U.S. v. Martinez-Molina
| Decision Date | 30 August 1995 |
| Docket Number | RODRIGUEZ-RODRIGUE,MALDONADO-RODRIGUE,MARTINEZ-MOLIN,VELEZ-MATO,NOBLE-CANALE,RODRIGUEZ-REST,Nos. 94-1249,MAYSONET-MACHAD,FELICIANO-COLO,TRAVIESO-OCASI,D,PAGAN-GARCI,BLE-CANALE,s. 94-1249 |
| Citation | 64 F.3d 719 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES, Appellee, v. Carlosefendant-Appellant. UNITED STATES, Appellee, v. Luisefendant-Appellant. UNITED STATES, Appellee, v. Alfonsoefendant-Appellant. UNITED STATES, Appellee, v. Angelefendant-Appellant. UNITED STATES, Appellee, v. Angelefendant-Appellant. UNITED STATES, Appellee, v. Luisefendant-Appellant. UNITED STATES, Appellee, v. Rafael E.efendant-Appellant. UNITED STATES, Appellee, v. Victorefendant-Appellant. UNITED STATES, Appellee, v. Eddieefendant-Appellant. UNITED STATES, Appellee, v. Oscarefendant-Appellant. to 94-1255, 94-1325, 94-1631 and 94-1791. First Circuit |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit |
Teodoro Mendez-Lebron, by Appointment of the Court, for appellant Carlos Martinez-Molina.
Laura Maldonado-Rodriguez, Asst. Federal Public Defender, with whom Benicio Sanchez-Rivera, Federal Public Defender, was on brief, for appellant Luis Maldonado-Rodriguez.
Ramon Garcia, by Appointment of the Court, on brief, for appellant Alfonso Rodriguez-Resto.
Eric B. Singleton, for appellant Angel Rodriguez-Rodriguez.
Frank Pola, Jr., by Appointment of the Court, for appellant Angel Feliciano-Colon.
Manuel San Juan, by Appointment of the Court, for appellant Luis Maysonet-Machado.
Miriam Ramos-Grateroles, by Appointment of the Court, for appellant Rafael E. Velez-Matos.
Thomas R. Lincoln, by Appointment of the Court, with whom Law Offices of Thomas R. Lincoln, was on brief for appellant Victor Noble-Canales.
Maria H. Sandoval, for appellant Eddie Travieso-Ocasio.
Lydia Lizarribar-Masini, for appellant Oscar Pagan-Garcia.
Joseph C. Wyderko, Atty., Dept. of Justice, with whom Guillermo Gil, U.S. Atty., and Esther Castro-Schmidt, were on brief, for appellee.
Before TORRUELLA, Chief Judge, SELYA and CYR, Circuit Judges.
Appellants and four codefendants were arrested at the Barbosa Park in Santurce, Puerto Rico, after a Drug Enforcement Administration ("DEA") agent observed them participating in what appeared to be a drug transaction. The defendants moved to suppress evidence obtained pursuant to the arrest on the grounds that the arrests and subsequent searches were made without probable cause. The district court denied their motions, and the appellants entered conditional guilty pleas. Several appellants subsequently claimed that their guilty pleas were coerced and moved to withdraw them. The district court denied these motions as well.
Appellants now appeal the denial of the motions to suppress and motions to withdraw their guilty pleas. For the following reasons, we affirm in part and reverse in part.
We recite the facts adduced at a suppression hearing in the light most favorable to the district court's ruling to the extent that they derive support from the record and are not clearly erroneous. United States v. Sealey, 30 F.3d 7, 8 (1st Cir.1994).
On July 1, 1993, at approximately 2:30 p.m., DEA Agent Carlos Rivera ("Agent Rivera") was driving past Barbosa park when he noticed eight or nine men grouped around a concrete bench near one of the park's basketball courts. Seven or eight vehicles were parked in a row alongside the group of men. Appellant Luis Maldonado-Rodriguez ("Maldonado") was talking on a cellular phone and another man in the group had a cellular phone attached to his waist. Agent Rivera observed that the men were not dressed to play basketball and did not appear to have coolers, sodas, or alcoholic beverages. Agent Rivera testified that although he did not Agent Rivera parked his car in the adjoining parking lot and began to surveil the group through binoculars. Besides Maldonado, the group included appellants Alfonso Rodriguez-Resto ("Rodriguez-Resto"), Eddie Travieso-Ocasio ("Travieso"), Angel Feliciano-Colon ("Feliciano"), Victor Noble-Canales ("Noble"), Luis Maysonet-Machado ("Maysonet"), and Rafael E. Velez-Matos ("Velez"). Codefendants Enrique Romero-Carrion ("Romero"), Carlos Ruben Tejada-Morales ("Carlos Tejada"), Angel David Tejada-Morales ("Angel Tejada") were also present. 1
know any of the men by name, he had occasionally seen Maldonado near a drug distribution spot in a local housing project.
