United States v. Castle, Cr. No. 697-55.

• Decision Date: 13 October 1955
• Docket Number: Cr. No. 697-55.
• Citation: 138 F. Supp. 436
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America v. James CASTLE.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Columbia

138 F. Supp. 436

UNITED STATES of America v. James CASTLE.

Cr. No. 697-55.

United States District Court District of Columbia.

October 13, 1955.

Thomas Flannery, Asst. U. S. Atty., Washington, D. C., for plaintiff.

Daniel I. Sherry, Washington, D. C., for defendant.

YOUNGDAHL, District Judge.

Defendant, James Castle, was found guilty on September 6, 1955, on a two-count indictment charging possession and concealment of narcotic drugs.

Defendant has moved for a judgment of acquittal notwithstanding the verdict and, in the alternative, for a new trial on the ground that the Court should not have permitted in evidence certain property seized from him by police officers.

About 12.30 a. m. on May 27, 1955, defendant was arrested by two officers of the Metropolitan Police Department's Narcotics Squad in his Sixth Street, third floor apartment. The evidence indicates that one of the officers had received a tip from an informant over the telephone; that the officers then spoke with the informant in their police car while parked at Fifth and K Streets, N. W., and were told that the defendant, who resided on Sixth Street, was actively engaged in selling narcotic drugs. The informant said that the drugs could be found in an off-color white plastic vial which defendant kept either on the mantel in his apartment or on his person in a pocket.

This conversation took place between the hours of 11:30 p. m. and 12:00 midnight. The officers immediately contacted other members of the narcotic squad, gave them the information received, and asked if they would go along to defendant's apartment.

The two officers contacted went to the apartment and took up observation posts to watch the front and rear windows, while the two officers who originally received the tip went up to defendant's apartment. One of them knocked on the door, and defendant asked who was there. The police officer said, "Hat, man," (Hat being the name of a drug addict known to the officer). The defendant asked from within, "Is that you, Hat?" "Yes, man, open this door," replied the officer. Defendant opened the door about halfway. The officer had his wallet open, exposing his badge, and said "police."

In the words of the officer, "Immediately upon seeing me and my badge, he threw an object behind the door. (This was later identified as a change purse). He then reached into his bathrobe pocket. When he reached into his bathrobe pocket, I didn't know what he reached for, so I reached out and put my arms around his arms and held them to his side, and as I did that, Officer Longo went to defendant's pocket and came up with a small vial which contained capsules of heroin." It was this vial which was introduced in evidence against defendant.

The evidence shows further that the officers who made the arrest had received prior tips from the informant, though not concerning this defendant; that they possessed information about a man called "Note", an alias the defendant used, who was alleged to be a drug peddler; that they did not ask the informant to sign an affidavit for purposes of obtaining an arrest and/or search warrant because they felt the hour unusual, and if they had to wait until the next day, the opportunity would be lost to make the arrest; that they did not place the apartment under general surveillance for the night because, they stated, it would put other drug addicts on notice and they would leave the area and/or dispose of any drugs in their possession. The evidence is clear that neither of the officers investigated the tip, although they did rely upon it.

Defendant maintains that the uninvestigated tip of this informer did not constitute probable cause to make an arrest, so that the entry and search by the officers was illegal; that the officers entered under color of authority, but without the actual authority to arrest, so that the search was incident to an unlawful arrest; that the government can only justify the arrest by the subsequent search and the search by the preceding right to arrest.

The position of the government is that the tip of the informer was a sufficient basis to arrest and then search defendant, but even if it were not, the arrest and search can be sustained on another theory, i. e., the officers, on the basis of the tip, had the right to knock on the door of defendant's apartment and talk to him. When they did so and defendant reached into his pocket, the officers had reason to believe that defendant was about to commit a felony, namely, assault with a dangerous weapon. Consequently they had the right to hold defendant and go into his pocket to see whether he was carrying a weapon. When they found narcotics, then and only then, was defendant arrested, for they now had evidence that a felony was being committed in their presence.

To this contention defendant asserts that since the officers were initially without authority to arrest and search him, defendant had the right to take reasonable precautions to protect himself, even assuming for sake of argument, that he had a dangerous weapon upon him, which in fact he did not.

It is elementary that "where * * * officers are not responding to an emergency, there must be compelling reasons to justify the absence of a search warrant. A search without a warrant demands exceptional circumstances * * *." McDonald v. United States, 1948, 335 U.S. 451, 455, 69 S.Ct. 191, 193, 93 L.Ed. 153. There was no emergency here, but an exceptional circumstance is considered to obtain when a search is made as incident to a lawful arrest. Whatever is then found upon the arrested person, or in his control, which is unlawful for him to have, and which may be used to prove the offense, may be seized and held to be used as evidence against him. Carroll v. United States, 1925, 267 U.S. 132, 45 S.Ct. 280, 69 L.Ed. 543. Such a search, without a warrant, is reasonable and it is only unreasonable searches that are prohibited by the Fourth Amendment. Weeks v. United States, 1914, 232 U.S. 383, 392, 34 S.Ct. 341, 58 L.Ed. 652. When the court is called upon to determine the legality of a search without a warrant, but based upon an arrest, it must scrutinize the validity of the arrest with great care for the Fourth...