US v. Scopo
| Decision Date | 19 February 1993 |
| Docket Number | No. CR-92-184.,CR-92-184. |
| Citation | 814 F. Supp. 292 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America v. Ralph SCOPO, Jr. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of New York |
Andrew Weissman, Asst. U.S. Atty., Brooklyn, NY, for plaintiff.
James J. DiPietro, Aronne & DiPietro, Brooklyn, NY, Steven R. Kartagener (Kartagener & Stavis, of counsel), New York City, for defendant.
Defendant Ralph Scopo was indicted by a Grand Jury in the Eastern District of New York for a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(k) which makes it a crime to "knowingly and willfully possess a handgun, which has had the manufacturer's serial number removed, obliterated and altered and has, at some time, been shipped and transported in interstate commerce." Now before this court is defendant's motion to suppress physical and statement evidence obtained from him on the night of January 17, 1992. More specifically, defendant contends that the New York City Police detectives who stopped and searched his car—purportedly because he committed a minor traffic infraction—violated his fourth amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. Defendant therefore claims that the handgun the detectives discovered in "plain view" was the fruit of an illegal, pretextual search and must be suppressed.1
On July 2, 1992, this court conducted a suppression hearing on defendant's motion. At the hearing, the government presented the testimony of three witnesses: FBI Special Agent R. Lindley DeVecchio, who was not present on the evening of January 17, 1992 and testified only as a specialist on activities of the Colombo Organized Crime Family; and New York City Police Detectives Matthew Higgins and Benjamin Gozun, both of whom were directly involved in defendant's arrest. The facts recounted below rely on the testimony elicited from these witnesses. Following the hearing, defendant and the government submitted briefs addressing the appropriate test for this court to apply in evaluating a "pretextual" search. While both parties agree that an "objective" test is appropriate, they disagree on the precise contours of that test. For the reasons provided below, this court adopts the standard announced and applied by the Sixth, Tenth and Eleventh Circuits and accordingly grants defendant's motion to suppress.
Before detailing the specific events of January 17, 1992, it is helpful to examine the context in which this weapon seizure took place. In November of 1991, a "shooting war" broke out between feuding factions of the Colombo Organized Crime Family; on that date, loyalists to Victor Orena, acting boss of the Colombo Family, attempted to murder Greg Scarpa, a loyalist to incarcerated boss Carmine Persico. Tr. at 6-7.2 Prior to the date of Scopo's arrest, six known murders and at least a dozen attempted murders took place in connection with this shooting war. Tr. at 7. "Hit teams" made up of "shooters" would travel "caravan" style to carry out these violent acts. Tr. at 6. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the New York City Police Department together formed a Colombo Strike Force to respond to this "war," and more specifically, to determine "who the shooters were, discover the safe houses, to try to get the guns off the street, to deter them as best we can." Tr. at 8. In the words of Detective Higgins, the Strike Force was "doing active, aggressive law enforcement as well as surveillance." Tr. at 27, 43-44, 57.
On January 17, 1992, several New York City police detectives assigned to the Strike Force, including Detectives Higgins and Gozun, were conducting covert surveillance of the Mill Basin Social Club. Tr. at 27, 45, 69-70. That club, located at 6334 Avenue N, in Brooklyn, New York, is a known meeting place for members of the Orena faction of the Colombo Family. Tr. at 10.3 At approximately 8:30 p.m., Detective Higgins observed two unoccupied cars, a 1992 Cadillac and a 1987 Chevrolet Blazer, parked in front of the club. Tr. at 28-29. Shortly thereafter, the detectives saw four men exit the club, two of whom were identified as Joseph Scopo, defendant's brother and the underboss of the Colombo family, and Salvatore Micciotta, a "capo" in the family. Tr. at 28. The men entered four cars, including the above-mentioned Cadillac and Blazer, and drove away in what appeared to the Detectives to be "caravan" style. Tr. at 28-29.
Detective Higgins and his team followed the cars to 1378 East 72nd Street in Brooklyn, the residence of Joseph Scopo. Tr. at 29, 55. After temporarily losing sight of all four cars, the detectives then located the 1992 Cadillac and 1987 Blazer double parked on the wrong side of the street in front of the residence of Salvatore Micciotta. Tr. at 30, 56-57. Neither of the vehicles received a traffic summons at this time, although the detectives had summonses in their cars and the vehicles were parked in violation of New York City traffic regulations. Tr. at 30, 44-45, 58-59. The detectives saw two men enter and soon exit the Micciotta residence; one of these men was observed carrying a rifle case, and the officer who made this observation relayed the information to the entire team. Tr. at 30-31. The man carrying the rifle, later identified as Anthony Mesi, entered the 1987 Blazer, and the second man, defendant Scopo, entered the 1992 Cadillac. Tr. at 31-32.
