US v. Marenghi

• Citation: 896 F. Supp. 207
• Decision Date: 17 July 1995
• Docket Number: Crim. No. 94-68-P-C.
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. Michelle T. MARENGHI, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Maine

896 F. Supp. 207

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. Michelle T. MARENGHI, Defendant.

Crim. No. 94-68-P-C.

United States District Court, D. Maine.

July 17, 1995.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Helene Kazanjian, Asst. U.S. Atty., Portland, ME, for the Government.

Daniel J. Perry, WARREN M. SILVER, P.A., Bangor, ME, for defendant.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART DEFENDANT'S MOTION TO SUPPRESS

GENE CARTER, Chief Judge.

Defendant Michelle T. Marenghi faces a charge of conspiring to possess and distribute a controlled substance containing cocaine base and for the underlying substantive offense, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 846, 841(a)(1) and (b)(1)(B). Now before the Court is Defendant's Motion to Suppress (Docket No. 12). In the motion, Defendant asks this Court to suppress as evidence in this case any and all statements of, and evidence obtained from, Defendant during the course of the night and early morning hours of her arrest on December 9 and 10, 1994. Defendant also seeks suppression of any and all "fruits" of the arrest and accompanying searches and any reference to such evidence. After receiving testimony in an evidentiary hearing and reviewing the arguments of the parties, this Court concludes that Defendant's motion should be granted in part and denied in part.

I. FINDINGS OF FACT

During the evidentiary hearing held in this matter, the Court was presented with the testimony of three law enforcement officers involved in Defendant's December 1994 arrest. Detective Scott Pelletier of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency testified regarding his investigation of Defendant and the other individuals arrested with her. Detective Pelletier stated that he began his investigation of Freddie "Pit Bull" Long III, who was Defendant's boyfriend, and another individual known only as "Kenny." Transcript of Direct Testimony of Government Witnesses ("Govt.Tr.") (Docket No. 41) at 5. Police had received information from a "concerned citizen" that those two individuals were expected to arrive on a Trailways bus in Portland, Maine, at a particular date and time in October, bringing crack for distribution in the area. Detective Pelletier went to the bus station at the expected time and saw three individuals who matched descriptions provided by the source. He spoke briefly to the three, and, after body searches consented to by the individuals failed to turn up any drugs, he made no arrests. Id. at 6-7. Long was not among the group questioned at the bus station, but the concerned citizen had mentioned that it had actually seen Long sell drugs at an apartment on Congress Street in Portland, Maine. Id. at 7-8.

A second "concerned citizen" contacted law enforcement officials on or about November 15, 1994, regarding the use of a Park Avenue address for the distribution and use of crack; Long was named as a "main player" in that operation. Id. at 8. The source was known to law enforcement officers as reliable and had provided information on several occasions, two of which led to convictions. Id. at 8-9. The source also informed police that it had learned that Long was staying in Room 108 of the Super 8 Motel on the Portland-Westbrook town line. Detective Pelletier later learned from the motel employees that the room, along with an adjoining room, Room 110, was paid for in cash. Id. at 10-11. They told him that the rooms' occupants received an unusually large amount of "after hours" traffic and telephone calls and that the occupants refused housekeeping services. Id. at 12. The source was unsuccessful in reaching Long at either of the rooms.

Detective Pelletier stated that on or about November 22, 1994, he began surveillance of the rooms from an unmarked vehicle. He saw a man he now knows to be Long and a woman he identified at the hearing as Defendant get into a green car and drive to another motel, the Inn at Portland, which was nearby. Id. at 14-15. The license plate on the car identified it as one leased through Lee Dodge, a local car dealer. Detective Pelletier contacted Lee Dodge and was told that the car was rented by Defendant and that she had provided Room 108 of the Super 8 Motel as a local address. Id. at 16-17. Pelletier also learned that the occupants of Room 108 had checked out of the Super 8 Motel and that, the same day, Defendant had rented Room 122 at the Inn at Portland for which she may have paid cash. Police were able to trace one of the last phone numbers dialed from Room 108 at the Super 8 Motel to an individual known to be a crack user. Id. at 18. Police also learned that a phone call to the same individual was made from Room 122 at the Inn at Portland. Defendant reportedly contacted Lee Dodge to say that she would return the car the next day. Id. at 19.

