U.S. v. McEachern, 81-5118
| Decision Date | 15 April 1982 |
| Docket Number | No. 81-5118,81-5118 |
| Citation | 10 Fed.R.Evid.Serv. 623,675 F.2d 618 |
| Parties | 10 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 623 UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Jimmy F. McEACHERN, * Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
Joseph Dyer, Arlington, Va. (Siciliano, Ellis, Sheridan & Dyer, Arlington, Va., on brief), for appellant.
Sidney M. Glazer, Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C. (Justin W. Williams, U. S. Atty., Nash W. Schott, Asst. U. S. Atty., Alexandria, Va., on brief), for appellee.
Before WINTER, Chief Judge, and PHILLIPS and MURNAGHAN, Circuit Judges.
On February 17, 1981, a four count indictment was returned in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia charging Jimmie F. McEachern with making false statements in the acquisition of firearms by using a driver's license with a Virginia address at which he did not live, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(a)(6) and 924(a). 1 At a pre-trial hearing, the district court denied McEachern's motion to suppress all evidence obtained from his arrest on January 9, 1981. The case was then tried before a jury which found McEachern guilty on all counts. He was sentenced to concurrent terms of two years on each of the four counts.
McEachern appeals his convictions raising two basic contentions. First, McEachern argues that the trial judge erred in admitting the evidence against him obtained during a warrantless search on the day of his arrest because the arrest was improper and no exceptions to the warrant requirement apply. Second, McEachern argues that the court erred by allowing into evidence irrelevant and highly prejudicial evidence.
In order to determine whether the evidence seized after McEachern's arrest on January 9, 1981 was properly admitted, we must first determine whether the arrest itself was proper.
In mid-November of 1980, Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Agent Pedersen was, at the request of the FBI, investigating whether McEachern had purchased any weapons from gun dealers in Northern Virginia. On November 17, 1980, while reviewing the records at the Potomac Arms Corporation in Alexandria, Virginia, Pedersen came across ATF forms which showed that Jimmie McEachern had purchased arms from Potomac four times in 1979. Three of the forms listed McEachern's address as 9702 Woodwind Way, Vienna, Virginia. (The fourth form had stated "9807 Woodwind Way" instead of 9702.) The information on the form also indicated that McEachern was born in Goldsboro, North Carolina in 1952. The forms listed his height as 5' 11 but his weight varied on the different forms in the range of 133-145 pounds. The form also noted that the requisite positive identification furnished by McEachern was a Virginia driver's license, # 237-90-9846.
Pedersen went to 9702 Woodwind Way and talked to the owner who said he had never heard of Jimmie McEachern. The owner stated that he had owned the property since January, 1978 and had lived there at all times except from March to June, 1978 when he had rented the property to a person named Haseeb. Pedersen next checked the records of the corporation which had handled the rental of the property. They showed that the property had been rented to Nurudeen Haseeb and his wife and child. The emergency contact on the lease agreement was Clara Summers, 1918 18th Street, N. W., Washington, D. C. Checking DMV records in Washington, Pedersen found that McEachern used 1918 18th Street as his address. Pedersen tried to call the number for Clara Summers given on the lease agreement but there was no answer; he drove by the address and found it was an empty building.
In December, 1980, Pedersen ran a National Crime Information Center (NCIC) check on Nurudeen Haseeb, black male with a general physical description. The check "hit" and indicated that Nurudeen Haseeb was also known as Ronnie McEachern. The physical description for Nurudeen Haseeb was virtually identical to the description of Jimmie McEachern on the ATF forms. The information for Ronnie McEachern, however, listed two 1949 birthdates, in contrast to the date in 1952 reported on the ATF forms for Jimmie McEachern. Nurudeen Haseeb (a/k/a Ronnie McEachern) was wanted on a fugitive warrant from Union County, New Jersey for weapons and narcotics violations in 1978. Pedersen then requested all the information available on Ronnie McEachern from New Jersey authorities. The information indicated that Ronnie McEachern was 5 feet, 11 inches, 145 pounds and born in Goldsboro, North Carolina. The New Jersey officials also forwarded a picture of Ronnie McEachern.
