United States v. Brown

• Docket Number: 3:20-CR-262
• Decision Date: 16 June 2023
• Parties: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, v. TYLEE BROWN, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Middle District of Pennsylvania

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, v. TYLEE BROWN, Defendant.

No. 3:20-CR-262

United States District Court, M.D. Pennsylvania

June 16, 2023

MEMORANDUM OPINION

ROBERT D. MARIANI UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

I. INTRODUCTION

Defendant Tylee Brown was arrested on April 30,2020, and charged with numerous offenses related to methamphetamine trafficking on October 13,2020. (Doc. 1.) Presently before the Court is Defendant's Motion to Suppress Evidence obtained by law enforcement on the day of his arrest in connection with those charges. (Doc. 113.) Defendant's Motion seeks to suppress both physical evidence obtained from a search of the vehicle in which Defendant was, at one point, a passenger, and statements Defendant made on that date. (See id.)

Defendant filed his Motion to Suppress on December 19,2022. (Id.) Defendant alleges that his seizure, the seizure of the vehicle in which he was a passenger, and the search of that vehicle were all illegal under the Fourth Amendment, and all evidence subsequently seized must be suppressed as fruits of the illegal conduct. (Id. at 1-2.) The Government filed its brief in opposition on February 10,2023 (Doc. 121), and a supplemental brief in opposition on March 16,2023 (Doc. 125). Defendant filed his reply on April 6,2023. (Doc. 127.)

This Court held an evidentiary hearing (the “Hearing”) on April 6,2023. Thereafter, the parties each filed post-hearing briefs on May 25,2023. (Docs. 139,140.) The motion is now ripe for disposition.

For the reasons that follow, the Court concludes that Defendant's motion is properly granted in part and denied in part.

II. FACTUAL BACKGROUND^[1]

The event giving rise to this action began on the afternoon of April 30,2020, when Pennsylvania State Police (“PSP”) Corporal Carl Ives and Trooper Kyle Hnat were investigating the theft of vehicles, snow mobiles, trailers, and other items in Susquehanna County. (N.T. at 4.)^[2] Specifically, Ives testified at the Hearing that he and Hnat had received information that stolen vehicles were located on the property of Clifford Johnson, at 846 Lake Roy Road, Franklin Township, Susquehanna County. (Id. at 4-5.)

The Johnson property is a large, secluded lot in an “extremely rural” area. (Id. at 5.) The property has no traditional residence, but it has a large, detached garage and three campers. (Id. at 9.) The property is accessible only via a long, L-shaped, dirt and gravel driveway. (Id.) Trees surround the property, but on this cold and rainy day in April, the trees were barren and the driveway was muddy. (Id. at 5-6.)

Ives testified that from Lake Roy Road, he and Hnat could see a trailer on the Johnson property. (Id. at 7.) The trailer had a tarp over it, and “fluorescent green skis sticking out underneath the tarp.” (Id. at 5.) According to Ives, one of the investigations he and Hnat were “actively working” at that time involved a stolen trailer carrying two Arctic Cat snowmobiles with fluorescent green skis. (Id. at 7-8.)

Because Ives and Hnat were in plain clothes and driving an undercover vehicle, they contacted the PSP Gibson Barracks and requested a uniformed officer to accompany them to “makeO contact” at the Johnson property.^[3] (Id. at 8.) Soon after, Sergeant Thomas Horan and Trooper Robert McGrath arrived, both in uniform and driving a marked PSP vehicle. (Id.) At about 1:45 p.m., the four Troopers drove on to the property. (Id. at 9.)

Looking for Johnson, the Troopers first approached the garage, located at the top of the long driveway. (Id. at 10.) The garage door was partially open, and they saw a vehicle with a drop light “on the driver's side door, as if somebody was working on that vehicle.” (Id.) The Troopers announced their presence but found no one. (Id.) Next, they knocked on the doors of the three campers on the property, but did not find Johnson. (Id. at 10-11.)

Around the same time that the Troopers arrived, a dark Volkswagen sedan pulled up the driveway, and a male passenger exited the vehicle. (Id. at 11.) The Troopers spoke with the man, who identified himself as Edwin Blaisure. (Id.) Blaisure indicated to the Troopers that he was also there to see Johnson, but that he did not know where Johnson was. (Id.) The Troopers ran Blaisure's name through the National Crime Information Center (“NCIC”) database and learned he had an active arrest warrant in Broome County, New York. (Id.) Ives testified that Blaisure was thereafter “place[d]... in custody” (id.)] surveillance video indicates he was handcuffed but remained at the scene. (See Gov't Ex. 21.)

