U.S. v. Peoples
| Citation | 668 F.Supp.2d 1042 |
| Decision Date | 29 October 2009 |
| Docket Number | Case No. 1:09-CR-170. |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. Martell Lavar PEOPLES, Defendant. |
| Court | United States District Courts. 6th Circuit. United States District Court (Western District Michigan) |
Roman J. Kosiorek, Grand Rapids, MI, for Defendant.
Sean C. Maltbie, Andrew B. Birge, U.S. Attorney, Grand Rapids, MI, for Plaintiff.
Defendant Martell Peoples moves to suppress evidence (docket #20) discovered during a search that occurred before the Supreme Court published its opinion in Arizona v. Gant, ___ U.S. ___, 129 S.Ct. 1710, 1723, 173 L.Ed.2d 485 (2009). The Government concedes that the search did not meet the Gant standard, but it argues (docket # 23, 24) the search is valid anyway because police relied in good faith on established pre-Gant law in conducting the search. The operative facts are undisputed. The Court has conducted an evidentiary hearing, heard oral argument, and invited supplemental memoranda. The motion is ready for decision, and the Court grants Mr. Peoples' motion to suppress.
In the early morning of February 8, 2009, Officer Brian Dozeman of the Holland Police Department observed a Cadillac obstructing the road near an intersection. Officer Dozeman initiated a traffic stop on the car after it began to drive away from the intersection. Martell Lavar Peoples, whose license was suspended, was driving the car. Officer Dozeman arrested Mr. Peoples for driving on a suspended license, second offense, and placed him in handcuffs in the patrol car.
While Mr. Peoples was in the patrol car, Officer Dozeman and a second officer, Officer Reuschel, searched the passenger compartment of the vehicle. The officers found approximately $800 in cash wrapped in a napkin in the driver's side door lower pocket. The officers then requested assistance from a canine unit, which alerted to the middle console of the car at the floorboard. Under the carpet in that area, the canine officer, Officer Scott Doza, found a small bag of marijuana and some Zig Zag papers. Later in the search, the canine unit alerted "deep" in the back portion of the arm rest in the back seat, which indicated to Officer Doza that the alert pointed to the trunk. Officer Doza then searched the corresponding area of the trunk and discovered a white sock containing a Glock .40 caliber semiautomatic pistol with a loaded magazine.
A grand jury indicted Mr. Peoples as a felon in possession of a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). Mr. Peoples' motion seeks to suppress evidence of the handgun. The marijuana, zig zag papers and cash are not at issue on this motion.
On April 21, 2009, the Supreme Court held that a warrantless search of a car incident to arrest violates the Fourth Amendment unless "the arrestee is unsecured and within reaching distance of the passenger compartment at the time of the search," or "it is reasonable to believe evidence relevant to the crime of arrest might be found in the vehicle." Arizona v. Gant, ___ U.S. ___, 129 S.Ct. 1710, 1723, 173 L.Ed.2d 485 (2009). The Government concedes that in this case, the gun was discovered as the result of search incident to arrest that violated the Fourth Amendment under Gant. The Government further concedes that no other exception to the warrant requirement applies to make the search legal.
The Government contends, however, that the Fourth Amendment violation should not result in suppression of the gun because the officers acted in good-faith reliance on then-existing Sixth Circuit precedent. At the time of the search Sixth Circuit precedent permitted the officers to search the car incident to Mr. Peoples' arrest while Mr. Peoples was handcuffed in the police car. See, e.g., United States v. Nichols, 512 F.3d 789, 797 (6th Cir.2008); United States v. Patterson, 993 F.2d 121, 123-24 (6th Cir.1993). The Government contends that the good-faith exception to suppression, articulated in United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897, 104 S.Ct. 3405, 82 L.Ed.2d 677 (1984), and its progeny, excuses suppression in this case.
Whether the good-faith doctrine excuses suppression of evidence discovered during pre-Gant searches invalidated by Gant has generated a circuit split. The Tenth Circuit recently held that the good-faith exception includes an officer's reliance on "the settled case law of a United States Court of Appeals . . . later rendered unconstitutional by a Supreme Court decision," and applied that rule to excuse suppression of evidence discovered during a search later invalidated by Gant. United States v. McCane, 573 F.3d 1037, 1044 (10th Cir.2009). The Ninth Circuit, faced with an almost identical factual scenario, held to the contrary. It found the goodfaith exception to be in tension with the rules regarding retroactive application of a new rule to cases on direct review, and it concluded that it could "not apply the good faith exception [to a search invalidated by Gant] without creating an untenable tension within existing Supreme Court law." United States v. Gonzalez, 578 F.3d 1130, 1133 (9th Cir.2009). Accordingly, the issue has been analyzed from fundamentally different perspectives by the two Circuits that have considered it. This Court does not agree that the Supreme Court's retroactivity rules prohibit applying the goodfaith doctrine to excuse suppression in this case, but the Court still grants Mr. Peoples' motion to suppress because goodfaith reliance upon case law cannot excuse suppression under the current formulation and application of the good-faith doctrine. Accordingly, Mr. Peoples' motion to suppress the evidence must be granted.