After conducting further investigation in Washington, D. C., Pedersen found that the D. C. Vendor's License Bureau had an application for Jimmie McEachern on file, listing his address as 1918 18th Street. It also stated he was 5 feet, 11 inches tall, 140 pounds and born in 1952 in Goldsboro, North Carolina. An attached photograph was eventually delivered to Pedersen. After comparing the photograph from the vendor's license application and the New Jersey photograph, Pedersen concluded that Jimmie McEachern, Nurudeen Haseeb and Ronnie McEachern were the same person. 2
Pedersen contacted the FBI and told them about the information he had obtained during the course of his investigation, including his belief that Jimmie McEachern and Ronnie McEachern were the same person. He also asked the FBI whether they wanted to pursue an interstate flight warrant. Such a warrant was issued on January 5, 1981 and executed on January 9, 1981.
At 2:15 in the afternoon of January 9, the FBI, with the aid of the ATF, arrested Jimmie McEachern on the interstate flight warrant. When he was stopped, FBI Agent Buehler asked if he was Jimmie McEachern. After appellant responded that he was, he was arrested. 3 McEachern was then transported to the FBI field office about 30 minutes away. Upon arrival at the FBI field office, McEachern demanded an attorney and refused to identify himself any further than by admitting he was "McEachern."
FBI Agent Buehler asked McEachern to remove the things from his pockets. McEachern produced a wallet which was searched and inventoried by the FBI. At that time, Pedersen noticed that McEachern had a Virginia driver's license which had the same information Pedersen had found on the ATF forms. In addition, McEachern had a Dart Drug check cashing card. Both the license and the card were seized by Agent Pedersen. Pedersen took the seized cards and made out an arrest warrant application for firearms violations against Jimmie McEachern. While Pedersen was absent, Jimmie McEachern was fingerprinted; around 3:30 P.M., his prints were compared with Ronnie McEachern's prints which had been obtained from New Jersey. They did not match. McEachern, however, was not released.
Later that evening, a magistrate issued an arrest warrant for Jimmie McEachern based on Pedersen's application; Pedersen served the warrant at about 8:30. Shortly thereafter, handwriting exemplars were obtained. Since no magistrate was available until the next morning, McEachern was held at the Central Cell Block in the District of Columbia until 11:00 the next day when he appeared before the magistrate.
The defense argues that the arrest was improper and that, accordingly, all the evidence derived from the arrest should be suppressed. The arresting officers thought that Ronnie McEachern, Jimmie McEachern and Nurudeen Haseeb were one and the same individual. In actual point of fact they were not. Ronnie McEachern (Nurudeen Haseeb) was Jimmie McEachern's brother.
If the police have a valid arrest warrant for one person and they reasonably and in good faith arrest another, the Supreme Court has ruled that the arrest of the "wrong person" is proper. Hill v. California, 401 U.S. 797, 802-04, 91 S.Ct. 1106, 1110, 28 L.Ed.2d 484 (1971). Since there can be no real question that probable cause existed to arrest Ronnie McEachern on the interstate flight warrant, the only issue is whether the agents' mistaken belief that Ronnie McEachern and Jimmie McEachern were one and the same person was reasonable and in good faith.
The defense, relying heavily on the fact that the agents knew from the information they had gathered before the arrest that Ronnie's records indicated a different social security number and a different birthdate than those for Jimmie, asserts that the agents' mistaken belief was unreasonable. In addition, even though the agents knew Ronnie was married and had a child, they made no attempt to ascertain whether Jimmie had any brothers or whether he had a family. Although unquestionably factors, the agents' knowledge that Ronnie had a different birthdate and different social security number is not determinative.
The agents had marshalled the following information which we are satisfied reasonably led them to conclude that Jimmie McEachern, Ronnie McEachern and Nurudeen Haseeb were one and the same person. Nurudeen Haseeb rented a home on 9702 Woodwind Way, the same address found on Jimmie McEachern's Virginia driver's license and on the ATF forms. Jimmie listed the same D. C. address as his home address as the address which Nurudeen had given as an emergency contact on the lease agreement. The physical descriptions the agents had obtained of Ronnie and Jimmie closely matched. Their birthplace was the same. Moreover, after three different agents compared pictures of Ronnie and Jimmie, all of them were of the opinion that the photographs depicted the same person. Finally, McEachern stated to Pedersen that he was "Haseeb," the same Muslim surname under which Ronnie McEachern rented the Woodwind Way home. 4
Given the existence of strong indicia that Ronnie and Jimmie were the same person, the agents' conclusion to this effect, not shown to have been pretextual, 5 was eminently reasonable, notwithstanding the agents' information that the two had different birthdates and social...
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