Ives testified that another vehicle then arrived on the property:

Q. And as Mr. [Blaisure] is taken into custody, did another vehicle appear on the property?

A. It did.

A. As we placed Mr. [Blaisure] in custody, it was myself, Trooper Hnat, Sergeant Horan and Trooper McGrath. As we placed him in custody, we were standing in the driveway in the down-pouring rain, and at that time, we noticed a vehicle approaching, coming traveling up the driveway.

Q. So can you tell us about this vehicle?

A. Sure. So as we are standing at the top of the driveway, we notice a vehicle approaching, traveling up the driveway, it turns at the L, at the corner of the driveway, and starts proceeding towards our direction, at which time, it abruptly stops, I'm going to estimate, approximately, 50 yards or so from our location. It makes an abrupt stop, it begins to back up, and then the vehicle becomes stuck along the roadway.

Q. Let me stop you there. Did you notice anything about the vehicle, in particular?

A. It was a dark vehicle, we couldn't see inside the vehicle, extremely dark, the windows were tinted.

Q. Had you located Clifford Johnson yet?

A. No, we have not.

Q. Could you tell who was in this vehicle?

A. No, we had no idea who was inside the vehicle.

Q. So what happens to the vehicle?

A. The vehicle becomes stuck, as it begins to back up, and it appeared that it was attempting to do a three-point turn to turn around to exit the driveway. In doing so, the rear of the vehicle came off the gravel roadway and became stuck.

(Id. at 12-13.) Ives testified further,

A.... [F]rom where I was standing in the driveway, I could see that the front passenger had exited the vehicle and made his way to rear of the vehicle. In the meantime, as I see that, Trooper McGrath and Trooper Hnat enter the vehicle, enter Trooper McGrath's vehicle, which is facing the garage, at this point. They enter their vehicle, they turn it around, and they travel down the driveway towards the black, it was a black Chrysler, I believe, 300 that was later identified as being stuck. As they approached the vehicle, I could see the person that was attempting to push the vehicle now flee into the wooded area.

Q. From what side of the vehicle did this person exit the vehicle?

A. He exited the front passenger side of the vehicle. Q. What did he attempt to do to the car itself?

A. Push it from the rear of the vehicle.

Q. Was he successful?

A. No, no, he was not.

Q. What did he then do?

A. He then fled into the wooded area.

(Id. at 13-14.) Ives' testimony is corroborated by video captured by a surveillance camera on the Johnson property. (See Gov't Ex. 21.)

McGrath testified that when he saw the Chrysler get stuck in the driveway, he and Hnat entered an unmarked PSP vehicle to approach it. (Id. at 56.)^[4] He explained why:

Due to the area we were at, due to the totality of the circumstances, given my knowledge of it being an area involved in high crime,^[5] the remote location and rural location of this property, there's not common traffic that comes and goes. This is a specific area that one would need to be familiar with to even come across.

In my knowledge, that coupled with the investigation I was assisting on, already having one individual in custody, and then seeing this vehicle approach, I then entered the State Police vehicle and approached that vehicle to make further contact.

(W.at57.)

McGrath and Hnat drove toward the Chrysler and parked their vehicle parallel to it. (Gov't Ex. 21 at 0:45-1:13.) When McGrath reached the vehicle, he “briefly engaged” with the driver before he looked up and “observed a figure a distance out into the woods.” (Id. at 58.) The testimony suggests that this was the first time McGrath and Hnat had noticed this individual. Next, both Troopers “entered the woods and began making verbal commands for this individual to stop.” (Id.) Specifically, McGrath was “identifying [him]self as a State Trooper and ordering him to stop and to come out." (Id. at 59.) McGrath estimated that he went between 100 and 200 yards into the woods before apprehending the individual without resistance. (Id. at 59.) “And upon making contact with the individual, he was placed into handcuffs, asked who he was, and why he ran.” (Id. at 58.)^[6] Neither Trooper read the individual his Miranda rights at this time.

The individual, later identified as the Defendant, responded that “he ran because he had marijuana on him that he told [McGrath] he had discarded into the woods, and that he was, also, on parole and didn't want to get in trouble and violate his parole for possessing the marijuana.” (Id. at 59-60.) He indicated that he had thrown the marijuana in the woods, though the Troopers were not able to locate any. (Id. at 60.) McGrath then escorted Defendant, still handcuffed, out of the woods. (Id. at 60-61.)

Meanwhile Ives and Horan had approached the Chrysler. (Id. at 16.) Ives testified that it was a black Chrysler 300 with “heavily tinted windows.” (Id.) Ives approached the driver, “identified [him]self as a Pennsylvania State Trooper and asked him what he was doing and what was going on.” (Id.) Ives asked the driver for identification, but the driver had none; Ives then...