United States v. Fields

• Decision Date: 11 June 2014
• Docket Number: Criminal No. 13-10097-DJC
• Parties: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, v. ERNEST FIELDS, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Massachusetts

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, v. ERNEST FIELDS, Defendant.

Criminal No. 13-10097-DJC

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS

June 11, 2014

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

CASPER, J.

I. Introduction

Defendant Ernest Fields ("Fields") has moved to suppress the fruits of the search of his person on September 12, 2012. D. 40. Having considered the motion, the government's opposition, D. 48, the evidence (including testimony and exhibits) presented at the evidentiary hearing on the motion and oral argument D. 49, 56, and the supplement filings, D. 54, 55, the Court DENIES the motion. Accordingly, the Court makes its findings of fact and legal analysis below.

II. Findings of Fact

These findings are based upon the testimony of Boston Police Department ("BPD") Officers Joseph Fisher and Steven Dodd who testified at the suppression hearing and the exhibits introduced at that hearing.

On September 12, 2012 in the early morning hours, several officers of the BPD were on patrol in Roxbury in the area in and around Madison Park High School ("Madison Park" or "the school"). Members of the B-2 squad had been informed at the beginning of the shift by SergeantMcCarthy that there had been a complaint from the Department of Youth and Families (located in the Madison Park complex) that people had been gathering at the back of the school and that there may have been drug activity and some overnight sleeping in that area.

With this information, BPD officers from the B-2 district headed to the area of Madison Park as part of their patrol. Around 1:30 a.m., BPD Officers Dodd, Hunter and McCarthy drove to the rear of the Madison Park complex and saw eight to ten individuals including one whom Dodd recognized to be gang-involved. Dodd did not see Fields as part of his initial observation of this group. Dodd and the other two officers set up surveillance in this area and requested the assistance of other officers, including Officers Dias, MacDougall and Jackson, to assist with such surveillance. These officers set up surveillance in vehicles in various locations around the school. At some point, Dodd and Hunter get out of their vehicle and walked up closer to the school's athletic field where they heard a group of male voices from the top of the field toward Madison Park. After these observations, Dodd and Hunter walked on the field and toward Madison Park, but did not find anyone. These two officers made their way to the front of the school and radioed to the other units to cover the front of the school. As they made their way closer to Malcolm X Boulevard, they heard a group of voices moving toward Roxbury Heritage Park ("the Park"). Given that it was around 1:30, 1:40 in the morning and the area was otherwise deserted and the officers had heard the group of voices moving from Madison Park toward the Park, Officer Dodd believed that the group moving toward the Park was the same one that they had observed earlier. Again, Officer Dodd radioed that the group may be moving toward Roxbury Street. One of the officers to respond to this radio call was Officer Fisher.

Officer Fisher, working with a K-9 unit, was also on routine patrol in the area. On the police radio, he had heard the other officers observing a group at and then leaving Madison Park,heading toward the Park. He was aware that the Park closes after dark so that anyone there at that time would be trespassing. He headed to Roxbury Street and parked on the street, behind the Park, facing up the street. At this location, Officer Fisher continued to listen to the radio transmissions. Shortly thereafter, he observed a group of six to eight individuals coming from the direction of the Park (and reasonably assumed that they were coming from the Park) and walk onto to Roxbury Street, where he was parked. All but one of these individuals turned right, heading down the street away from where he was parked. One of the group, an individual later identified as the Defendant, Fields, turned left and headed up the street toward where Fisher's marked police cruiser was parked.

Fields was wearing a white T-shirt, jeans and was carrying a cell phone. As Fisher was passing the cruiser, Officer Fisher got out of the vehicle, heading toward the back of the vehicle and called out to Fields, "Hey, what's going on tonight?" Fields turned back toward the officer to respond so that they were approximately three feet apart during this exchange. Fields said that he was heading to his mother's house. When Officer Fisher asked where that residence was located, Fields responded with an address which the officer could not recall, but which was in the general direction in which he was headed. As the exchange continued, Fisher observed that the conversation became "one-sided" as Fields offered that he was not comfortable with the police and that they made him nervous, even showing that his hands were shaking. Fields mentioned something about the police having killed someone in the South End. Although the officer had not mentioned searching him, Fields warned the officer that he would need a reason to search him. Officer Fisher observed that Fields had become animated and repetitive in his comments. At this point, the officer had made no commands to Fields, had not requested any identification,had no physical contact with him, had not blocked his path down the street and he had kept his firearm holstered throughout the exchange.

