United States v. Mayhew
| Decision Date | 21 November 2011 |
| Docket Number | Case no. 2:10-cr-141 |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Vermont |
| Parties | UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. JOSEPH MAYHEW, Defendant. |
Defendant's Motion to Suppress Statements and Evidence
Defendant Joseph Mayhew is charged with aiding in importing marijuana into the United States. Indictment, ECF No. 12. He moved to suppress statements and evidence obtained against him by federal agents. Mot. to Suppress, Jan. 25, 2011, ECF No. 19; Def.'s Post-Hr'g Mem. in Supp. of Mot. to Suppress, Oct. 6, 2011, ECF No. 45. For the reasons described below, the Court denies his motion in part and grants it in part.
On the night of October 15, 2010, U.S. Border Patrol agents Sean Lahan and Matt Palma were monitoring traffic from theirvehicles near Derby Line, Vermont. They were watching Goodall Road, a rural dirt road about a quarter mile from the United States-Canada border that they considered to be a potential corridor for drug and human trafficking. In the agents' belief, smugglers were likely to be active that night, using the cover of the cold, rainy weather.
At 10:19 pm, Agent Lahan stopped a minivan that was driving in a looping pattern along Goodall and neighboring roads. The driver, when questioned, said he was out looking for deer. Agent Lahan, however, noticed that the car's back seats were lowered and that the scent of damp marijuana emanated from the vehicle. Still, seeing no further evidence of illegality, he let the driver go without penalty and without requesting his driver's license or checking criminal record. About an hour later, Agent Palma pulled over a black SUV that was tracing a similar looping path on Goodall Road. He learned the man's name was William Emerson and that he was also out looking for deer. Agent Palma ran a check on the subject's background, finding a significant criminal history. The car's back seats were lowered. Agent Lahan, who assisted Palma, testified he thought he recognized Emerson as the same person he had pulled over earlier in the minivan. But he did not pursue his suspicionfurther at the time, and the agents let the SUV leave when they saw no evidence of contraband inside.2
At 12:48 am, a woman living on Goodall Road called 911. Agent Lahan testified that he heard a "report that there was a 911 call to the state police that two individuals" were at the woman's Goodall Road farm, asking either for a ride or to use the phone. Hr'g Tr. vol. 1, 26, 68, May 9, 2011, ECF No. 30.3Agent Lahan drove down Goodall Road to respond, taking action because he was already in the area and because he felt that men on foot at that hour, in that area, might be smugglers. He soon spotted two men walking along the road. He turned on his cruiser's flashing blue lights, parked, and exited the vehicle.He ordered the men to put their hands on the cruiser's hood. They complied, and he frisked them.
About a minute later, at around 1:00 am, Agent Palma arrived at the scene. The two agents began asking the men questions, including requesting their names and reasons for being in the area. The men reported they were Joseph Mayhew, the defendant in this case, and Jeffrey Driver. Neither had identification or a cell phone. Mayhew claimed the pair had been scouting deer but were abandoned by their ride, William Emerson, when they got out of his car to urinate by the side of the road. Hearing the connection to Emerson elevated the agents' suspicions since they had pulled him over earlier and discovered his criminal record. Also suspicious to Agent Lahan was that the men had no firearms with which to hunt deer or flashlights with which to spot them in the dark. Stranger still to the agents, the men were dressed in heavy, layered clothing and were dirty. At least one, Mayhew, was covered in burdocks, and wearing rubber boots. While Agent Lahan testified that "jacking deer is . . . pretty regular" in that part of the state, he was surprised that the men would have looked as if they had been in the woods rather than sitting in a car. Tr. vol 1, 31. Normally, according to Agent Lahan, the practice is to shoot deer from the car and have one person go into the woods to collect the kill. Id.
By about 1:15 am, more agents arrived at the scene, and Agent Lahan "directed . . . two agents to place [Mayhew and Driver] in . . . vehicles and separate 'em." Hr'g Tr. vol. 1, 34. Agent Lahan wanted to "keep them separated and detain them while [he and other agents] looked for the narcotics" they suspected the men had transported and hidden in the nearby woods. Id. at 35.
