United States v. Kouayara, Criminal No. 15-165(28) (JRT/LIB)
| Decision Date | 31 May 2016 |
| Docket Number | Criminal No. 15-165(28) (JRT/LIB) |
| Citation | 189 F.Supp.3d 835 |
| Parties | United States of America, Plaintiff, v. Yvette Kouayara, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Minnesota |
Deidre Y. Aanstad and Melinda A. Williams, Assistant United States Attorneys, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE, 600 United States Courthouse, 300 South Fourth Street, Minneapolis, MN 55415, for plaintiff.
Andrew S. Garvis, KOCH & GARVIS, Lake Calhoun Professional Building, 3109 Hennepin Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55408, for defendant.
Defendant Yvette Kouayara was indicted on one count of conspiracy to distribute certain drugs following her arrest at a cabin near Spirit Lake Casino in North Dakota in November 2014. Kouayara has filed four motions, including two asking the Court to suppress evidence. United States Magistrate Judge Leo I. Brisbois held an evidentiary hearing on the matter and issued a Report and Recommendation ("R&R") recommending that the Court deny the suppression motions as well as the two other motions. Kouayara has now filed objections relating to the suppression motions, and those objections are now pending before the Court. Because the Court finds the search warrant was supported by probable cause and the searches and seizures were reasonable, the Court will overrule Kouayara's objection to the Magistrate Judge's findings and recommendation on the motion to suppress evidence acquired by search and seizure. The Court also finds, however, that because law enforcement did not immediately cease interrogation of Kouayara after she validly invoked her right to counsel, the suppression of Kouayara's later statements is warranted. The Court will therefore sustain Kouayara's objection relating to the motion to suppress statements. That motion will be granted.
The Magistrate Judge held an evidentiary hearing on Kouayara's motions on October 19, 2015. At the hearing, the United States offered the testimony of Special Agent Travis Zahn from the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation. The following facts are based on Zahn's testimony, as well as uncontested facts described in the R&R.
On November 5, 2014, Zahn received a call from Chief Raymond Cavanaugh of the Spirit Lake Tribal Police Department, informing Zahn that Chief Cavanaugh was looking for a female suspect staying at the Spirit Lake Casino with a group of eight black men. Chief Cavanaugh said he had received information that the group may have been selling illegal drugs from the casino.
Zahn traveled to the casino to investigate Chief Cavanaugh's tip. After arriving, Zahn observed four black men walking through the casino and watched casino security video on two different days. On the second day, Zahn watched a video of a black man later identified as Defendant Calvin Beasley exiting a particular casino cabin, entering the back seat of a sports-utility vehicle, exchanging money and a small plastic bag with a passenger named William Cavanaugh, and then exiting the vehicle and returning to the cabin. Zahn knew who William Cavanaugh was and knew him to be involved in the drug trade. Based on those facts, Zahn gave an oral probable cause affidavit to a state court judge and received a search warrant to search the cabin. Zahn specifically included in his affidavit a description of the exchange he watched on the security video, and how Beasley had walked into the cabin. The warrant did not name Kouayara or contain facts or a description particular to Kouayara.
Zahn and other law enforcement officers executed the search warrant on November 6, 2014. According to Zahn's testimony at the evidentiary hearing, Zahn and thirteen officers entered the cabin, found five individuals, one of whom would later be identified as Kouayara. The five individuals were handcuffed, searched, and seated, and the officers executed the search warrant. During the search, one officer noticed one of the five individuals, Steve Fagan, staring at a vent in the cabin. The officers looked in the vent and found 460 pills packaged in distribution-like packaging. The officers also found forty to fifty pills in other areas of the cabin. At some point during the search and seizure—Zahn did not specify in his testimony exactly when—officers searched Kouayara's purse. In the purse officers found a false identification document. The officers also asked Kouayara why she was at the cabin, and she replied that she was on vacation. All five individuals were then arrested, read their Miranda rights, and transferred to jail.
After four days in custody, on November 10, 2014, Zahn and another officer interviewed Kouayara. Zahn re-read Kouayara her Miranda rights, and within five seconds, the following exchange occurred:
(R&R at 8–9.) A colloquy followed, with Kouayara repeatedly hedging and questioning with varying degrees of uncertainty whether she should have a lawyer present, and Zahn repeatedly attempting to clarify whether Kouayara wanted a lawyer or not. Eventually Kouayara stated "I'll talk to you without my lawyer here," signed a Miranda waiver form after being read her rights yet again, and engaged in a fifty-five minute interview.
Kouayara was indicted with one charge of conspiracy to distribute certain illegal drugs on May 20, 2015. She filed four motions, including two suppression motions: one asking the Court to suppress evidence seized in the course of the search and seizure, and another requesting the suppression of Kouayara's statements made in the interview with law enforcement. The Magistrate Judge held a hearing and issued an R&R on December 4, 2015, recommending that the Court deny all four of Kouayara's motions. On the suppression motions, the Magistrate Judge found the search warrant was supported by probable cause, officers permissibly detained and searched Kouayara while executing the search warrant, the search warrant permitted officers to search Kouayara's purse for drugs, and Kouayara reinitiated conversation after validly invoking her right to counsel. (R&R at 15–27.) On December 18, 2015, Kouayara filed objections to the R&R's findings and recommendations on the suppression motions. (Objs. to the R&R, Dec. 18, 2015, Docket No. 1,118.)
When a party objects to a magistrate judge's findings or recommendations on a dispositive matter, Fed. R. Crim. P. 59(b)(1), (3) ; see also 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1).
Although the Fourth and Fifth Amendments contain no provisions precluding the use of evidence obtained in violation of their commands, the Supreme Court's decisions "establish an exclusionary rule that, when applicable, forbids the use of improperly obtained evidence at trial." Herring v. United States , 555 U.S. 135, 139, 129 S.Ct. 695, 172 L.Ed.2d 496 (2009). The proponent of a motion to suppress evidence on the basis of a Fourth Amendment violation "has the burden of establishing that his ... Fourth Amendment rights were violated by the challenged search or seizure." Rakas v. Illinois , 439 U.S. 128, 130 n. 1, 99 S.Ct. 421, 58 L.Ed.2d 387 (1978). But when the proponent seeks to suppress evidence for violation of his or her Fifth Amendment rights to silence and counsel, as recognized by the Supreme Court in Miranda , the state bears the burden of showing by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant waived his or her rights. Berg h uis v. Thompkins , 560 U.S. 370, 384, 130 S.Ct. 2250, 176 L.Ed.2d 1098 (2010) ; see also J.D.B. v. North Carolina , 564 U.S. 261, 269–70, 131 S.Ct. 2394, 180 L.Ed.2d 310 (2011) ().
Under the Fourth Amendment, made applicable to the States by the Fourteenth Amendment, Mapp v. Ohio , 367 U.S. 643, 81 S.Ct. 1684, 6 L.Ed.2d 1081 (1961), the people are "to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, ... and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause," U.S. Const. amend. IV. Here, Kouayara argues that the search warrant for the cabin was issued without probable cause, and that officers' searches and seizures of Kouayara were unreasonable.
Kouayara first argues that the search warrant was issued without probable cause, and that all of the evidence associated with the search and Kouayara's detention, arrest, and interview should therefore be suppressed. "Probable cause to issue a search warrant exists if, in light of the totality of the circumstances, there is ‘a fair probability that contraband or evidence of a crime will be found in a particular place.’ " United States v. Shockley , 816 F.3d 1058, 1061 (8th Cir.2016) (quoting United States v. Donnell , 726 F.3d 1054, 1056 (8th...
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