Driving away again in what the detectives identified as "caravan" style, the two cars proceeded to Flatlands Avenue in Brooklyn. Tr. at 33, 94. Detective Higgins's team of four or five unmarked automobiles, containing nine detectives, followed. Tr. at 31-32, 45-46. At approximately 9:00 p.m. the detectives allegedly observed the drivers of both cars fail to signal when changing lanes on two occasions. Tr. at 32-33, 63-64. There were no other vehicles on the street, and the two cars were driving within the speed limit. Tr. at 64, 69. When the vehicles eventually stopped at a red light at the corner of Fountain Avenue and Stanley Street, the officers "boxed" the cars in by positioning the police cars "in front, to the side and the rear." Tr. at 34, 73.
Detectives Higgins and Maggiore exited their vehicle and approached Scopo's Cadillac on the driver's side; Detective Gozun approached the vehicle from the passenger's side. Tr. at 34, 75, 77. Detectives Higgins and Gozun had their guns in their hands; Detective Maggiore also may have had his gun drawn. Tr. 77-78, 97, 105, 112. As Higgins approached defendant's car, he observed Scopo throw an object—later identified as a cellular phone—into the back seat of the car. Tr. at 35, 38, 80-82. Detective Maggiore removed Scopo from the driver's seat, and Detective Higgins conducted a frisk for weapons. Tr. at 35. In the meantime, Detective Gozun looked in the car and observed in "plain view" the butt of a handgun protruding from an opaque pouch behind the passenger seat. Tr. at 82-83, 98. Upon recovering the gun, Detective Gozun yelled to the other detectives "I got one ... I got a gun." Tr. at 36, 98, 105-06. Noting that the gun was a fully loaded .38 caliber pistol with the manufacturer's serial numbers obliterated, Tr. at 98, Detective Gozun handcuffed Scopo and formally placed him under arrest. This stop occurred at a distance of approximately two miles from the location where the drivers failed to signal. Tr. at 114.4
The police officers transported Scopo to the 75th precinct where he was issued a traffic summons by Detective Higgins for violating New York Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1163(d). Tr. at 32-33, 37, 88-89, 91, & Exh. 2. After being read his Miranda rights, Scopo allegedly said "Fuck those A-B-C men, they promised my father ten and they gave him one hundred and fifteen." Tr. at 37, 88. Like Scopo, Mesi also was taken to the precinct and issued a traffic ticket. Tr. at 95. The Kings County District Attorney's office later discovered that the hunting rifle was legitimately in Mesi's possession and declined to prosecute him on gun charges. Tr. at 86. Scopo, however, still faces gun possession charges in this court.
Defendant Scopo moves to suppress both the gun and the statement he uttered at the 75th precinct. Arguing that the New York City detectives issued the traffic summons as a pretext to enable them to search his car for weapons, Scopo urges this court to suppress the "fruits" of this unreasonable and therefore unconstitutional arrest. See Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 485-87, 83 S.Ct. 407, 415-17, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963).5 In response, the government contends that the detectives had probable cause to arrest Scopo for violating the traffic law; alternatively, the government argues that the detectives' reasonable suspicion that criminal activity was afoot justified their "investigative stop." See Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 21, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1879, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968). This court will address the reasonable suspicion argument first before discussing the heart of the matter at issue: the appropriate test for pretextual searches in this circuit.6
As an initial matter, Terry authorizes police officers to make an investigative stop of an individual when the officers are aware of "specific and articulable facts" giving rise to a reasonable suspicion that the person is or has been engaged in illegal activity. Terry, 392 U.S. at 21, 88 S.Ct. at 1879. The government argues that detectives in this case observed members of the Orena faction of the Colombo Family leave a known Colombo hangout, proceed in "caravan" style to homes of the members, and put a rifle in one of the cars. According to the government, these observations, coupled with the detectives' knowledge of the ongoing war between the Orena and Persico factions of the Colombo Family, gave them "reasonable suspicion which warranted the investigative stop" of Scopo's automobile. (Government's Post-Hearing Memorandum of Law at 8) However, according to Detective Higgins's...
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US v. Barber, No. 93-CR-83L.
...the pretext holding was "not necessary" to the decision in that case. Id., 822 F.Supp. at 996. So too I reject United States v. Scopo, 814 F.Supp. 292 (E.D.N.Y.1993). Unlike Clark, the court in Scopo attempted to distinguish Nersesian, but did not precisely explain why it was not controllin......
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U.S. v. Scopo
...pretext to search his car for weapons; and (3) therefore the stop and arrest of Scopo violated the fourth amendment. United States v. Scopo, 814 F.Supp. 292 (E.D.N.Y.1993). The Government appeals from this ruling. For the reasons set forth below, we reverse the order of the district court, ......