Detective Pelletier testified that the following day, November 23, 1994, he observed Defendant and Long drive to the front desk of the Inn at Portland and then to the rental office at Lee Dodge where they both went inside. Id. He remained in telephone contact with Lee Dodge employees while they completed the transaction with Defendant and Long. Id. at 20. Defendant returned the car but then rented a Dodge minivan. With Long driving, the two went to a residential building at 1734 Forest Avenue in Portland and went in through a back entrance. Id. at 21. A few minutes later, Detective Pelletier observed Long emerge with two other males, all of whom opened and examined the minivan's doors. Id. at 22-24. Based upon his experience investigating drug distribution operations, Detective Pelletier concluded that the three men were considering how to conceal drugs in the minivan.

While conducting surveillance of Room 110 at the Super 8 Motel on November 23, Detective Pelletier observed an individual leave the room and drop a bag into a dumpster. Id. at 24-26. He removed the bag and found that it contained plastic baggies and "Dominican ties," bags he knew to be often knotted in a particular manner to hold drugs. Id. at 27. Later that day, he observed the three individuals staying in Room 110 leave the motel and get into the Dodge minivan along with Defendant, Long, and another male. Id. at 29-30. Pelletier watched the minivan enter the Maine Turnpike, southbound. Subsequently, Detective Pelletier learned that the room at the Inn at Portland had also received a large number of visitors and numerous telephone calls. Id. at 30-31. The trash can retrieved from the room revealed a Massachusetts traffic citation issued to Defendant, a receipt from L.L. Bean, a plastic baggy, and a Dominican tie. Id. at 31.

On December 6, 1994, a third "concerned citizen," previously unknown by police, told Portland Police that Long's brother, Frederick Long, and a woman, Julie Botto, were dealing in crack out of the Forest Avenue apartment which Detective Pelletier had previously seen the Defendant and Long enter. Id. at 32. Detective Pelletier learned from other officers that this source claimed to have been present at the Forest Avenue apartment. Id. at 33.

The source told police the following day that Frederick Long and Julie Botto were expected to make a purchase of crack in Massachusetts and bring it to Portland within the next few days and provided the name of a particular customer. Id. at 34. Surveillance of the Forest Avenue location revealed that a person driving a truck on which was painted the last name of the customer named by the source painted on it went into the residence. Id. at 34. The source subsequently told police that the trip to purchase crack was postponed until December 9, 1994, and that Botto and Frederick Long would be leaving on a 1:30 p.m. bus to Boston and returning on a bus that evening. Id. at 36-38. Two officers followed Botto and Frederick Long to the bus station and observed them leaving on a 1:30 p.m. bus to Boston. The source subsequently told police that Botto and Frederick Long would not be returning on the bus but rather would be driving back with Defendant and Long later that night. Id. at 38.

Detective Pelletier sought a search warrant for the persons of Botto and Frederick Long and for the premises at Forest Avenue on the basis that they were suspected of transporting cocaine base. Id. at 40. While Detective Pelletier prepared and presented the warrant applications during the evening of December 9, 1994, Portland Police Detective Bruce Chase was positioned near Exit 8 of the Maine Turnpike, the exit closest to the Forest Avenue residence, other officers waited outside the Forest Avenue apartment. Govt.Tr. at 136. He was instructed to watch for three to four African-American males and two white females travelling in a 1994 Ford Taurus station wagon. Id. at 137-38. At 10:50 p.m. Officer Chase spotted a station wagon which matched the description of the vehicle in which Botto, Frederick Long, Long, and Defendant were thought to be riding. Chase could see two white females in the front seat and four African-American males in the back seat. Id. at 138. Chase followed the car to the Forest Avenue residence. Detective Pelletier, who was on his way to obtain the search warrants, instructed the officers at the Forest Avenue residence, via radio or telephone, to stop and detain the car and its passengers but not to enter the house since the warrants had not yet been signed. Govt.Tr. at 43.

As the station wagon pulled into the driveway at the Forest Avenue address, a police car pulled in behind it. Id. at 140. Detective Chase testified that he had pointed his gun at the car as he instructed the car's occupants to raise their hands. During the hearing Chase identified Defendant as the driver. Id. at 155.

After all of the occupants of the car had been removed from the vehicle and split up to be detained at the scene, Detective Chase searched the passenger compartment of the car. Chase testified that he retrieved a woman's purse with Defendant's identification, blank money orders in excess of $3,000, and a planner book. I...