Agent Lahan had Mayhew sit in the backseat of Agent Scott Seitz's cruiser and Driver sit in the backseat of Agent Palma's unmarked Suburban. Both cars' rear seats were separated by caging from the front seats and had doors that could not be opened from the inside. Neither Mayhew nor Driver was handcuffed, and Agent Lahan personally informed each man that he was not under arrest. According to Agent Lahan, agents asked Mayhew and Driver for permission to question them further at a nearby Border Patrol station, seven to ten miles away. According to Lahan, Driver refused but Mayhew consented. Agent Seitz drove Mayhew the ten to fifteen minute trip to the station. As far as the record indicates, Mayhew made no comments related to the investigation during the ride. Driver remained at the scene in the backseat of Agent Palma's Suburban. Also remaining at Goodall Road, Agent Lahan and two other agents began searching for stashed narcotics in the neighboring woods.
At about 1:30 am, Mayhew arrived at the Border Patrol station. Agent Seitz took his coat and led him inside, where Agent Garvey was also waiting. Agent Seitz placed Mayhew into a holding cell, which was enclosed and contained some benches, a drinking fountain, and a small bathroom. The agents described the station as having no space for interrogation other than two holding cells, although there were also offices for agents. Agent Seitz entered Mayhew's cell and began interviewing him. Mayhew repeated the story he had told Agents Lahan and Palma on Goodall Road. Agents Seitz and Garvey continued to periodically enter the cell to interview Mayhew, keeping the door open while inside. When not in the cell or watching Mayhew, they locked the cell door shut with Mayhew inside. At around 2:00 am, a canine unit of the Newport, Vermont police, summoned at Agent Garvey's request, arrived at the station with a drug-sniffing dog. The dog investigated Mayhew's coat and signaled positively for drugs.
Armed with the dog's identification, Agent Seitz returned to the holding cell to confront Mayhew. Mayhew explained that he had been around marijuana smoke earlier that evening, which must have triggered the dog's alert. He then asked Agent Seitz if he could go home to see his wife and children. Agent Seitz relayed that request to Agent Garvey, who entered the cell tospeak with Mayhew directly. He testified he told Mayhew, "'[y]ou can see your wife and kids," to which Mayhew replied, "'I'll show you where it's at.'" Hr'g Tr. vol. 3, 19, June 16, 2011, ECF No. 36.
Meanwhile, Agent Lahan was still scouring the woods near Goodall Road for drugs. Sometime after 2:00 am, he received a call from the station informing him of the dog's alert on Mayhew's coat. Although encouraged, the agents still could not find drugs. With no physical evidence of smuggling, Agent Lahan ordered Agent Palma to release Driver and was on the verge of ordering Mayhew let go as well. But while freeing Driver, Palma exclaimed out of frustration: "'We know you're out here smuggling.'" Hr'g Tr. vol. 2, 32, June 2, 2011, ECF No. 35. In response, Driver admitted that he had stood guard while Mayhew went into the woods. Driver then led the agents to where he had waited for Mayhew, and they recommenced the drug search in that area. There is no evidence that Driver had known of the dog's hit on Mayhew's coat or of Mayhew's decision to return to the scene to aid the agents' investigation.
Even with Driver's admission, the agents were at first unable to locate any evidence of smuggling. Agent Lahan testified that, frustrated, he called the station and asked to speak with Mayhew directly. Agent Garvey remembers the sequence differently, and claims he called Agent Lahan first—to tell himMayhew had agreed to return—and then handed the phone to Mayhew. In any event, Agent Lahan testified he told Mayhew that he "was tired of being out here in the dark looking for the narcotics," and asked if Mayhew "would . . . just come up and show us where it was." Hr'g Tr. vol. 1, 44. Mayhew asked if he could go home after finding the drugs. Agent Lahan responded: " " Id. Mayhew agreed to return to the scene. Agents Seitz and Garvey put Mayhew back into a cruiser and began driving him back to Goodall Road.
Before Mayhew could arrive, however, the agents uncovered two large duffel bags of what appeared to be marijuana in the area that Driver had identified. They left the bags where they found them. At around 3:30 am, Agent Seitz pulled up with Mayhew in tow. Mayhew was let out of Agent Seitz's vehicle and began immediately walking toward the woods. An agent stopped him in mid-stride and read him his rights under Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966), and Mayhew waived them orally. Agent Lahan explained that no one had given Mayhew Miranda warnings previously because he felt that only upon discovery of the marijuana, as incriminating evidence, did the detention become custodial. Mayhew walked into the woods and positively identified the same duffel bags the agents had found minutesbefore, pointing to them and saying, "'There they are.'" Tr. vol 1, 47.
Agent Lahan instructed an agent to...
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