United States v. Smith

• Decision Date: 18 September 1984
• Docket Number: Crim. No. 84-266.
• Citation: 614 F. Supp. 25
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America v. Curtis E. SMITH.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Columbia

614 F. Supp. 25

UNITED STATES of America v. Curtis E. SMITH.

Crim. No. 84-266.

United States District Court, District of Columbia.

September 18, 1984.

Pamela B. Stuart, Asst. U.S. Atty., Washington, D.C., for plaintiff.

Stephen Goldblatt, Washington, D.C., for defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

THOMAS F. HOGAN, District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on defendant's Motion to Suppress, as fruits from an illegal stop and warrantless arrest and search, all physical evidence seized by the police at the time of defendant's arrest on July 1, 1984, which included a doublebarrel shotgun and a number of bags of marijuana. An evidentiary hearing was held by the court. Upon consideration of the evidence adduced, the motion and supporting memoranda submitted by the parties, the arguments of counsel, and based upon the findings set forth, the motion will be denied.

Facts

On July 1, 1984, at approximately 6:50 P.M., two U.S. Police officers, Officers Lawston and his rookie trainee associate, patrolling Rock Creek Park in a marked police cruiser, observed a red Ford Pinto parked illegally in the middle of the entrance roadway to the Park Road tennis courts. The tennis court drive is located within blocks of a high drug sale and use area. The tennis court area is frequented by drug users.

At the time the officers approached defendant's car, it was still light outside, there was good visibility and the tennis courts were in use. As the officers drove up, they observed that the doors and the hatchback of the car were all open and that it was occupied by three individuals. When the cruiser approached the rear of the defendant's automobile, the passengers quickly turned around and saw the officers. The occupant in the driver's seat then immediately bent forward as if to hide something under the front seat. The officers alighted from their cruiser and stood on either side of the Pinto. When an inquiry was made as to what they were doing, the driver of the Pinto, later identified as defendant Smith, stated that they were cleaning the car even though no cleaning materials were visible. Officer Lawston then testified that he suspected narcotics activity and feared for the safety of himself and his partner, who was a rookie in training. Officer Lawston had been involved in Rock Creek Park in over 200 narcotics arrests. Over 100 arrests had involved dangerous weapons. Because of his co-officer's lack of experience and recognizing the inherent dangers (after receiving the untrue explanation for the illegally parked automobile), Officer Lawston ordered the occupants out of the car in an effort to protect himself and his rookie partner. He then walked around from the passenger's side to the driver's side of the automobile. When he reached the driver's side the door was open and he could plainly see four inches of what he believed to be a double-barrel shotgun protruding from under the driver's seat. He retrieved the weapon, placed it on the roof of the car and asked what the gun was doing there. Smith initially responded that he had never seen the gun before but later claimed he had found it in the woods.

The officers then conducted a pat down of the occupants. At that point, only the driver, defendant Smith, was placed under arrest. Several minutes after the arrest the transport officer who had arrived on the scene conducted a more thorough search of the defendant Smith and discovered in his pants a U.S. Navy payroll bag containing ten "nickel" bags of marijuana.

The Law

In Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 10, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1874, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968), the Supreme Court ruled that police officers may not only stop but also make a protective frisk of an individual where he "observes unusual conduct which leads him reasonably to conclude in light of his experience that criminal activity may be afoot and that the person with whom he is dealing may be armed and presently dangerous ..." Id. at 30, 88 S.Ct. at 1884. The Court expanded the Terry rule in Pennsylvania v. Mimms, 434 U.S. 106, 111 n. 6, 98 S.Ct. 330, 333 n. 6, 54 L.Ed.2d 331 (1977), holding that when a driver of a "motor vehicle has been lawfully detained for a traffic violation, the officer may order him out of the vehicle without violating the Fourth Amendment's proscription of unreasonable searches and seizures." The Court reasoned that the state's interest in the safety of its officers is considerable and outweighs the de minimus additional intrusion on the driver already legitimately stopped. Id. at 110, 111, 98 S.Ct. at 333.

The District of Columbia Circuit applied Mimms in United States v. Wilkerson, 598 F.2d 621 (1978). There police responded to a complaint about a car blocking the driveway in a neighborhood that had been the source of numerous complaints involving prostitution and juvenile robberies. The police observed the car speed away, travel in excess of the speed limit and swerve in and out of the traffic lane. The appellate court affirmed the trial court's denial of defendant's motion to suppress stating that the parking complaint and traffic violations justified the stop. The unsettling developments after the stop (i.e., the driver's failure to produce personal identification, etc.) justified the officers' ordering the occupants out of the car. Id. at 624. Even before Mimms this Circuit in United States v. Green, 465 F.2d 620 (1972), held that where officers observed a car run a stop sign late at night and furtive movements of the driver, they acted reasonably in ordering the driver from the car and frisking him and searching beneath the seat of the car. The routine traffic stop ceased to be such when the officers observed furtive movements by the occupant of the vehicle and became reasonably fearful of danger. Judge Tamm stated that the conduct of the officers as to what constituted reasonable fear and justified the intrusion "must be viewed from a vantage point of a prudent, reasonable, cautious police officer on the scene at the time of the arrest, guided by his experience and training." Id. at 623.

In this case it is evident the officers were justified in approaching the car and making inquiries because it was illegally parked. It makes no difference that the officers actually issued or would have issued a traffic citation. Originally their attention was legitimately drawn to the car parked inappropriately in the middle of the travelled roadway with all its doors open. Once they were alerted by that factor and combined with the untruthful explanation of the driver for the reasons for being so stopped, the officer was justified in ordering the occupants out of the car based on his experience as a matter of self-protection. He had testified that his years of experience and training showed that in this area such actions as he observed led him to suspect narcotics use. The area being an extremely...