Given the nature and tone of Fields' comments and his observations of his agitation, Fisher became concerned and, using the radio on his police vest, requested backup from other officers. Within a minute, several other officers—BPD Officers Dodd, Hunter, MacDougall and Dias--arrived on the scene. Although Fisher's testimony differed in some respects from Dodd's about where the other officers came to stand when they arrived, Fisher testified, credibly, that even with the initial arrival of these other officers (who came across Malcolm X Boulevard and went up the stairs that led toward the Park and Roxbury Street), there was nothing between Fields and egress down the street. Dodd also testified, credibly, that none of the four officers who arrived to assist stood directly in front of Fields when they came upon Fisher and Fields on Roxbury Street. As Fields' demeanor had changed during the course of his one-on-one conversation with Fisher, his demeanor changed once the officers arrived (e.g., Fields said something to the effect to Officer Fisher that "your boys are here now") and he appeared agitated.

After the arrival of the other officers, Fields went to put the cell phone he had been carrying into his front pocket. When he lifted up his long, white T-shirt to do so, both Officers Fisher and Dodd saw what appeared to be the clip of a pocket knife at his front pocket. Upon this sighting, Officer Dodd moved in front of Fields, explaining that Fields had a knife that needed to be removed from his person and that he was going to pat-frisk him. As the officer moved his hand toward Fields to do so, Fields pushed his hand away. Officer Dodd moved toward him again to make another attempt and Fields then slapped Officer Dodd's hand away. Upon Officer Dodd's request for assistance, two of the other officers, Officers Fisher andHunter, moved in to assist by taking each of Fields' wrists and securing his arms so that Officer Dodd could remove the knife. With Officers Fisher and Hunter assisting in this way, Officer Dodd did a pat-frisk of Fields and removed the knife, but also felt a firearm in Fields' waistband. Dodd then had Officers Fisher and Hunter handcuff Fields and, after some struggle with Fields, Officer Dodd removed the firearm from his waistband. Fisher secured the gun and Dodd took Fields to the police wagon. Later during booking, Fields made an unsolicited statement, in the presence of Sergeant McCarthy that he carried a gun to protect himself from police after someone was shot in the South End. Fields was charged with various charges including trespassing, assault and battery on a police officer, resisting arrest, and various dangerous weapon and firearms charges.

III. Discussion

A. The Police's Interaction with Fields Began with a Consensual Encounter

A key contention between the parties is when any seizure of Fields by the police occurred on September 12, 2012. It is well settled that there is no seizure implicating the Fourth Amendment where police make inquiries of individual. United States v. Drayton, 536 U.S. 194, 200-01 (2002) (noting that "[l]aw enforcement officers do not violate the Fourth Amendment's prohibition on unreasonable seizures merely by approaching individuals on the street or in other public places and putting questions to them if they are willing to listen"); see United States v. Cardoza, 129 F.3d 6, 15 (1^st Cir. 1997); United States v. Sealey, 30 F.3d 7, 9-10 (1^st Cir. 1994). Such a consensual encounter, unlike an investigatory stop that requires reasonable suspicion or an arrest that requires probable cause, "may be initiated without any objective level of suspicion." United States v. Gross, 662 F.3d 393, 398 (6^th Cir. 2011) (internal quotations omitted). To find that any such encounter rose to a seizure, a court "must be able to concludethat coercion, not voluntary compliance, most accurately describes the encounter." United States v. Smith, 423 F.3d 25, 28 (1^st Cir. 2005) (citing United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544, 553 (1980)). To make such a determination, the Court must look at the totality of circumstances, applying an objective, reasonable person standard: "whether the officer's words and actions would have conveyed [restriction of movement] to a reasonable person." California v. Hodari D., 499 U.S. 621, 628 (1991); Florida v. Bostick, 501 U.S. 429, 438 (1991) (noting that this objective standard "presupposes an innocent person"). That is, "a consensual encounter becomes a seizure when 'in view of all of the circumstances surrounding the incident, a...