U.S. v. Meier
| Decision Date | 16 July 1979 |
| Docket Number | No. 78-1037,78-1037 |
| Citation | 602 F.2d 253 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Paul William MEIER, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit |
Lawrence A. Bobbitt, III, Asst. U. S. Atty., Cheyenne, Wyo. (Charles E. Graves, U. S. Atty., Cheyenne, Wyo., on the brief), for plaintiff-appellee.
Lawrence B. Hartnett, Jackson, Wyo., for defendant-appellant.
Before McWILLIAMS, DOYLE and McKAY, Circuit Judges.
This is a search and seizure case. Paul W. Meier was convicted by a jury of unlawfully possessing with an intent to distribute marijuana, a Schedule I non-narcotic controlled substance, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1). The marijuana upon which the prosecution was based was taken during a search of Meier's automobile from a closed backpack located within the vehicle. Prior to trial, Meier moved to suppress the use at trial of the marijuana on the ground that the search of his automobile was without probable cause and under non-exigent circumstances. * This motion was denied. Meier later renewed his motion to suppress, alleging that his arrest was unlawful and that the ensuing search of his automobile was tainted by such illegality. Whether this renewed motion was ever formally acted upon is unclear, though presumably it was denied. In any event, throughout the trial of this matter Meier continued to object to the introduction of the marijuana found in the backpack. On appeal, the principal matter urged as ground for reversal concerns the legality of the search of Meier's backpack and the use at trial of the marijuana found therein.
Meier drove his automobile off the road while driving up Signal Mountain Summit Road in Grand Teton National Park at about three o'clock a. m. on July 30, 1977. The car apparently turned over at least once and landed upright on its wheels. Some two hours later a United States Park Ranger while patrolling the Signal Mountain Road came upon the scene. The Ranger noticed debris and personal belongings scattered on the highway and saw Meier's automobile in a ditch eighteen feet below the road surface and some sixty feet from the highway proper.
When the Ranger first saw Meier the latter was standing some five feet to the west of his vehicle. The Park Ranger inquired as to possible injuries, and during the course of such inquiry became suspicious that Meier was under the influence of intoxicating liquor. A field sobriety test confirmed the Ranger's suspicion. Meier volunteered that he had been drinking and that he had driven the car off the highway in order to avoid an oncoming vehicle. The Park Ranger thereupon arrested Meier for driving in a National Park while intoxicated. At this juncture there was nothing to indicate to the Park Ranger that Meier was involved in any way with marijuana.
After arresting Meier, the Park Ranger had Meier empty his pockets. While emptying his pockets, Meier threw into a clump of nearby bushes a canister which contained marijuana butts. Meier also attempted to throw away a brown pill vial which contained approximately twenty-five cross-top tablets believed at the time to be amphetamine, but he was restrained from doing so by the Ranger. Meier had on his person approximately $400 in many different pockets in many different denominations. Also found at the scene of the accident was a black plastic bottle smelling strongly of marijuana which was referred to as a "power hitter." This is used to smoke marijuana butts.
Meier was then taken to jail, and his vehicle was towed to a storage warehouse in Moose, Wyoming. The vehicle was later searched, without a warrant, and during the search of the vehicle, the Ranger found inside the closed backpack the marijuana which formed the basis for the present prosecution.
For the purposes of this opinion we shall assume that Meier's arrest was lawful, and that the ensuing search of his automobile, without a warrant, was within the so-called "automobile...
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