Gant's holding must undoubtedly apply to all cases pending on direct review. See Griffith v. Kentucky, 479 U.S. 314, 328, 107 S.Ct. 708, 93 L.Ed.2d 649 (1987); United States v. Johnson, 457 U.S. 537, 562, 102 S.Ct. 2579, 73 L.Ed.2d 202 (1982). In Gant, the Supreme Court held that "[p]olice may search a vehicle incident to a recent occupant's arrest only if the arrestee is within reaching distance of the passenger compartment at the time of the search or it is reasonable to believe the vehicle contains evidence of the offense of arrest." 129 S.Ct. at 1723. It further held that a search incident to arrest is unreasonable if neither of these circumstances exists. Id. at 1723-24. Because it concluded that "[t]he Arizona Supreme Court correctly held that this case involved an unreasonable search," the Court affirmed "the judgment of the State Supreme Court." Id. at 1724. Accordingly, the search here unquestionably violated the Fourth Amendment under Gant, as even the Government concedes, and as this Court now holds. The remaining question, however, is whether the admitted Fourth Amendment violation warrants application of the exclusionary rule.
In analyzing the precise contours of Gant's holding, the Ninth Circuit concluded that "the Supreme Court upheld in full the decision of the Arizona Supreme Court, which not only found the search at issue unconstitutional, but ordered the suppression of the evidence found as a result of the unconstitutional search." Gonzalez, 578 F.3d at 1132 (citing Gant, 129 S.Ct. at 1724). It certainly is true that the Arizona Supreme Court ordered suppression of the evidence in the state-court case underlying Gant. State v. Gant, 216 Ariz. 1, 162 P.3d 640, 641 (2007). In State v. Gant, the Arizona Supreme Court considered as a matter of first impression "whether the search incident to arrest exception to the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement permits the warrantless search of an arrestee's car when the scene is secure and the arrestee is handcuffed, seated in the back of a patrol car, and under the supervision of a police officer." Id. The Arizona Supreme Court held that the warrantless search "was not justified by the search incident to arrest exception to the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement," and it concluded that "[t]he evidence obtained as a result of the unlawful search must therefore be suppressed." Id. at 646. However, the Arizona Supreme Court did not consider whether the good-faith exception to suppression applied to the case before it. See id.
The Supreme Court of the United States also did not consider whether the goodfaith exception to suppression applied to the case. Arizona petitioned for certiorari, and the Supreme Court granted certiorari on the following question: "Does the Fourth Amendment require law enforcement officers to demonstrate a threat to their safety or a need to preserve evidence related to the crime of arrest in order to justify a warrantless vehicular search incident to arrest conducted after the vehicle's recent occupants have been arrested and secured?" Arizona v. Gant, ___ U.S. ___, 128 S.Ct. 1443, 170 L.Ed.2d 274 (2008). The Court did not grant certiorari on any suppression issue. See id. Nor did the Court discuss suppression in any context in its opinion. See 129 S.Ct. at 1724. Review of the parties' briefs to the Supreme Court further shows that the parties made no arguments to the Court regarding the good-faith exception to suppression.
The mere fact that the Court affirmed the Arizona Supreme Court does not make the entire holding of the Arizona Supreme Court the holding in Gant. Instead, the Court's holding is limited to the questions on which it granted certiorari. S.Ct. R. 14.1(a); Yee v. Escondido, Cal., 503 U.S. 519, 535-36, 112 S.Ct. 1522, 118 L.Ed.2d 153 (1992). Under Supreme Court Rule 14.1(a), "[o]nly the questions set out in the petition [for certiorari], or fairly included therein, will be considered by the Court." The Court treats the Rule as central to effective advocacy in and decision making by the Supreme Court. Yee, 503 U.S. at 535-36, 112 S.Ct. 1522. Accordingly, the Court considered in Gant only the question on which it granted certiorari, see id., which was...
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