U.S. v. Rodriguez-Arreola

• Decision Date: 12 June 2001
• Docket Number: RODRIGUEZ-ARREOL,APPELLEE,No. 01-1034,01-1034
• Citation: 270 F.3d 611
• Parties: (8th Cir. 2001) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, APPELLANT, v. MANUEL Submitted:
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 611

270 F.3d 611 (8th Cir. 2001)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, APPELLANT, v. MANUEL RODRIGUEZ-ARREOLA, APPELLEE.

No. 01-1034

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT

Submitted: June 12, 2001

Filed: October 12, 2001

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of South Dakota. [Copyrighted Material Omitted] Before Bowman and Heaney, Circuit Judges, and Kopf,¹ District Judge.

Bowman, Circuit Judge

During the routine stop of a vehicle for speeding, a South Dakota highway patrol officer discovered that Manuel Rodriguez-Arreola, a passenger in the vehicle, was an illegal alien. Rodriguez was detained and later charged under 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a) (Supp. IV 1998) with being an illegal alien present in the United States after deportation.² Rodriguez filed a motion to suppress all evidence obtained during the traffic stop, arguing that his status as an illegal alien was discovered through questioning that violated his Fourth Amendment rights. The District Court granted Rodriguez's motion to suppress and the government appeals. We reverse.

I.

While traveling west on I-90, South Dakota Highway Patrol Officer Christopher Koltz noticed a vehicle approaching from the opposite direction. His radar recorded the vehicle's speed at eighty-six miles per hour--eleven miles per hour in excess of the posted speed limit. Trooper Koltz then crossed the interstate median and accelerated in order to overtake and stop the speeding vehicle.

Trooper Koltz activated a video recording system before exiting his patrol car, and all events and conversations during the stop were recorded. He approached the stopped vehicle and requested that the driver,Estaban Molina, provide his license and registration. He informed Molina that he had been stopped for speeding and instructed him to step out of the vehicle and to take a seat in the front of his patrol car. Trooper Koltz showed Molina the speed that the radar had recorded and informed Molina that he was going to issue him a ticket. While preparing the ticket, Trooper Koltz asked Molina a variety of general questions, after which he asked Molina whether he was a United States citizen or a resident alien. Molina first answered that he was neither a United States citizen nor a resident alien. In order to confirm Molina's admission that he was an illegal alien, Trooper Koltz asked Molina whether he had a green card. After a somewhat confusing conversation between Molina and Trooper Koltz, Molina was able to convey that he was a legal alien but that he had left his green card at home. Trooper Koltz then asked Molina whether his passenger was a legal alien and had a green card. Molina answered no.³

Trooper Koltz finished writing the ticket and had Molina sign it. He told Molina that he was going to run a check of his license over the radio and that while waiting on the results, he would walk his dog around the car to make sure there were no drugs.⁴ Trooper Koltz instructed Molina to step out of his patrol car and had him stand on the shoulder of the road. Trooper Koltz proceeded to the vehicle and motioned for Rodriguez, the only passenger in the vehicle, to exit. After Rodriguez exited the vehicle, Trooper Koltz asked him whether he was a legal resident. He answered no.⁵ Trooper Koltz further inquired as to whether Rodriguez possessed a green card. In response, Rodriguez produced only a Washington State identification card with his name on it, but not a green card.⁶ See United States v. Rodriguez-Arreola, No. CR 00-40071, at 17 (D.S.D. Nov. 6, 2000) (transcript of motion hearing).

Trooper Koltz then had Rodriguez join Molina on the shoulder of the road so that he could use his canine to search the vehicle. After his search of the vehicle failed to discover any drugs,⁷ Trooper Koltz put his canine back in the patrol car and proceeded to perform a radio check on Rodriguez. Through dispatch, he also contacted an Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) agent to assist in an investigation of the immigration status of Molina and Rodriguez, whom he suspected to be illegal aliens due to their responses. After providing the INS agent with the full names of Molina and Rodriguez, the agent asked Trooper Koltz follow-up questions regarding Rodriguez. Due to his inability to converse with Rodriguez in Spanish, Trooper Koltz allowed the INS agent to talk directly with Rodriguez. Following his check of the identities of Molina and Rodriguez, the INS agent informed Trooper Koltz that while Molina was a legal alien, Rodriguez was not. After the radio check on Molina failed to disclose any outstanding warrants, Trooper Koltz gave Molinathe speeding ticket and allowed him to go. At the request of the INS, Trooper Koltz placed Rodriguez into custody and took him to the nearest jail facility for processing by the INS. Viewing the immigration detention as part of an administrative procedure, neither the INS nor Trooper Koltz informed Rodriguez of his Miranda rights during the traffic stop.⁸