About ten minutes later, Agent Rivera saw a black Nissan Pathfinder drive up and park behind Maldonado's Red Suzuki jeep. The passenger of the black Pathfinder (the "Passenger") 2 exited the vehicle and conversed with Maldonado, Travieso, Feliciano, and Romero. The Passenger then removed a large handbag from the rear of the black Pathfinder and placed it between a white GMC van and a gray Mercury Cougar parked side-by-side next to the basketball court. The Passenger removed a second handbag from the black Pathfinder and placed it next to the first.
Agent Rivera then drove through the parking lot to get a closer look. As he passed by, he saw Maldonado, Travieso, Feliciano, Romero, and the Passenger gathered around the handbags. Agent Rivera testified that the Passenger was handling square-shaped packages that appeared to contain cocaine. Agent Rivera also noticed that the sliding door of the white GMC van was open, although he could not see anything inside.
After returning to his previous surveillance post, Agent Rivera saw Noble, Maysonet, Carlos Tejada, and Angel Tejada standing near the black Pathfinder. Agent Rivera also observed Travieso and Romero apparently arranging something in the rear of a black Pontiac station wagon. Agent Rivera did not observe them carry anything to the black station wagon. Several minutes later, the black Pathfinder left the parking lot. Agent Rivera then left his surveillance post and called his office for backup. Around the same time as Agent Rivera returned to his post, appellant Angel Rodriguez-Rodriguez ("Rodriguez- Rodriguez") arrived in a black Chevrolet Lumina, joined the group for three or four minutes, and then left.
Appellants Oscar Pagan-Garcia ("Pagan") and codefendant Roberto Maldonado-Torres ("Maldonado-Torres") arrived in a red Ford Mustang about five minutes later. Agent Rivera observed Travieso approach the Mustang and lean his body inside the vehicle as if he were looking for something. Travieso removed an object (which Agent Rivera could not identify) from the red Mustang and headed towards the gray Toyota Tercel. When he returned, he took a green handbag from the red Mustang and brought it to the rear of that vehicle. Pagan exited the driver's side of the red Mustang and opened its trunk. Agent Rivera testified that the trunk remained open for several seconds, but that he was unable to discern what happened to the green handbag. A few seconds later, Maldonado-Torres exited from the passenger's side of the red Mustang and accompanied Travieso and Pagan as they joined the group near the bench. Shortly thereafter, Rodriguez-Rodriguez returned to the parking lot in the black Lumina and rejoined the group.
Several minutes later, Rodriguez-Resto and Romero left the parking lot in the black Pontiac station wagon. By this time, several other DEA agents had joined Agent Rivera. Agent Rivera followed the black station wagon as it circled the park while the other agents continued to surveil the parking lot. Agent Rivera testified that Rodriguez-Resto and Romero appeared to him to be conducting countersurveillance in an effort to ferret out any "tails." 3 After Rodriguez-Resto and A few moments later, appellant Carlos Martinez-Molina ("Martinez") arrived in a black Toyota Supra and the six DEA Agents decided to intervene. The Agents, all clad in DEA jackets, identified themselves as law enforcement personnel and moved in to detain the group. Velez, Martinez, Romero, and Maldonado-Torres were all detained as they attempted to flee the scene. Martinez discarded an airplane ticket while fleeing. Agent Rivera also found an abandoned cellular phone nearby. The Agents also seized airline tickets from Feliciano, Pagan, Noble, Maysonet, Carlos Tejada, and Angel Tejada. All of the seized tickets had been issued under false names for a flight from Puerto Rico to New York later that afternoon. Rodriguez-Resto, Travieso, Noble, Pagan, Carlos Tejada, Angel Tejada, and Romero were all found to be carrying over $1,000 in cash.
Romero returned to the parking lot, Agent Rivera joined the other agents at his prior surveillance post.
Agent Rivera testified that after all fourteen men had been arrested, he observed suitcases in three of the vehicles: the red Suzuki, the white van, and the black station wagon. He also testified that twelve yellow, U.S.D.A. Agricultural inspection stickers were in plain view on the front seats and dashboards of six of the vehicles. Agent Rivera testified that, based on his experience in law enforcement, he knew that drug smugglers commonly used these stickers to bypass agricultural inspection at the airport. The Agents then searched all of the vehicles. Seven of the vehicles contained two suitcases each, for a total of fourteen suitcases. The Agents also found two handbags in the black station wagon, including the green handbag Travieso had removed from the red Mustang. The Agents found $3,000 in cash in the black Lumina and an unused airline ticket for a flight on the previous day in a Red Mazda Protege.
The men were all handcuffed and taken to the DEA offices. The Agents obtained a search warrant for the suitcases and handbags after a drug detection dog indicated the probable presence of narcotics in eleven of the suitcases and both handbags. Each of the eleven suitcases contained thirty to forty kilograms of cocaine. Neither handbag was found to contain cocaine.
The defendants all moved to suppress the evidence seized from their persons and vehicles. The district court...
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