms of cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. Sec. 841(a)(1). Maldonado filed a motion to suppress the cocaine seized by the DEA agents. At the end of an extensive suppression hearing, the district court ruled that Maldonado had consented both to the initial encounter with the officers and to the search of his luggage. The court also stated that under Florida v. Jimeno, 500 U.S. 248, 111 S.Ct. 1801, 114 L.Ed.2d 297 (1991), Maldonado's general consent to the search of his luggage included consent to search the juicer boxes found within the luggage. The court further determined that Maldonado never withdrew his consent. The court found that Maldonado had instead limited the parameters of his consent in the sense that he did not want the packaging of the material inside the juicer boxes to be harmed. The district court concluded that the DEA agents had not violated Maldonado's Fourth Amendment rights, and the motion to suppress was therefore denied.

A jury found Maldonado guilty, and the district court sentenced him to 180 months' imprisonment. Maldonado filed a timely appeal, challenging the district court's denial of his motion to suppress as well as the admission of his proffer statements into evidence at trial. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1291.

II. Analysis

A. Fourth Amendment issues

On appeal, Maldonado raises two separate Fourth Amendment challenges to the district court's denial of his motion to suppress evidence. First, Maldonado claims that the drug enforcement officers' initial encounter with him constituted an illegal seizure. Second, Maldonado claims that Agent Boertlein's search of the juicer boxes exceeded the scope of his consent to search his luggage. We will not disturb the district court's denial of a motion to suppress unless the decision was clearly erroneous. United States v. McCarthur, 6 F.3d 1270, 1275 (7th Cir.1993); United States v. Withers, 972 F.2d 837, 841 (7th Cir.1992).

1. The initial encounter

Maldonado contends that the DEA agents' initial encounter with him violated his Fourth Amendment rights. However, not all encounters between police officers and citizens implicate Fourth Amendment concerns. United States v. Edwards, 898 F.2d 1273, 1276 (7th Cir.1990) (citing Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 19 n. 16, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1879 n. 16, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968)). A police-citizen encounter which involves no restraint on the citizen's liberty, and which is characterized by an officer seeking the citizen's voluntary cooperation through noncoercive questioning, is not a seizure within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. See United States v. Johnson, 910 F.2d 1506, 1508 (7th Cir.1990), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 1051, 111 S.Ct. 764, 112 L.Ed.2d 783 (1991). "Voluntary encounters between a private person and law enforcement officers are not seizures and, consequently, not subject to the strictures of the fourth amendment." United States v. Berke, 930 F.2d 1219, 1221 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 112 S.Ct. 269, 116 L.Ed.2d 221 (1991).

"The question of whether a particular encounter is voluntary 'is a factual one, dependent on the circumstances of each case; accordingly, our standard of review is a limited inquiry into whether the decision of the district court was clearly erroneous.' " Id. (quoting United States v. Espinosa-Alvarez, 839 F.2d 1201, 1205 (7th Cir.1987)). The law is well established that "if, in the totality of the circumstances, a reasonable person would not believe that his freedom of movement was restrained, or believes that he remains at liberty to disregard a police officer's request for information, a seizure has not occurred." Edwards, 898 F.2d at 1276 (quoting Espinosa-Alvarez, 839 F.2d at 1205 (citations omitted)). The district court determined that Maldonado's encounter with the drug enforcement officers was not a coercive stop. Thus, the issue before this Court is whether the district court's implicit ruling that no seizure occurred was clearly erroneous.

Looking at the totality of the circumstances, the record supports the district court's conclusion that this was a consensual encounter and that a reasonable person in Maldonado's position would not have felt coerced. The encounter took place in the middle of a public train station, the drug enforcement officers were dressed in civilian attire, and no weapons were displayed. Furthermore, the agents testified that they specifically told Maldonado that he was free to leave, that he was not under arrest, and that he was not required to answer their questions. The district court's decision that Maldonado freely consented to the encounter was not clearly erroneous. As this Court noted under similar circumstances in United States v. High, 921 F.2d 112, 115 (7th Cir.1990), "not only was the fourth amendment not violated, but it was not implicated because [the defendant] voluntarily consented to the initial encounter and subsequent questioning." Id. Since the encounter was not a seizure under the Fourth Amendment, Maldonado's argument that the ensuing search of his luggage was automatically tainted must fail. ¹

2. Search of the luggage and juicer boxes

The district court also found that Maldonado had freely consented to the search of his luggage. In support of this...