Prior to trial, Rodriguez moved to suppress "all evidence and statements obtained" during the traffic stop, particularly evidence and statements pertaining to his identity. United States v. Rodriguez-Arreola, No. CR00-40071 (D.S.D. Oct. 24, 2000) (Motion to Suppress). He argued that the evidence and statements were obtained through an illegal search and seizure that violated his Fourth Amendment rights. The Magistrate Judge held a hearing and subsequently recommended that the District Court grant Rodriguez's motion. See United States v. Rodriguez-Arreola, No. it again alerted. Trooper Koltz then proceeded to search the interior by hand but was unable to locate any drugs. See Rodriguez-Arreola, No. CR 00-40071, at 19-20 (transcript of motion hearing). CR 00-40071, at 19 (D.S.D. Nov. 21, 2000) (Magistrate Judge's Report and Recommendation). The District Court adopted the Magistrate Judge's Report and Recommendation and granted the motion to suppress based on its conclusion that Rodriguez's Fourth Amendment rights were violated. The government filed an interlocutory appeal challenging the ruling pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3731 (1994).

We review the District Court's findings of fact for clear error. United States v. Stephenson, 924 F.2d 753, 758 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 502 U.S. 813, 916 (1991). We review de novo, however, the District Court's ultimate legal conclusions drawn from the facts. United States v. Tavares, 223 F.3d 911, 914 (8th Cir. 2000). We will not reverse the District Court's decision regarding a motion to suppress "unless it is not supported by substantial evidence on the record; it reflects an erroneous view of the applicable law; or upon review of the entire record, the appellate court is left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been made." United States v. Layne, 973 F.2d 1417, 1420 (8th Cir. 1992), cert. denied, 506 U.S. 1066 (1993).

II.

Initially we note that two aspects of the stop are not in dispute. First, Rodriguez does not argue that the initial stop of the vehicle for speeding was improper. Second, the government does not challenge the suppression of the incriminating statements Rodriguez made during his telephone conversation with the INS agent from Trooper Koltz's patrol car.⁹ The District Court's suppression of all other evidence obtained during the stop appears to be in dispute.

The government argues that Trooper Koltz did not violate the Fourth Amendment rights of Rodriguez. The government contends that the questions posed to Molina concerning his alienage were within the scope of the stop because they were based on a reasonable suspicion by Trooper Koltz.¹⁰ The government further contends that even if Trooper Koltz's questions to Molina constituted an unconstitutional search and seizure, the questions only violated Molina's Fourth Amendment rights--a violation that Rodriguez does not have standing to assert. After Molina stated that the passenger in his vehicle did not have a green card, the government argues that Trooper Koltz had reasonable suspicion to ask Rodriguez about his citizenship status. Finally, the government argues that even if Trooper Koltz's questions constituted a Fourth Amendment violation, Rodriguez's identity is not suppressible as a matter of law.

Rodriguez contends that the questions posed by Trooper Koltz about alienage were outside the appropriate scope of the traffic stop and impermissibly extended the stop beyond its proper duration. He argues that these questions by Trooper Koltz violated his Fourth Amendment right to be free from illegal searches and seizures. Rodriguez also contends that evidence of his identity is equally as suppressible as the other evidence obtained during the stop. Therefore, he argues that all evidence obtained during the traffic stop should be excluded as the poisonous fruit of an unconstitutional search and seizure.

A.

We first dispose of Rodriguez's claim that his Fourth Amendment rights were violated. In asserting that Trooper Koltz performed an illegal search and seizure during the course of the traffic stop, Rodriguez relies on the questions asked to Molina as a basis for establishing a violation of his rights. Even if Trooper Koltz violated Molina's Fourth Amendment rights--a question not before us--Rodriguez cannot use the violation of another individual's rights as the basis for his own Fourth Amendment challenge. See United States v. Payner, 447 U.S. 727, 731 (1980) ("[A] court may not exclude evidence under the Fourth Amendment unless it finds that an unlawful search or seizure violated the defendant's own constitutional rights."). In order for Rodriguez to establish a claim based on the questions asked to Molina, he must show that the "challenged conduct invaded his legitimate expectation of privacy rather than that of a third party." Id. Rodriguez has no legitimate expectation of privacy in Molina's knowledge that Rodriguez was illegally present in the United States,...